Christians Cause Public Schools To Fail?

At a recent state Board of Education meeting, board member Jerry Hess verbalized his frustration over a lack of participation by parents in the development of state exiting standards. Jerry said that parents in general were not concerned with their children's education. He cited what he considered low attendance at state Exiting Standard forums, then added that a large number of those who did attend were only there to petition the state to endorse creation science.

This reminded me of a forum I sponsored a few years ago. The forum was an opportunity for those running for state superintendent of public instruction to present their views. At this meeting, one candidate blatantly blamed the decline of public schools on the exodus of Christians from public schools to private and home schools. He made it clear that the final collapse of public schools would be the fault of private and home schoolers. I am sure that many school administrators probably agree with this ex-candidate.

Think about it, though; we are told that public schools are no place for the Bible, for prayer, for creation science or for God, yet they want our children in these schools. And if we do not participate, the collapse of public schools will be our fault. Most of the people who did take time to comment or go to hearings wanted creationism to be taught and, to add insult to injury, they have been criticized and basically called bad parents by Jerry Hess because they were commenting on "non-substantive issues."

To demonstrate the hatred for religious values by the exiting standard commission, I cite the example of one Christian parent at an exiting standard hearing. This parent was told by exiting standards commissioner Dr. Tom Bitterwolf that the parent was denying his children proper education and doing them a great disservice by adhering to his moral and religious beliefs.

It seems to me that that the parents who took time to attend the exiting standards meetings and write to the state obviously care about their children's education. And if a majority of these parents simply desire a fair coverage of science, then perhaps this is something that children are lacking in public schools.