Farah: 'Just Say No' to Government-Run Schools
by Jim Brown
November 22, 2004
(AgapePress) - Opponents of public schools are meeting in the nation's capital to advocate what they call the "extinction of government schools." Those in attendance heard a Christian journalist and radio talk-show host tell them that home-schooling families are the vanguard of the new social revolution.
"Get the kids out of harmful schools and into honest education." That is the theme of SepCon 2004, sponsored by the Alliance for the Separation of School and State. Alliance founder Marshall Fritz admits the movement is very small -- but he has high hopes for the group's current effort.
"If we're going to get to one million signatures on the 'Proclamation for the Separation of School and State' -- and we have 26,000 now -- and if you calculate the body weight, we are approximately the weight of a three-month in utero child compared to the weight of an Olympic athlete."
However, Fritz adds that "little things can grow into big things." One of the way that can happen, he says, is if parents to lead by example -- not wait for federal legislation -- when it comes to removing their children from public schools. Numerous parents have already made that decision, he says.
"I'll say dozens, but I'll bet it has been scores or hundreds of times that a neighbor, a relative, a friend from church has remarked -- and every home-schooling family has experienced this -- how different their children seem in the love that they have for each other, the respect that they have for their parents, their ability to talk to adults, [and] their ability to talk about real issues," the Alliance spokesman says.
Fritz predicts that the hot issue in the presidential debates in years to come will be the extinction of government schools. And in his estimation, without a moral revival in America, there will never be an end to state schooling.
Evacuate the 'Museums'
WorldNetDaily founder and editor Joseph Farah delivered the keynote address at the tenth annual Conference of the Alliance for the Separation of School and State. Farah urged those in attendance to "just say no" to government-run schools. Saying no, he says, is pulling one's children out of what he calls "brainwashing centers."
"Imagine what would happen if several hundred thousand parents did that in the next year, joining the growing millions who have already made that choice," he said. "Now not only does that bring direct benefits to your kids, protecting them and providing them with the chance for a real education, but it also means dropping out of the system -- becoming part of the solution rather than part of the problem."
Farah says home schooling provides the best option for doing that; but for those who cannot, worthwhile private schools are the answer, he says. He adds that, in his opinion, there are "a thousand reasons" for choosing to remove one's children from public schools.
"Basically what it means is letting the atheists have the government schools, letting the homosexual activists have them, letting the socialists have them. Let them fight out the curriculum issues among their multicultural, tolerant friends," he suggests. "Jews and Christians should get out. What will they have when we leave? Not much."
Farah says government schools ultimately need to be turned into "museums of misguided ideologies."
