One last spleen-venting legal case for the day:
A California teacher who teaches his fifth-grade students with the aid of primary source documents like the Declaration of Independence has been ordered by school administrators to stop using such artifacts of American history because the material contains references to God.
I heard about this one during the significant amount of time I spent stuck in traffic on I-95 over the holiday weekend, while flipping past Sean Hannity�s radio show. Not considering that the most reliable source and more than a little skeptical, I decided to check it out and, lo and behold, The Smoking Gun had the documentation, including the teacher�s complaint.
Politically, this is an example of Democrats needing to better police their fringes. I can�t imagine that the mainstream of that party is really opposed to the Declaration of Independence or shares such absolutist hostility to religion, but the cumulative effect of stories like this, fairly or unfairly, pushes a lot of otherwise undecided people into the Republican camp. It�s hard to get anyone to trust their children to people who think the ideas of people like Thomas Jefferson and John Adams are unfit for public schools.
Such hostility to religion is horrifying, but the only thing worse would be routine judicial review of decisions of public school administrators. For that reason, I’ve reviewed the precedent and suggested that the case be dismissed: “If parents disagree with the decision, they can fire the administrator responsible. Of the two principles at stake, protecting the principal is the more important. ”
Much as I’d like to lay this on the Dems, I would argue the culprit here is our good old fashioned public school bureacratic monopolists. Unaccountable power breeds arrogance. One more reason for vouchers.