American parents are expressing a growing alarm about the danger represented by the recent decision by Georgia legislators to approve take funds away from community schools toward private Christian schools. SB 233 is a new law that forces taxpayers to provide funding to church schools that replace professional scientific education with slipshod Bible studies classes and 19th century Creationism.
This legislation, recently signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp, overlooks the cautionary tales provided by similar voucher programs in other states. Over and over again, voucher schemes have not only undermined public education but have also shown no significant academic enhancements for students enrolled in voucher-supported schools.
Private Christian academies remain completely free of community accountability. They’re able to provide second-rate education without the neighborhood involvement that makes public schools so successful.
SB 233 is not only a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. It’s also just plain bad news for children living in the state of Georgia.
America’s schools need higher standards, not the lax, anything-goes approach taken by private Christian church schools. What’s more, America’s taxpayers deserve the right to oversight of educational spending. SB 233 strips that oversight away.
Vouchers only help failing religious schools that lack the ability to survive on their own.
In the American South, church schools were set up in the 1960s to evade desegregation. Church schools in the American South remain racially segregated. SB 233 amounts to government funding for racial segregation.