School and religious freedom dying in Louisiana

Public education is dying in the state of Louisiana - and religious freedom is dying right alongside it. Earlier this month - the Republican-controlled state legislature approved a new school voucher program in Louisiana that shifts tens of millions of taxpayer dollars AWAY from public schools and TOWARD private, religious schools. As in - teaching kids in Louisiana math, science, and history will no longer be in the hands of qualified, unionized teachers. Instead, it will be in the hands of profiteers and religious fundamentalists who don't believe in science and don't think the history of the world goes back farther than 5,000 years. This new voucher program achieves two goals: One, it hurts teachers unions, which tend to support Democrats. And two, it gives the Religious Right an excuse - through the disguise of "religious freedom" - to embed their evangelism into the next generation of Americans. And I say the disguise of religious freedom - because that's all it is: a disguise.

There is no religious freedom in this voucher program - the Republicans and Democrats who supported it only had one type of religious school in mind when they pushed for this program - and that was a Christian school. That's why - when an Islamic school was approved to for the voucher program - lawmakers went nuts. Like Republican state Rep. Kenneth Havard who immediately changed his mind about the voucher program when he learned an Islamic school might be included saying: "I won't go back to home and explain to my people that I supported this [program that] will fund Islamic teaching." And Democratic Rep. Sam Jones who said: "It'll be the Church of Scientology next year." You see - these guys don't give a rat's ass about religious freedom - they're all about Christian evangelism.