Bishop Calls Public School Monopoly A Product of American Totalitarianism

(CNSNews.com) – The Catholic bishop of Harrisburg, Pa., has apologized for offending anyone with his recent comments that Hitler and Mussolini “would love” the public school system in Pennsylvania, because it is similar to what they sought to create in their totalitarian states.

But in a statement issued by the diocese of Harrisburg, Bishop Joseph McFadden did not retract comments he made during an interview on Jan. 24 with WHTM-TV, the ABC affiliate in Harrisburg...

full story and video here

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: The good bishop is right, and the ADL needs to BACK OFF. As far as I'm concerned, they lost all credibility years ago. What the bishop said is true. America's public schools are a government-run education MONOPOLY. It's a monopoly that must be broken up. It breeds corruption, greed, laziness and injustice. I can't even begin to tell you all of the horror stories I hear from parents who send their children to America's public schools. Bring in the vouchers and give it directly to the parents as reimbursement for tuition paid. This way it keeps the government out of the Catholic schools, and forces it to deal with the child's family instead -- which is the child's primary caregiver and educator anyway.

I propose a challenge to any state in the Union, and I dare you to say it won't work. I propose the state enact a law, that simply says if a parent chooses to send a child to a religious school, private school or accredited home school program, than HALF of the money that would have gone to the public school for that child will still go to the same public school, while the other half will go directly to the parents in the form of reimbursement for tuition paid. In other words, all the parent has to do is present the receipts, and the state will pay for them all, up to half of the money that would have been given to public school had the child attended there. Since most religious schools are able to educate students for approximately half the money it takes in a public school, this should be enough to cover all (or most) of the tuition for a religious school. Meanwhile, the other half of the money goes to the said public school. This way EVERYBODY WINS. The parents get some much-needed financial help in exchange for the tax dollars they are already paying into the system, while the public school gets more money to educate with and less students to deal with.

Yes, it is a perfectly fair and reasonable proposal, but I predict neither the government nor the teachers' unions will support it. Why? It's simple really. If the public school system were really about educating our children, than they would accept this above proposal in a heartbeat. However, it's not really about education now is it. From the government's perspective, it's about indoctrination, making sure the overwhelming majority of future American citizens are taught exactly what the government wants them to know, and not what the government doesn't want them to know. From the teachers unions perspective, it's about keeping the racket going for the sake of teachers and their unions. They want to insure a maximum amount of revenue coming into the schools and class size or effectiveness doesn't really matter. You see a teacher gets paid the same no matter how many students can't read, write or do simple arithmetic. That pay keeps the union dues current. That's all that matters folks. WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE! Listen to the good bishop in the story above.