I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!
--Jerry Falwell
I suppose Falwell would say that turning public schools into christian institutions would be almost as good. And some headway is being made in that direction. On the 13th, The Houston Chronicle reported that a move to use the Bible as a study tool has become what every critic said it would be -- a way to indoctrinate children on the public dime.
Public school students don't need to go to church on Sunday for a strong dose of religion — in some cases, according to a new study, they merely show up for class.
A yearlong investigation by the Austin-based Texas Freedom Network found that the majority of Bible courses offered as electives in the state's high schools are devotional and sectarian in nature and not academic, as required by a host of rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court on down.
"With a few notable exceptions," the study, titled 'Reading, Writing and Religion,' states, "The public school courses currently taught in Texas often fail to meet minimal academic standards for teacher qualifications; curriculum, and academic rigor; promote one faith perspective over all others; and push an ideological agenda that is hostile to religious freedom, science and public education."
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