School choice debate focus of Jan. 19 meeting

REPUBLICAN CLUB

by Brian Harmon

LW contributor

School choice and why it is at the center of political debate in California today will be discussed at the Jan. 19 meeting of the Republican Club.

While a topic of debate in LW and surrounding areas has been the attempted recall of members of the Los Alamitos Unified School District, the club believes that a broader, more comprehensive solution would be school choice. Parents who are happy with the education their children are getting where they are can keep them there, and other parents can send their children to the school of their choice.

The Republican Club believes that the current educational system is not providing basic information about the world. The schools are, in effect, rewriting history to reflect a more progressive, liberal or radical point of view. For example, schools do a good job of pointing out the murderous policies of Hitler’s Nazi regime (12 million murdered outright and 44 million killed in the World War II European theater in a war Hitler started). In most high schools, the Holocaust is discussed in ninth-grade world history and 12th-grade government classes, as well as in 10th-grade English classes, during which “The Diary of Ann Frank” is studied.

Unfortunately, the horrible crimes of Mao Zedong in Communist China, especially during the Great Leap Forward in 1958-62, are largely, if not completely, ignored. The death toll was between 45 million and 70 million, including those who were forcibly and intentionally starved to death, plus those who were murdered outright by government officials and Communist Party operatives at Mao’s command. Clearly, Mao was the most effective mass murderer in the history of the world.

The Soviet dictator Stalin’s murder of 20 million people, largely Ukrainians who were forcibly starved to death, is just about completely ignored.

Changing what is taught in public schools to reflect a more balanced point of view would be difficult, if not impossible, in the foreseeable future. But, the Republican Club believes, school choice would be a positive step toward mitigating the liberal bias it finds evident in the public-school curriculum. It would allow parents to choose whether they want their children to attend a public, private or charter school, and it would improve educational opportunities for all families. “The school choice initiative will give all parents the ability to send their children to the school they feel will best prepare them for the future,” said club President Brian Harmon.

LW residents are invited to visit the Republican Club booth every Monday from 11 a.m.-2 p.m., weather permitting, to sign school choice petitions, discuss GOP principles or enjoy pleasant conversation. The Republican Club’s principles include: strong national defense, smaller government, fiscal conservatism, free-enterprise capitalism, tax reform, school choice, equal rights and opportunities for all, God and the Bible, and pro-life.