Differentiating schools
20 December 2004 - Orange County Register

This past week saw an interesting sequence of topics in the Register. Heather McRea authored a Wednesday story [in the Fullerton News-Tribune, not available online - JT] about a Fullerton School District meeting discussing the possible future use of the International Baccalaureate curriculum – already in use at Fullerton’s high schools.

Four of Saturday’s nine letters decried the efforts of public schools to remove the Christian nature of Christmas while including celebrations of Kwanzaa and Hanukkah. Another four letters applauded those same efforts.

On Sunday columnist Steven Greeenhut called into question the motives of the authors and supporters of the International Baccalaureate curriculum, which includes material as objectionable to some parents as that contained in the Earth Charter.

With such diverse opinions on schooling, why don’t we get the government completely out of the business of educating our kids? That way, parents can use the holidays a school celebrates and the concepts they teach students (wealth-redistributive socialism vs. property-rights capitalism) as two more differentiating factors that enable them to make their own decisions about where their children will be best educated.