Letter: Voucher system opens door for many abuses

Friday, July 12, 2002 | 8:55 a.m.

The Supreme Court has opened the decline of our democracy by starting the demise of our public education system.

The definition of religion is easy -- it is whatever you want it to be. Did the residents of the Waco compound think they had a valid religion? Of course they did. Do you think there will be any hesitation by other groups of a similar nature to pretend they are educating their children to roll in the vouchers while they indoctrinate them to hate all others who do not think the way they do?

Yes, there are some very wonderful parochial schools in the nation, and they got that way with private dollars. But we are going to experience a plethora of small, independent private schools which have no restrictions on the indoctrination of the children within their protected walls.

Do we really want to risk that? I guess we do, because the Supreme Court says that we all will contribute our tax dollars to provide an unsupervised education of parental choice to the children of our great nation.

Right now, those legislators who have any brains will act to block this horrendous error. Laws must be written that prohibit the funneling of public money to any schools that do not provide curricula that meet the minimum guidelines required in the public schools.

GERALD ROZEK