4 ms·

In Hasidic Enclaves, Failing Private Schools Flush with Public Money

4 points by Ozzie_osman 4y ago

fortran77 4y ago
For another point of view, see: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/plot-against-hasidic-education-new-york-times https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/plot-agains...
- rektide 4y ago
  There's a lot I can believe in from this defense about the benefit, but it still doesn't address what seems clearest to me: why are we spending public money to raise an insular, isolated, low-literacy but happy community? This is a select benefit, with a highly religious purpose, and I don't think this is money being spent on public benefit, and this seems like a striking, apparent, & gross mixing of church & state in funding this specific group's religious upbringing. Yet this kind of theocratic government- government in direct support of religion- feels exactly like what the new ultra-conservative Supreme Court is trying to make happen, when they do things like strike down Maine's very popular ban on giving money to religion-based schools[1]. This all seems strikingly unwelcome to me; it's deliberately supporting not union, deliberately allowing fracturing, deliberately catering to select non-public special interests - religious special interests at that. It doesn't seem reasonable. This article, to me, never really gets at the core issue at hand. It spends a lot of time belittling & attacking public schools; it's what-about-ism is humongous. I want this community to be about, to flourish on it's own & find success. But it has seemed to be struggling for a long time, to have dwelled inwardly in denial of it's own strcuturally poor economic health, as plenty of reports & studies far beyond the here hated New York Times. This denial of the world, of basic fact, is something I'd like to be treated with more reality, and less gloating about how awesome this community is for itself. And I'd like to see an America that invests in all of us, where church & state can remain apart, especially given the extensive tax-free benefits religious functions already receive gratis. The conclusion here, to me, is breathtaking: a proposal that religious figures ought be invited in to reprogram & redesign schools. This is the nightmare theocratic scenario. [1] https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/06/court-strikes-down-maines-ban-on-using-public-funds-at-religious-schools/ https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/06/court-strikes-down-maines...

4 points by Ozzie_osman 4y ago

For another point of view, see: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/plot-against-hasidic-education-new-york-times https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/plot-agains...

rektide 4y ago
There's a lot I can believe in from this defense about the benefit, but it still doesn't address what seems clearest to me: why are we spending public money to raise an insular, isolated, low-literacy but happy community? This is a select benefit, with a highly religious purpose, and I don't think this is money being spent on public benefit, and this seems like a striking, apparent, & gross mixing of church & state in funding this specific group's religious upbringing. Yet this kind of theocratic government- government in direct support of religion- feels exactly like what the new ultra-conservative Supreme Court is trying to make happen, when they do things like strike down Maine's very popular ban on giving money to religion-based schools[1]. This all seems strikingly unwelcome to me; it's deliberately supporting not union, deliberately allowing fracturing, deliberately catering to select non-public special interests - religious special interests at that. It doesn't seem reasonable. This article, to me, never really gets at the core issue at hand. It spends a lot of time belittling & attacking public schools; it's what-about-ism is humongous. I want this community to be about, to flourish on it's own & find success. But it has seemed to be struggling for a long time, to have dwelled inwardly in denial of it's own strcuturally poor economic health, as plenty of reports & studies far beyond the here hated New York Times. This denial of the world, of basic fact, is something I'd like to be treated with more reality, and less gloating about how awesome this community is for itself. And I'd like to see an America that invests in all of us, where church & state can remain apart, especially given the extensive tax-free benefits religious functions already receive gratis. The conclusion here, to me, is breathtaking: a proposal that religious figures ought be invited in to reprogram & redesign schools. This is the nightmare theocratic scenario. [1] https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/06/court-strikes-down-maines-ban-on-using-public-funds-at-religious-schools/ https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/06/court-strikes-down-maines...