Letters

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Feb 2, 2000

The federal Drug-Free School and Communities Act, requiring schools to certify they are drug free.

Federal constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion, expression, association, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, of equal protection and due process.

Although the religious school leaders have agreed with the spirit of the laws, they argue they are not legally bound by them. They defended their resistance on the grounds that having to comply with such regulations would drain resources away from their educational mission. How convenient. How far could District 11 or any public school district get with this argument ?

Breazell writes of "good old-fashioned American competition" as a way of "forcing the education delivery system to improve." True competition can only happen on a level playing field, and until private and religious schools are held to the same standards of accountability (and legal requirements), how will we know if voucher schools are "winners"?

Shawn Yocum-Alford, Colorado Springs