Voucher schools are teaching kids what can only be described as right-wing propaganda
Betsy DeVos is a relentless proponent of private religious schools. Here’s what they actually teach
The number of private schools that get taxpayer funds via school vouchers or tax credit scholarships is rising rapidly, but few states keep tabs on what these schools are actually teaching. In a recent investigation for Huffington Post, education reporter Rebecca Klein shone a light on three popular textbooks used by private religious schools. While she found materials touting creationism over evolution, or teaching that homosexuality is a sin, Klein also encountered right-wing propaganda embedded throughout these K-12 curricula.
In the latest episode of the Have You Heard podcast, AlterNet education contributor Jennifer Berkshire and co-host Jack Schneider talk to Klein about the extreme ideological teachings on offer at private religious schools, now being funded by public tax money.
The following is an edited transcript. Listen to the entire interview.
Have You Heard: You set out to try to figure out how many kids are now attending "voucher schools" — private religious schools paid for with public funds — and what those kids are being taught. What did you find out?
Rebecca Klein: I found that just over 7,000 schools around the country participated in a voucher or a tax credit program, that three quarters of the schools were religious and that about 30 percent were using a curriculum provided by either Abeka, Accelerated Christian Education or Bob Jones. In Indiana, for example, which has one of the more comprehensive voucher programs, in the last year alone, more than $16 million in taxpayer money were going to schools or scholarships that use one of these curricula. In the vast majority of states that have these programs there is zero oversight over what schools and voucher and tax credit programs are teaching. Quite literally zero.Voucher schools are teaching kids what can only be described as right-wing propaganda - Salon.com:
