When it comes to issues about educatiuon I am not the most popular teacher at the high school I work at.  I support parental-choice, charter schools, vouchers, etc.  Every child does have a "right" to an education in this country (I do work at a pulbic school) but there must be choice and options available to parents.  But there is a danger out there that every conservative needs to be aware of, and that danger is the growth of charter programs that target cultural/regilious/ideological indoctrination.  Pulbic funds for charter schools (which basically are pulbic schools) are being used by some educators and programs to develop quasi-cultural/religious schools that ought to be considered a clear violation of the 1st Amendment.

 

   Case in point is the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA) a K-8 school in Minnesota. (see http://www.startribune.com/local/17406054.html )  This program sounds too much like the educational reforms imposed on public schools in Germany and Japan in the 1930s.  The Nazis and Japanese militarists revampted the curriculum to promote the kind of citizen they desired in a  totalitarian system.  At TIZA this indoctrination includes being forced to participate in Muslim prayer sessions and a so-called after-school program called Islamic Studies.  Islamic Studies follows the 'election' philosophy in communist bloc nations; elections are held but there is only one choice so in fact their is no choice.  The Islamic Studies program is suppsoed to be after-school but buses do not leave until that "voluntary" program is over.  This so called voluntary, enrichment program is in fact not voluntary at all.

 

   Why do departments of education and school boards stand by and allow this to happen?  TIZA sounds more like a private school than a public school that allows for choice and respect for individual social, cultural, and religious differences.  The State of Minnesota should be ashamed allowing such a charter school to continue to receive public funds. And TIZA is not the only one.  There are numerous charter programs across the coutnry doing a similar thing.  One program in Los Angeles promotes the radical ideas of MECHA and hispanic separatists.  The dangers of programs such as these will not be evident now but in a dozen years when these students are voters there will be a very negative impact on America. 

 

P.S.  Michelle Malkin has picked up on this story also: http://michellemalkin.com/2008/04/09/establishing-islam-in-minnesota/