Give choice a chance - The Washington Times: Editorials/OP-ED: "Our results, coupled with emerging evidence from other states that have added voucher programs, make the value of vouchers to parents, students and schools clear. Almost a decade after Congress first considered vouchers for the District of Columbia, the debate is no longer theoretical. It is now a contest between proven, measurable results and political rhetoric. " --Jeb Bush
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While vouchers are not the best idea, in the view of this writer, they are far better than the present system. Whatever problems arise later, such as undue government interference in private schools, can be addressed later. Government policies and influence already influence private schools and will continue to do so, in spite of the desire of private schools to be independent. As long as the content of the curriculum, the choice of teachers, and those permitted to enrol are generally retained by the private schools--and they will be as long as the private schools show good sense--there should be little to cause concern.

The greatest benefit of vouchers will be to take some of the educational budge out of the hands of the liberal, anti-christian, public school lobby. Any thing that does that will be of benefit to America. They can set up their own schools, of course, but no one in their right mind would attend a public school if it were not free and coerced in some way.

The best solution, of course, in the long run would be the complete disestablishment of education. Because of the religious nature of epistemology there can never be "neutral" educational practices. It is impossible to teach that anything is true without making religious suppositions. Even to say that some things just "are" is an implicit denial of creation, a religious supposition with disastrous moral and spiritual consequences. Even teaching mathmatics involves presuppositions about the nature of reality and evidence that are denied only by the ignorant or those who wish to deceive. Education needs to be removed from the public arena, and returned to the family and individual. Then the competition for ideas can take place on a level playing field. Whatever indoctrination would take place would not even compare with the indoctrination into the gay, feminist, socialist agenda that now characterizes the public educational establishment.