School board members are conservative in religion and politics, new survey shows.If you believe the propaganda from the Religious Right, the public school system is being run by "radical liberals," "secular humanists This is a partial list of famous humanists, including both secular and religious humanists.
But a new survey of the nation's school board members paints quite a different picture of those who have been elected to oversee the nation's public schools. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the survey, conducted by the National School Boards Association, most school board members are political and religious conservatives who tend to identify with the Republican Party. The NSBA NSBA National School Boards Association NSBA National Small Business Association NSBA Nebraska State Bar Association NSBA National Snaffle Bit Association NSBA National Steel Bridge Alliance NSBA North Saskatoon Business Association (Canada) surveyed a nationwide sampling of the approximately 95,000 school board members across the nation. The results, which have a 98 percent confidence rate, debunk de·bunk tr.v. de·bunked, de·bunk·ing, de·bunks To expose or ridicule the falseness, sham, or exaggerated claims of: debunk a supposed miracle drug. a lot of Religious Right misinformation mis·in·form tr.v. mis·in·formed, mis·in·form·ing, mis·in·forms To provide with incorrect information. mis . For example, most school board members, 65 percent, are political conservatives. Only 28 percent call themselves liberals. In addition, 54 percent say they are conservative religiously, while only 36 percent are religious liberals. But the self-professed conservatism of school board members does not mean they agree with most of the goals of the right wing. Sixty-nine percent said they oppose voucher plans to aid religious and other private schools. Nearly 80 percent oppose tuition tax credit plans. One board member told pollsters, "Although I am a conservative Republican and a Roman Catholic who attended a parochial grade school, I am appalled at the Republican Party's initiatives to undermine education via vouchers disguised as school choice." Another board member observed, "The voucher system seems unfair, discriminatory and elitist e·lit·ism or é·lit·ism n. 1. The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources. , as does...school choice. Public school is for all Americans to learn how to live together and be tolerant." Most board members also opposed tinkering tin·ker n. 1. A traveling mender of metal household utensils. 2. Chiefly British A member of any of various traditionally itinerant groups of people living especially in Scotland and Ireland; a traveler. 3. with the church-state provisions of the Constitution. Fewer than a third (31.2 percent) said they would support a school prayer amendment. One board member told pollsters, "Those who feel their children need to spend their school day in a religious atmosphere should send their children to private school at their own expense." On issues related to sex education, nearly 60 percent favored comprehensive sex education beginning in the early grades. Eight-five percent agreed that factual information about contraceptives is appropriate for high school sex education classes. In addition, 66 percent agreed that factual information about homosexuality is appropriate in such classes. The survey did find that support for vouchers and school prayer and opposition to sex education and discussions of homosexuality come almost exclusively from members who identify themselves as political and religious conservatives. The survey results were reported in the January issue of The American School Board Journal, the NSBA magazine. |
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