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Comment by thebooktocome | Hacker News Reader

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I hear that line a lot, yet many of the best schools are religious schools.

It’s one thing if you’re forced into through zoning. It’s an entirely different picture if it’s a choice of parents.

I'm not aware of any religious public schools that kids are forced into through zoning/districting. I am aware of MANY families who choose parochial schools because of the school quality & culture, but are absolutely not religious (they tolerate the religious part in order to unlock the educational & cultural parts).

I'm for vouchers because I don't think I should have to pay with my taxes for religious indoctrination masquerading as public education.

I'm sure it's different in other places, but around here the only alternative school in town is run by an organized religion. Come to think of it, that's also true of the next town. Are the voucher people envisaging some eduVC funding source that allows me to spin up a school to complete with the legacy one?

Almost all voucher proponents want them for religious schools - your observation is a feature for them, not a bug.

That’s exactly what I envision. I want thousands of school startups.

100% this. I even went to catholic school 7-12th grade.

It was in no way a superior product like they want you to believe anyway. It was obvious in college that I had inferior math and science education, and I was considered a high performer in my high school!

They even turned me off religion completely, so fail on all counts.

You misread the post you’re replying to. It is in support of vouchers and is implying that public schools are pushing a viewpoint that is as faith based as any religion and as open to falsification. There are people upthread singing the praises of state schools as tools of assimilation. The point of the comment you’re responding to is to point out that many people have no desire to be assimilated to the new dispensation and as such the political system will accommodate them or not. Not is left as an exercise.

> I'm for vouchers because I don't think I should have to pay with my taxes for religious indoctrination masquerading as public education.

are you missing a NOT in there? as in `I'm NOT for vouchers because I don't think I should have to pay with my taxes for religious indoctrination masquerading as public education. `?

because as it stands, your comment makes as much sense as saying

> if you are not paying for the product you are the product

Just because you are paying does not mean you are NOT the product, to spell it out.

Similarly, just because people have the option to pay for their Islamic Madrasah or whatever Jewish or Christian equivalents are with vouchers, does not mean they will not try to shove their ideologies down everyone in public education in the next election cycle.

> are you missing a NOT in there?

No, I'm not. A vision of equity advanced by kneecapping math education in public schools is no less faith-based than creationism taught in private schools. If anything, I'd guess creationism is less damaging to students.

Please elaborate on your equivocation. On first glance, you're comparing apples and oranges, and it doesn't make much sense.

> I’m against vouchers because I don’t think I should have to pay with my taxes for religious indoctrination masquerading as private education.

Uh huh. And if you are a homeschooler, or go to private school, you are taxed right now to pay for secular indoctrination masquerading as public education. /s

But seriously, by this logic, what is the justification for using taxes paid by people who don't attend public school, to fund the public schools?

Your question reduces to "Why should my taxes pay for a public good, when I choose to have my kids not experience it directly?"

I think the answer becomes a lot clearer then.

Miss Manners has a quote something like "School taxes are what we pay to the future in hopes that it has things like nice young geriatric doctors in it."

Also, what precisely are you claiming is "secular indoctrination"? Evolution? The separation of church and state (in the US)? People who went to religious school have confidently told me that both are myths. They also told me that their school absolutely should have gotten tax funding.

You are against poor people not having school choice? Rich people already have that choice. Giving poor people choice is the right thing to do.

Then you're against all the federal funding to help students attend religious colleges?

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