The state of Florida ruled that it was unconstitutional to use public money to fund private schools. Ouch. This Florida school voucher plan was the model for a national program proposed by Republican presidential hopeful George W. Bush in his presidential campaign. One reason given for the decision Tuesday was that most private schools are affiliated with religious groups and their educational programs are centered around advancing the religious missions of the schools and their sponsoring churches.

Simply put, I don’t need my child being taught about Jesus or Allah in order to learn reading writing and arithmetic. Religious values should be taught in the home not in school. I don’t want some stranger giving my children his or her values, and I sure as hell don’t want my kid having to deal with issues of  religious guilt and brainwashing just to learn to write in cursive. It is my responsibility to do whatever I can to help him or her grow up to be a productive member of society, so I will program my little brat my damn self thank you very much. Maybe I am missing something, but how will teaching children about Jesus help them learn long division? If it does show me the numbers that prove this, then we can talk.

If the private schools are teaching reading writing and arithmetic so much better than the public schools then the public schools need to copy what they are doing. However, private schools don’t have to accept everyone that is under 16, public schools by law have to educate every child. Public schools don’t have the luxury of choosing the pick of the litter and when they feel like it tossing the problem child out on his ass. Private schools aren’t doing anything better, they are just doing it with a smaller pool of kids and the power to get rid of dead weight. If they still want to retain those benefits of being private then they will just have to continue doing so with their own damn money, which is fine with me.