EDUCATION
Education
We oppose current practices which REQUIRE the total separation of religion and public education. The decision as to the the level of integration of moral and/or religious ideas into the curriculum is the unilateral decision of the duly elected local school board.
The law of the Creator, as stated in the Declaration of Independence, assigns the power and duty of educating children to their parents. We therefore strongly support the parents right to send their children to private schools and to home school their children as they alone see fit to do.
We consider the current NC educational system to be a near monopoly which, as predicted by sound economic thought, results in rising costs and poor quality. Ironically, this near monopoly most hurts those groups including race minorities that do NOT have the financial capability to option out of poorly performing schools. We therefore, advocate the use of all reasonable methods to create more competition in the NC educational system. Such methods might include BUT not be limited to tuition tax credits, tuition vouchers, charter schools, and publicly assisted private schools.
.Education is the exclusive right of the state of NC and its communities, therefore, NC should be free from all federal government subsidies, including vouchers, tax incentives and loans. Such "federal assistance" programs come out of the tax pockets of NC citizens. We advocate that there be an immediate tax break the size of which reflects the amount of federal taxes collected to either directly or indirectly finance NC education.
Any NC tax funded public education program must NOT discriminate based on race, age, religion and other Constitutionally based civil rights. We are opposed to any form of "social promotion" in public schools.
We believe that NC must redirect its limited education dollars to greatly increasing the quality of primary and secondary education and away from higher education. To do this, we advocate substantial increases in tuition for all public institutions of higher education, with part of this increase to be set aside to assist qualified applicants who do NOT otherwise have the financial resources to attend. We also advocate college tuition be determined by the level of performance of the student, with higher performers paying less of their own tuition bill.
Taxes collected from NC citizens to support public education in NC should be adjusted downward for those NC parents who wish to either use private schools or to do home schooling. Someone should NOT have to pay for a governmental service which they feel is in their best interests NOT to use.
Because the federal government has absolutely no jurisdiction concerning the education of our nation's children, the United States Department of Education should be abolished; all federal legislation related to education should be repealed, including, but not limited to Goals 2000, all Outcome-Based Education programs, "School-to-Work" programs, the "Success by Six" programs, and other similar programs; and no federal laws subsidizing or regulating educating of our nation's children should be enacted. Under no circumstances should the federal government be involved in educational curriculum, textbook selection or learning standards, including comprehensive sex education, and psychological and psychiatric research testing programs and personnel.
Because control over education is now being relegated to departments other than the Department of Education, we clarify that no federal agency, department, board or other entity may exercise jurisdiction over any aspect of children's upbringing. Education training and discipline of children is properly placed in the domain of the parents.
The SPNC opposes school-based clinics. We support the teaching of abstinence until marriage as the expected standard of behavior.