Word: school-board
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...fracas in Greenville is repeating itself across the U.S. Ever since the religious right first began targeting local school-board races in 1990, religious conservatives have monopolized many school agendas with challenges that say more about the parents' political and religious beliefs than their children's education. Should students be molded into "global citizens" ? (Unpatriotic!) Should Halloween displays in classrooms feature witches? (Paganism!) Should kids be instructed to take a deep breath before tackling an exam? (New Age religion!) Should classes hold mock elections? (Usurpation of parental authority...
Next week, when many school-board seats are again contested around the country, the right will be looking for signs that their grass-roots strategy is having a reverberation nationwide. Even if the echo proves disappointing, the Christian foot soldiers plan to continue exploiting dissatisfaction with the nation's schools in hopes of finding common cause with moderates and conventional conservatives. Looking ahead to more significant electoral battles in 1994, when voters in Idaho, Colorado and Arizona will address education issues at the ballot box, Ralph Reed, executive director of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, vows, "We'll be there...
...right's involvement in public education extends well beyond school-board elections. In Virginia the race for lieutenant governor pits incumbent Democrat Donald Beyer Jr. against Michael Farris, a former Washington State director of Falwell's Moral Majority. Earlier this year Farris barnstormed Virginia, waging war against outcomes-based education (OBE), a controversial educational strategy that focuses on mastering skills (negotiation, cooperation) as well as measuring achievement (tests, grades). His efforts forced OBE off the state's school agenda and won Farris the Republican nomination. Now he is running neck and neck with Beyer. Farris vows to "bring my religion...
Since last November, when Christian conservatives captured a majority of Vista's school-board seats, the board has shifted from opposition to neutrality on Proposition 174, a school-choice initiative that will go before California voters next Tuesday. It is expected to be shot down, but if it passes, parents will be entitled to draw $2,600 in government funds if they place their child in a private or parochial school. John Chase of the National Education Association, the country's largest teachers' union, decries such voucher programs as an attempt by religious conservatives to "pull kids out of public...
Paralysis also threatens Charleston, South Carolina, where debates over the classroom use of a dragon-shaped hand puppet called Pumsy (Demonic!) and attempts to hire a new school nurse (An overture to abortion!) have smothered all classroom innovation. "There is a real fear among administrators and principals of being harangued for any new ideas, so they just don't do anything," says Robert New, the school-board chairman. "We have board members now saying that if a program is controversial, then maybe we should take it out." Yet Charleston's school board does not include a single Christian conservative. Mere...