Opinion
Education Letter to the Editor

Innovative Practice Can Be Fostered in Religiously Neutral Public Schools

December 08, 2008 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

To the Editor:

In their Nov. 19, 2008, letter to the editor, Nina S. Rees and Doug Mesecar invoke “innovation” to push the discredited school voucher idea. They carefully avoid mentioning that “well-established private schools” either charge tuition in the range of $25,000, and are thus beyond the reach of a voucher plan such as the one they cite, or are faith-based schools that exist largely for the purpose of pervasive sectarian indoctrination and generally practice forms of discrimination and selectivity that would be intolerable in public schools.

In any event, millions of voters from coast to coast have shown conclusively in 25 statewide referendums that they don’t want to pay taxes to support nonpublic schools through vouchers or any other means.

By all means, let’s have more carefully thought-out innovation in education, but there is no good reason why this cannot be done in religiously neutral public schools that exist to serve all children and that do not discriminate by religion or ideology in hiring teachers.

Edd Doerr

President

Americans for Religious Liberty

Silver Spring, Md.

A version of this article appeared in the December 10, 2008 edition of Education Week as Innovative Practice Can be Fostered in Religiously Neutral Public Schools

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Briefly Stated: February 21, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: February 7, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: January 31, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read
Education Briefly Stated: January 17, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read