California’s public schools are getting worse. And thanks to a new state law enacted last month, the state’s private schools, and even religious schools, face compulsion to join the government schools in promoting homosexuality.
More legislation is on its way to the governor’s desk — legislation that, if signed into law, will officially transform the schools into indoctrination centers for the “gay lifestyle.”
Is this an exaggeration? Or is it, as Robert Knight calls it, “radical, unthinkable social engineering”? Knight heads the Culture and Family Institute for Concerned Women for America.
If it is not an exaggeration, why have the country’s major pro-family organizations failed to call for a mass exodus of Christian children from the California public schools?
It’s No Exaggeration
The act signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, SB 1441, bans “discrimination” on the basis of “sexual orientation” (for the full text of the law, see http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/sen/sb_1401-1450/sb_1441_bill_20060222_introduced.html). The law applies to “any program or activity conducted, operated, or administered by the state or by any state agency, or that is funded directly by the state, or that receives any financial assistance from the state” (emphasis added).
This covers all the public schools, plus any private school receiving any kind of state financial aid. The law makes no exceptions for religious schools, faith-based charities, or schools in which any student receives any kind of financial aid from the state.
But SB 1441 only sets the stage for further mischief. Two more bills are pending:
- AB 606 “would give the state superintendent of schools the power to withhold funds to schools that do not establish and publicize antidiscrimination policies based on ‘gender identity’ and ‘sexual orientation.’ It also authorizes the creation of new curricula to promote acceptance of all manner of sexual activity to schoolchildren” (http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11373/CFI/education/index.htm).
- AB 1056 “would authorize $250,000 for a ‘tolerance education’ voluntary pilot program at several schools that would effectively outlaw any expression of traditional values, including a preference for marriage” (http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11373/CFI/education/index.htm).
Obviously we are not exaggerating. This summer the National Education Association (NEA), America’s biggest teachers’ union, recommended that support for “gay marriage” be a requirement for receiving a teaching certificate. Now California has charted a course for the schools to sponsor the homosexual agenda, actively and openly.
“What begins as radical, unthinkable social engineering in California,” Robert Knight said, “eventually morphs into ‘innovative’ policy elsewhere. Think of California and New England as the two sides of a giant liberal vise, squeezing morality and common sense out of the rest of America. Of course, there are many good people in both places who are fighting an uphill battle against relentless liberalism that knows no bounds.”
Where’s the Opposition?
Considering Homeschooling has called on California’s Christian parents to remove their children en masse from the state’s public schools.
“‘Heck, no, our kids won’t go!’ should be the rallying cry of Christian parents,” said Charles Lowers, the group’s executive director, “instead of following the broad road of perversion and destruction that California schools are offering.”
Considering Homeschooling, of course, has always been committed to homeschooling. It is the large organizations whose responses to these new laws have been problematic.
Focus on the Family, the largest, has called on citizens to petition the governor and demand that he veto the legislation — this after he has already signed SB 1441 (see http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0041729.cfm).
In fact, none of the major pro-family organizations have advocated the one action that solves the problem — the removal of Christian children from these schools. On September 5, the Campaign for Children and Families called for a protest rally in front of the California State House, urging the governor to veto the bills “or the people will veto him” (http://www.savecalifornia.com/getpluggedin/news_details.php?newsid=56). The rally, said the CCF press release, attracted “hundreds” of parents.
“CWA has not officially endorsed taking kids out of the schools,” Robert Knight said, “although CWA spokespersons, like me, have urged Christians to do so if they can. We support Christian schools and homeschooling. At the same time, we feel it’s important to continue to expose the intentional corruption of kids in the public schools, and to aid reformers.”
With the words “intentional corruption,” Knight hits the nail on the head. The corruption is indeed intentional. The NEA’s public statements confirm it.
But where is the hope for reform? Christians’ rallies and petitions have moved neither the legislature nor the governor. The NEA has boldly declared its commitment to homosexuality; and who is more powerful, in the public school establishment, than teachers’ unions?
Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America, the Campaign for Children and Families, and all the rest can petition Governor Schwarzenegger from now until doomsday and not accomplish anything. They can demonstrate endlessly in the streets; but the state legislators who voted for these bills have already written off Christians as their constituency.
Getting Focused
Where is the public outrage?
“Californians seem distracted by the pursuit of comfort, material wealth, and a flood of illegal immigration,” Knight said. “It takes a lot to get them focused, but one would think that this obvious threat to their children would rouse them out of their hot tubs and into the hallways of school districts, if not into the streets.”
“The gates of hell are prevailing against the church,” said Randy Thomasson, president of the CCF. “It’s because Christian colleges and churches have ignored the political process for so long. Now the political process, absent religious values, is coming back to assault the church” (http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51732).
With all due respect, gentlemen, you’re wrong.
The government monopoly of public education, with the teachers’ unions in the driver’s seat and a legislative majority entrenched in alliance with organized sodomy, will not respond to public outrage. It has only dug deeper into its fortified position and will continue on its course regardless of anything your organizations do. In California, Massachusetts, and elsewhere, it has mastered the political process and has nothing to fear from Christian voters — no matter how committed those voters may be.
We do not understand why you have not publicly endorsed the Christian education of Christian children. Please explain what holds you back.
Homeschooling and Christian schools are the only way for Christian children to be delivered from the baleful influence of “educators” on fire for promoting sodomy. There is simply no other way to do this.
Public education was a bad idea from its inception, and there is no way to build on its philosophically rotten foundation. It is immune to reform.
What is happening now in California will happen in other states. There is no way to stop it. The public schools are, and will always be, a lost cause.
Soon, in California, only homeschooled children and those in private Christian schools who accept no state funding will be taught that homosexuality is an undesirable way to live.
Governor Vetoes Textbook Bill
After signing into law SB 1441, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed a bill that would have required all school textbooks and other materials to present homosexuality in a positive light.
The bill, SB 1437, is one of several pieces of legislation aimed at promoting homosexuality in California’s public schools. Others are pending.
We are pleasantly surprised by the governor’s action — but it does not mean that now it’s safe to send Christian children to those schools.
For one thing, the legislature may choose to override the veto — as it has recently done in Massachusetts, overriding several vetoes by Governor Mitt Romney and greatly expanding state funding for programs that promote sodomy. For another, the remaining bills will still do serious damage if signed into law. And finally, the main bill, SB 1441, has been signed and now is the law.
Even if Schwarzenegger vetoes all the remaining bills, SB 1441 still gives gay activists a financial stranglehold on California’s schools. The state can cut off funding to any school or any program that displeases the gay activists in any way.
The veto of SB 1437 changes nothing. Christians should still remove their children from these schools.
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