Thanks, O Corbett
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Voucher proponents often describe the programs as a chance for students to escape failing public schools and obtain a better education. Yet the review of school websites and curricula found that some voucher schools openly declare that academics come second to their chief mission: training students to obey and glorify the Lord.
One publicly subsidized school in Pennsylvania put it this way: "Although academic quality is a high priority at West Chester Christian School, our primary goal is to maintain our distinctiveness as a Christian school as expressed in our motto: 'Education with a Bible Foundation.'" Another touts as a key measure of success that its students are more likely than peers to attend religious services and believe in the Bible "as an infallible guide for personal life and behavior."
The schools also make clear that their goal is to arm students against modern prisms for looking at the world, such as multiculturalism, and to train them to assess every historical event or scientific advance through Scripture.
Calvary Christian Academy in Philadelphia acknowledges on its website that "respected men and women of science, history, mathematics and language" have made great discoveries, but it reassures parents that "our understanding is not complete until we filter it through God's Word." Armed with Scripture, the site continues, "we should be able to disprove the fake and vain philosophies of the world."
There's nothing wrong with the American tradition of parents sending children to schools in line with their spiritual beliefs -- as long as Mom and Dad are willing to pay for it. What part of, "No money raised for the support of the public schools of the Commonwealth shall be appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian school" -- that would be Article III, Section 15 of the Pennsylvania Constitution (and you can look it up) -- do Corbett, the Legislature and the state's judiciary fail to understand? Filter science through God's Word to your heart's content...but not with my tax dollars.
It would be nice to get Corbett's response on this, but he's busy hanging out with the Pope today.