Liberalism and Religion

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Fri Jun 21 07:22:51 PDT 2002


Nathan Newman wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Yoshie Furuhashi" <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu>
>
> >"Separate and unequal" schools can't be remedied by experimenting
> >with vouchers and charter schools. They can be only reformed to some
> >degree by abolishing the system of funding schools based upon local
> >property taxes and (more importantly) by redistributing wealth from
> >the rich to the poor.
>
> Guess what- vouchers do that. They are invariably funded by state funds,
> rather than local property taxes. By their nature, they end geographic
> discrimination since they come from more central sources.

They would only end geographical discrimination if they also included funds to transform the home life of the recipient: good apartment; computer equipment, easy and free transportation to the selected school, and of course protection against religious indoctrination in the schools selected. Several decades ago my son dropped out of Cub Scouts because the meetings were too heavily religious. In other words, the state was indirectly (by offering the Cub Scouts school resources) denying my son the right to the experiences (such as they are) offered by the Cub Scouts. I would go further than Justin. I think it outrageous that churches are tax-exempt. I also think it outrageous that contributions to the Scouts are tax-exempt -- their heterosexism but also their religious component.

Carrol



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list