From: Olga Bourlin (fauxever@sprynet.com)
Date: Sat Aug 25 2001 - 11:13:48 MDT
From: "Mike Lorrey" <mlorrey@datamann.com>
> A public school system CAN be economically efficient if it is subject to
> the same competetive pressures of the free market, and if all of the
> people are given their freedom to choose (why is it left wingers seem to
> think we should have freedom of choice in some things, but not in
> others?).
(Assuming I am understanding what you meant by left wingers and freedom of
choice) Mike, do you understand the difference between, say, a local police
department and a local branch of the KKK? A police sergeant may belong to
the KKK group (there's the freedom of choice), but he cannot represent the
police department while speaking for the KKK group (i.e., he cannot wear his
police uniform, thereby giving the impression that the police department
supports the KKK, although the police sergeant, as an individual, can be a
member).
A democracy may support the right of groups like the KKK to exist, but
local, state and federal governments cannot ask taxpayers to support
parochialism of the kind the KKK represents.
In the same vein, private schools may exist in a host of flavors
(specializing in upper-middle class college prep, or employ a creationist
curriculum, or have a foreign language emphasis, or be exclusive for a
myriad reasons), but governments cannot ask taxpayers to support
parochialism, so public schools are necessarily set at "neutral," and open
to all citizens (and even non-citizens) of the United States.
Olga
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