OCTOBER 17 LETTER TO THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH EDITOR WARNS THAT THE BACKPACK BILL (ACTUALLY THE BACKTRACK BILL) FUNDS RELIGIOUS DOGMA
HB290 is undoubtedly the most egregious attack on the constitutionally-required common school system ever introduced. It is the absolute antithesis of the constitutional requirement for public education.
One of the blunders in HB290 is expressed in an October 17 Letter to the Editor—public funding of religious dogma.
‘Backpack bill’ would fund religious schools with taxpayer dollars
The Ohio legislature has been eagerly planning on the further dismantling of Ohio’s public education system.
We all paid for the unregulated White Hat scandal that sent our taxpayer dollars to fund corrupt charter schools while the state legislature looked the other way. Now the legislature wants to create the “backpack bill” to give each child money to attend “private schools.”
Let’s be honest what this bill is really about: funding religious schools. They don’t want to call them religious schools because the absurdity of the bill is then out in the open, but the schools that would receive the money are predominately religious schools. These religious schools are unregulated and have no curriculum oversight. Many of the religious schools teach things that most Ohioans would not think represent their beliefs.
What happened to one of the bed-rocks of the United States, public education? Do you want to pay for education that teaches things that are antithetical to your beliefs? Do you believe in the separation of church and state? In my history classes, I learned that education was free from religious influence and focused on facts, not religious dogma.
The “backpack bill” is a backdoor way to promote religious education. Let your legislators know it is not the American way.
Penny D. Winkle, Columbus
Sunday, October 17, 2021
The Columbus Dispatch
Page 6F Letters
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