Subject:
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Re: Separation of Church and State
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Thu, 12 Jun 2003 00:00:57 GMT
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Viewed:
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220 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Frank Filz wrote:
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Richie Dulin wrote: • snip
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Of course, if public schools are eliminated, the cheapest option becomes the
cheapest private school. And who runs the cheapest private schools? Or, put
it another way, which large institutions have the ability to subsidise
education and a desire to educate children in a particular way?
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Remember though that all the parents have lower taxes and thus have more
money than before to choose an appropriate private school.
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It doesn’t follow that lower taxes due to lower government education expenditure
would lead to higher private spending on education.
(When the Australian Government cut it’s ‘gun byback’ tax, I did not rush out
and spend my tax savings on guns.)
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Also, there
would be a greater variety of schools, religious and non-religious (and
even a few religious-secular I’m confident that Unitarian Universalists
would start schools that don’t push any religious agenda - though they
would probably be pretty “liberal”). I suspect a pretty large
percentage of non-parents would also contribute to various schools.
Would the overall pool of money decline? I suspect the pool of
individually contributed money would decline, but it would quickly be
made up for by corporate money. Now some would find this horrible, but
they corporations would be contributing because of a need to get skilled
workers.
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But they could conceivably get skilled workers from a religious education
system. It happens now (in Australia, at least).
Consider how many corporations are rushing to set up schools in developing
countries to ensure there is an adequate supply of skilled workers in the
future... then compare this to how many religious organisations are doing the
same thing - albeit from different motives.
In the end, does the corporation pay for the education of its future staff (10 -
15 years in advance), or simply employ staff educated by missionaries?
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Public corporations of course are accountable for their
investments, and thus would hold the schools accountable.
There is an assumption that without government control, there would be
no accountability of schools, and they could just turn into corporate
spoonfeeding of future customers. There are two things missing here.
First, if the schools just produced robotic customers and didn’t really
teach, the earning (and thus buying) capacity of those students would be
compromised, which would be counter to the needs of the corporation. The
second missing thing is the assumption that without the government, the
public has no capability of demanding accountability. If anything, it
actually has more. Why? Who do you think makes the government
accountable so they hold the schools accountable? Who is going to be
deciding where to spend THEIR money? Who is going to be deciding which
companies to patronize and which to boycott?
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Again, nice theory, but awkward in practice. A school will be chosen by parents
based on convenience, reputation, family history, cost, specialisation,
extra-curricular options etc etc. Changing schools will never be a simple thing
for a child (or a family). But yes, there is potential choice and potential
accountability.
Australia (NSW, anyway) seems to be moving slowly toward a privatised system. In
my local area, in the last 25 years or so, two public schools have closed, and
four private schools have opened. All the private schools are Christian schools.
The Anglican Diocese of Sydney has a stated policy of making low cost
education available for people unhappy with public systems, and has been setting
up schools to provide such education. The Catholic church has been providing
such options for years.
The situation in the US may be different, but there is a huge tradition of
church organisations (both catholic and protestant) providing education - and
free or low cost education at that - dating back long before public education.
Cheers
Richie Dulin
| | Port Brique
Somewhere in the South Pacifique
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| | Misérable
Building a safer South Pacifique
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Separation of Church and State
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| (...) Remember though that all the parents have lower taxes and thus have more money than before to choose an appropriate private school. Also, there would be a greater variety of schools, religious and non-religious (and even a few (...) (21 years ago, 11-Jun-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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