Gunfighter, I take real issue with "privatized education." Many public schools in the Southern starts are exactly like the ones in Louisiana: religious. While there's nothing wrong with religion, and certainly nothing wrong with teaching it at schools, they /do/ tend to misteach science. The U.S. stayed the world leader in the 50's and 60's due to science and the strong emphasis placed on it in schools. The iconic moments of science from the 60's and 70's trace directly or indirectly back to science in the classroom. I honestly don't care if these schools want a bible class or Qoran class or what have you. I /do/ want them to be teaching science well though. We cannot continue to encourage a school system that teaches creation science as real science (there is /no/ science that is conducted at the Discovery Institute - "creation science" is a misnomer), global warming as a myth/ punishment for the gays, that "rape" can be legitimate or otherwise, that breastmilk can cure homosexuality, and that hurricanes are a divine punishment and, at the same time, expect to remain academically, economically, or globally competitive, then we have diluted ourselves. Science that was good in the 13th century (http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/the-h-word/2012/aug/20/legitimate-rape-medieval-medical-concept) has no place in modern America, let alone the classroom.

Also, unicorns. http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/aid/v2/n1/unicorns-in-bible

@dubm - The number of people who believe most of what you quoted is such a small percentage even in the Bible belt states that those views are not taught in school. The biggest issue you would have, if you actually researched what those states have for the cirriculum, is the teaching of ID beside evolution and tewaching abstinence instead of a more realistic safe sex in sex ed. The rest belong to some extreme views held by less than 1/4 of those states populations.

And *please* don't quote Answers in Genesis as an authority of any view of classic Bible Belt religion. I lived 5 miles from the Creation Museum in KY (their poster child site) and trust me when I say the curriculum at Boone County Schools had absolutely *nothing* in common with those whack jobs. I only knew one family who believed that bull personally and both their kids were homeschooled (the oft mentioned hot 17 and 18 year old girls). I went there on a lark to be nice to the neighbors and they have some pretty whacked out views. Guess what... Most of the people in the area wouldn't go because, despite being heavy in the Southern Baptist denomination, even that was too extreme for them.

HahahaHahaHAHAHAhahaha unicorns.... Classic.

Dub,

"there is /no/ science that is conducted at the Discovery Institute - "creation science" is a misnomer"

You do know that the Discovery Institute doesn't engage in "creation science" -- right?

Anyway, disappointing but not surprising to see the low regard for liberty from some on the left. On the one hand, you have people being taught something that you disagree with and believe to be silly (but receiving an overall strong education). On the other hand you have their right to raise their children, have whatever books they want in their home, and read those books to / with whomever they want. And you, jamie, like tyrants through history, think the former completely outweighs the latter.

Apart from being horrifying and blowing out of proportion a problem that doesn't even matter much (no, guys, sorry -- much as you'd like to believe otherwise, a belief in evolution is not the sine qua non of understanding science; in fact, if you really want to complain, complain about the fact that this book is just presenting science as a bunch of facts and not teaching the importance of the reasoning processes that lead to those facts, a mistake you'll find in creationist and mainstream books alike).

Got carried away there, so let me start that sentence again. Apart from those things, you're ignoring the fact that nothing would hurt your own cause so much as what you propose. However strong the arguments are for some point of view, nothing makes them seem weak so much as trying to ban the opposing point of view or prohibit its teaching.

In all fairness, my opening was a little unfair. While it's true that I'm not surprised somebod on the left would want to restrict liberties, it is true that many on the right try to do so in different ways, as well. Both behaviors are appalling.

@ Jamiet, because taking away that right would actually means banning the right of free thinking.

sorry, i did only see page one

O.O

I have some catching up to do...

@ dubmdell

That's all the more reason to privatize. Public schoolteachers are nearly impossible to fire, so there's almost nothing standing in the way between religious zealot teachers and fresh young minds. Same thing with extremist teachers on the other side of the spectrum. I had *several* teachers in high school who pushed their relatively radical left-wing views on their students, including one history teacher who repeatedly insisted during classroom instruction that communism was the ideal form of human government and whose lessons were very anti-American.

If there's an administrator looking over the teachers' shoulder and can fire the teacher in a heartbeat if necessary, you're going to see a reduction in bad teachers.