Thursday, January 25, 2007
A Meeting of the Minds
According to WorldNetDaily, the libertarian Cato Institute has a solution to the seemingly endless culture war over teaching creationism and intelligent design in public schools.
The solution is to give up and let them do it.
"Different cultural, ethnic, and religious groups have no choice but to enter the political melee if they want to see their values taught and desires met by the public schools," says a study by Neal McCluskey, a policy analyst with the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom.
The study, titled, "Why We Fight: How Public Schools Cause Social Conflict," also offered a solution: "So is American education doomed to eternal acrimony? Thankfully, it doesn't have to be. If public education were driven by free parental choice, it could escape the Balkanizing battles that plague our current system, because individual parents could choose schools that comport with their values, and there would be no need to fight over public schools for which all must pay, but only the most politically powerful can control."
Cato's solution to Balkanization? Balkanize the schools. A Christian fundamentalist school here, a Muslim Madrassa there. Hey, there might even be enough money left for a school with a science department somewhere.
Why not? After all, it worked so well in Yugoslavia. Looks like that's where we're going in Iraq.
Red State Rabble always wondered how the libertarians could coexist so comfortably with the authoritarian social conservatives in the Republican Party. This explains it.
The solution is to give up and let them do it.
"Different cultural, ethnic, and religious groups have no choice but to enter the political melee if they want to see their values taught and desires met by the public schools," says a study by Neal McCluskey, a policy analyst with the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom.
The study, titled, "Why We Fight: How Public Schools Cause Social Conflict," also offered a solution: "So is American education doomed to eternal acrimony? Thankfully, it doesn't have to be. If public education were driven by free parental choice, it could escape the Balkanizing battles that plague our current system, because individual parents could choose schools that comport with their values, and there would be no need to fight over public schools for which all must pay, but only the most politically powerful can control."
Cato's solution to Balkanization? Balkanize the schools. A Christian fundamentalist school here, a Muslim Madrassa there. Hey, there might even be enough money left for a school with a science department somewhere.
Why not? After all, it worked so well in Yugoslavia. Looks like that's where we're going in Iraq.
Red State Rabble always wondered how the libertarians could coexist so comfortably with the authoritarian social conservatives in the Republican Party. This explains it.
