BACKFIRED: Louisiana GOP Angry That Muslims Can Use School Vouchers

[blacken700]

GOP legislators in Louisiana have realized to their horror that their bill to provide vouchers for private religious schools can actually be used by Muslims.

 

Rep. Valarie Hodges, a Republican who represents East Baton Rouge and Livingston, now says she wishes she hadn’t voted for the Jindal voucher bill. “I actually support funding for teaching the fundamentals of America’s Founding Fathers’ religion, which is Christianity, in public schools or private schools,” Hodges told the Livingston Parish News. "I liked the idea of giving parents the option of sending their children to a public school or a Christian school,” Hodges added. The newspaper reported that she “mistakenly assumed that ‘religious’ meant ‘Christian.’” “Unfortunately it will not be limited to the Founders’ religion,” Hodges told the News. “We need to insure that it does not open the door to fund radical Islam schools. There are a thousand Muslim schools that have sprung up recently. I do not support using public funds for teaching Islam anywhere here in Louisiana.”

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State writes:


Some legislators aren’t comfortable funding Muslim schools. What’s to be done? How about not establishing these programs in the first place? Let Muslims fund Muslim schools. Let Catholics fund Catholics ones. Let fundamentalist Protestants pay for the conservative Christian academies and so on.


The law has already gone into effect and provides for no state oversight regarding curriculum or educational standards.

More: http://www.joemygod.blogspot.com/2012/07/backfired-louisiana-gop-angry-that.html

[Skeletor]

How about not establishing these programs in the first place?

This.

[Soul Crusher]

I have no problem w this unless it is proven they are teaching radical Islam.    public school system is a failure x 100. 

[MCWAY]

I have no problem w this unless it is proven they are teaching radical Islam.    public school system is a failure x 100. 

Apparently, certain Dems don't have a problem with it, either.

Muslim Congressman: Model America‘s Schools After ’Madrasas’ 


Those with a functioning memory of the years during which George W. Bush was President will recall only too well the constant furor on the Left over the administration’s supposed obsession with the idea of bringing theocracy to bear in America. This complaint was especially shrill in regards to the idea of voucherizing education, an idea that made many a progressive sit bolt upright in bed, sweating and shaking at the idea that someone, somewhere might hear the word “God” in an educational context. “Why,” they complained, “if we let him get away with it, the President would probably model all our schools after seminaries!”

Fortunately for us, those nightmarish days of theocratic overreach are past. No legislator in Barack Obama’s Democratic party would ever be so backwards, so barbaric as to suggest that America should ever model its educational institutions after religious schools.

Oh. Well, never mind, then.

For those who are wondering, the video posted above depicts Muslim Congressman Andre Carson, of the 7th District of Indiana, voicing his belief that America’s school system would be improved if schools were modeled after “madrasas.” For those that don’t know, madrasas are Islamic religious schools – schools that, according to at least one State Department report, have been accused of fostering anti-American, terrorist sympathies. Specifically, the report singled out the Pakistani educational system, where madrasas are common:

    Hosting over 10,000 madrasas, Pakistan’s religious and public educational infrastructure are of ongoing concern in the United States. In an economy that is marked by extreme poverty and underdevelopment, costs associated with Pakistan’s cash-strapped public education system have led many Pakistanis to turn to madrasas for free education, room, and board. Links between Pakistani madrasas and the ousted Afghan Taliban regime, as well as alleged connections between some madrasas and Al Qaeda, have led some observers consider the reform of Pakistan’s madrasa system as an important component of combating anti-U.S. terrorism and in helping to stabilize the recently-formed Afghan government.

    In recommending increased U.S. attention to “actual or potential terrorist sanctuaries,” the 9/11 Commission’s final report singled out “poor education” in Pakistan as “a particular concern,” citing reports that some madrasas “have been used as incubators for violent extremism.” These reports received new and more urgent attention following reports that one of the four suicide bombers that carried out the July 2005 terrorist attacks on the London transportation system had spent time at a Pakistani madrasa with alleged links to extremists. In response, Pakistani authorities renewed plans to require all madrasas to register with the government and provide an account of their financing sources. The government had previously offered incentives to madrasas that agreed to comply with registration procedures, including better training, salaries, and supplies. Madrasa leaders reportedly agreed to the registration and financial accounting requirements in September 2005, but succeeded in preserving an anonymity provision for their donors. As of January 2006, approximately 7,000 of Pakistan’s estimated 13,000 madrasas had registered with authorities. In a more controversial step, the Pakistani government also demanded that madrasas expel all of their foreign students by December 31, 2005. Of an estimated 1,700 foreign madrasa students, 1,000 had reportedly left Pakistan by January 1, 2006. Some nationalist and Islamist groups have vehemently resisted the government’s efforts, and authorities have made public statements indicating that they do not plan to use force or shut down noncompliant madrasas in order to enforce the directives.

Carson is either willfully unaware of these issues, or dismisses them for reasons he has not made clear yet. To be fair to him, just because there are problems with the institution in one country does not mean there are problems in every country, nor that there would necessarily be problems in this country. Moreover, Carson’s reasons for supporting the introduction of madrasa-style learning are, with the exception of one disturbing statement that “the foundation [of education] is the Koran,” basically secular. He cites madrasas’ ability to cope with multiple learning styles, for instance, and claims they employ an educational model to facilitate innovation.

Fair enough, but if these concerns are what Carson wants to see addressed, what confuses us is why he brings up madrasas as his example in the first place. Surely they are not the only schools that employ this model. Perhaps, given that he is one of two Muslim congressmen in the United States, he is simply speaking about what he knows best. But if that’s the case, one has to wonder who he fancies himself a congressman for – the people of Indiana, or simply the Muslims he appears to be speaking to in this video.



http://www.theblaze.com/stories/muslim-congressman-model-americas-schools-after-madrasas/

[Straw Man]

McWay - do you have a problem with it?

[Straw Man]

Bum - Loco - any other fundies

what is your opinion on this ?

[MCWAY]

McWay - do you have a problem with it?

Nope, as long as there is Jihad mess going on there.

[Straw Man]

Nope, as long as there is Jihad mess going on there.

not sure what that means

[LurkerNoMore]

Nope, as long as there is Jihad mess going on there.

You want Jihad leanings to be present?

[Shockwave]

Lulz @ the epic backfire.

I don't really know how to feel about this issue - IMHO the public schools are an epic failure that is corrupted as fuck - but I don't really agree with vouchers to go to religious institutions either, especially not radical religious organizations.
I just.. don't know.

[MCWAY]

You want Jihad leanings to be present?

OOPS!! That should have read, "as long as there is NO Jihad mess going on there."

[MCWAY]

Lulz @ the epic backfire.

I don't really know how to feel about this issue - IMHO the public schools are an epic failure that is corrupted as fuck - but I don't really agree with vouchers to go to religious institutions either, especially not radical religious organizations.
I just.. don't know.

Some public schools don't want to participate in the program (probably pressured by unions). Plus, thanks to the a Supreme Court case 10 years ago (Zelman v. Simmons-Harris), as long as the vouchers go to the parents and the value is the same across the board, the parents can pick any school they want that will take them, including religious schools.

[Soul Crusher]

Public schools are an epic fail beyond words. 


Double the costs - half the results -   THE GOVERNMENT WAY! 

[Shockwave]

The main problem I have, is that the public schools today seem to have taken on the same problems that many people have complained of religious institutions, the teachers push their own agenda's and try and indoctrinate students rather than teaching them actual facts and letting the students make up their own minds.

This seems to becoming extreme in the public schools today, they're not supposed to be teaching their personal ideology or bias, they're supposed to be teaching FACTS and HISTORY and letting the students find their own way.

[Straw Man]

OOPS!! That should have read, "as long as there is NO Jihad mess going on there."

I could say the same about fundie schools not teaching hatred or bigotry on nonsense about the Lochness monster as proof of evolution

[andreisdaman]

I have no problem w this unless it is proven they are teaching radical Islam.    public school system is a failure x 100. 

its a failure because they keep puling money out of them for stupid programs like vouchers.....also..the systematic defunding of urban schools starting in the 1980's caused this problem to get worse...not to mention the children who come from broken families are out of control

[MCWAY]

I could say the same about fundie schools not teaching hatred or bigotry on nonsense about the Lochness monster as proof of evolution

Let me guess: You want Christian schools to start condoning homosexuality to be eligible for vouchers.

[MCWAY]

its a failure because they keep puling money out of them for stupid programs like vouchers.....also..the systematic defunding of urban schools starting in the 1980's caused this problem to get worse...not to mention the children who come from broken families are out of control

It was a failure LONG before vouchers came to the scene. Has it ever occurred to you that some black people don't want to WAIT for the liberals to get their acts together, as it relates to public schools?

Broken families are a result of cultural decline. Having babies out of wedlock used to be SHAMEFUL. Now, it's practically encouraged. Yet, people act surprised when the results are often disastrous.

[Shockwave]

its a failure because they keep puling money out of them for stupid programs like vouchers.....also..the systematic defunding of urban schools starting in the 1980's caused this problem to get worse...not to mention the children who come from broken families are out of control

Yeah, has nothing to do with shitty teachers holding on to their job while they fire the good teachers because they dont have enough "seniority", the pensions, the Unions, etc, etc.

[MCWAY]

Yeah, has nothing to do with shitty teachers holding on to their job while they fire the good teachers because they dont have enough "seniority", the pensions, the Unions, etc, etc.

You win "Teacher of the Year"; you get laid off. Short of raping students, these bad teachers are almost impossible to fire.

[Straw Man]

Let me guess: You want Christian schools to start condoning homosexuality to be eligible for vouchers.

They don't have to condone anything
Just don't teach hatred
Same thing you want from Muslim schools
If you still want to teach the kids that the Loch Ness monster is real and is proof of creationism I guess I don't really care.   I mean somebody in the future is going to have to work at McDonald or clean the bathroom at my gym.   It might as well be your kids.  

[Soul Crusher]

They don't have to condone anything
Just don't teach hatred
Same thing you want from Muslim schools
If you still want to teach the kids that the Loch Ness monster is real and is proof of creationism I guess I don't really care.   I mean somebody in the future is going to have to work at McDonald or clean the bathroom at my gym.   It might as well be your kids.  

LOL - yet public school teachers pissing all over this country and indoctrinating these young kids into marxist bullshit is ok by you? 

[MCWAY]

They don't have to condone anything
Just don't teach hatred
Same thing you want from Muslim schools
If you still want to teach the kids that the Loch Ness monster is real and is proof of creationism I guess I don't really care.   I mean somebody in the future is going to have to work at McDonald or clean the bathroom at my gym.   It might as well be your kids.  

Most of the public schools teach evolution. Yet, many of those kids can't even spell the word.

What's your excuse for their stupidity?

As for your claim of learning creationism resulting in an inferior education, I must have missed that, en route to getting my engineering degree.

[Straw Man]

LOL - yet public school teachers pissing all over this country and indoctrinating these young kids into marxist bullshit is ok by you? 

Nope.  I wouldn't like that but luckily it doesn't exist anywhere except inside your diseased brain

[blacken700]

Nope.  I wouldn't like that but luckily it doesn't exist anywhere except inside your diseased brain

he makes so much shit up i have a hard time to read his post