Understanding Creationist School Vouchers

What is a school voucher program?

School vouchers allow students to leave their public school to attend a private or parochial school.  The taxpayer dollars that a public school would have received to teach this student are rerouted to the private or parochial school they choose to attend.

Why are these voucher programs creationist?

School voucher schools often fund religious schools that teach pseudoscience like creationism.

In Louisiana, twenty schools in the school voucher program have been identified as using creationist curriculums.  Many other schools in the program fit the profile of schools that might use creationist curriculums, but their teaching materials haven’t been released to the public.  The Louisiana Department of Education has resisted taking action and removing these creationist voucher schools.

Why is this wrong?

Teaching creationism is wrong for our students and wrong for our country.  If we waste taxpayer money and don’t teach our students evidence-based science, like evolution, the next generation of students will not be able compete with students from highly educated countries like Britain and China in today’s science and technology based global economy.

Teaching creationism with public money is unconstitutional.  It violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which lays out a clear separation of church and state.

Voucher Programs around the U.S.

According to the American Federation for Children, an organization that supports school vouchers, sixteen states have school voucher programs and over forty states introduced legislation to attempt to create school voucher programs in 2011-2012.

We can expect many other states attempt to create voucher programs in 2013.  One of the first will be Texas.