Tuesday 22 March 2005

Discriminating education

The letter from John Hein of ScotsGay magazine makes a lot of sense:
When an intrinsic part of the role of teacher or priest involves telling the vulnerable and the gullible that homosexuality is "intrinsically disordered", what self-respecting homosexual would want to work for the Roman Catholic Church in the first place?
Not everyone sees it that way:
Politicians, local government and parent groups all warned against discrimination when a senior bishop insisted that the church's new charter for schools would prevent gay teachers from securing jobs in Catholic schools or gaining promotion if already employed.

Bishop Joseph Devine, president of the Catholic Education Commission, said the church's blueprint for its schools - A Charter for Catholic Schools - made it clear that homosexuality was incompatible with Catholic education.

What's wrong with that? A school should be free to hire gays or not to hire gays. Schools should be free to hire men or not to hire men. Schools should be free to hire Catholics, or Protestants, or Muslims or not to hire Catholics, or Protestants, or Muslims.

Oh, but that:

could easily be seen as blatantly discriminatory.
So what? Life is all about making choices, about discriminating. Choices made by adults should be of no concern whatsoever to governments as long as there is no initiation of force or fraud.

When I read this:

A spokesman said: "The Executive would expect authorities, in pursuit of their statutory obligations, to employ the best staff available."
and this:
Peter Duncan, the shadow Scottish secretary, said: "I do not see any reason for discrimination on race or sexual orientation or gender."
and this:
Fiona Hyslop, SNP MSP and shadow minister for education, said: "The SNP would expect a non-discrimination element to be part of the revised schools code."
and this:
Judith Gillespie, from the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, described Bishop Devine's views as "very sad"
I suggest that Executive members, Peter Duncan, Fiona Hyslop and Judith Gillespie get together and invest their own money in a school. The Catholic Church should do the same. In a free market there's plenty of room for a variety of schools, each discriminating in its own way.

1 comment:

David Farrer said...

Comments made on previous template:

Geoff Matthews
This is the problem that arises when churches take money from the government. The government can stipulate how that money is spent.  
Practicing Catholics in Scotland would be better served with lower tax rates and paying directly for their own education than funneling that money through the government beuracracy.

26 March 2005, 23:05:36 GMT
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Roland Watson
"Not at the tax-payer's expense they shouldn't." 
 
What gives the government the right to dictate how my or other people's money should be spent? 
 
Just because they take it doesn't mean it autmatically becomes their property!

25 March 2005, 17:10:38 GMT
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Robert Speirs
As it is not possible to have a school that does not discriminate on some grounds, isn't this argument just about what kinds of discrimination are favored by whoever happens to be in power today?

22 March 2005, 21:50:03 GMT
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Shuggy
I probably wrote the post too quickly as I had to go off and earn some money to pay the taxes that finance the state education system. 
 
Gee, thanks - I'll be spending that in the pub on Friday...

22 March 2005, 15:46:17 GMT
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David Farrer
I probably wrote the post too quickly as I had to go off and earn some money to pay the taxes that finance the state education system. 
 
Essentially I agree with the above comments. I favour a total withdrawal of the state from education. The next best solution may be education vouchers although they would probably be accompanied by all sorts of restrictions on the schools that could accept them. 
 
(If there are to be state schools I can't see why there should be different ones for different faiths)

22 March 2005, 15:23:21 GMT
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David B. Wildgoose
"Not at the tax-payer's expense they shouldn't." Exactly. As a tax-payer I vehemently object to ANY kind of discrimination. The moment they accept public funds they have to accept public morals. 
 
Of course, if they pay for it themselves, then they're free to discriminate as much as they like. It's their money after all. 
 
But they aren't free to discriminate with MY money.

22 March 2005, 14:41:35 GMT
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Andrew Ian Dodge
I agree with the two above posts that if they Church school wants to take the state money they should not be surprised to have to adhere to their laws.

22 March 2005, 13:39:18 GMT
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Shuggy
A school should be free to hire gays or not to hire gays. Schools should be free to hire men or not to hire men. Schools should be free to hire Catholics, or Protestants, or Muslims or not to hire Catholics, or Protestants, or Muslims. 
 
Not at the tax-payer's expense they shouldn't. In this, I would agree with your free-market position in a limited sense: if Catholic schools - or any other "faith" schools want to practice their Bronze Age morality they should be free to do so provided they pay for it themselves. But as a libertarian, surely you would agree that it is not right for religious indoctrination and segregation to be done by the state?

22 March 2005, 11:30:43 GMT
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Bill (Scotland)
The answer is, largely, in the last two lines of your post. If said Catholic faith schools are not in receipt of any public funding, then within certain pretty broad limits they should be able to employ (or not) anyone they please, based on criteria they set. 
 
If, however, they are in receipt of any public funding then I think they must comply fully with employment laws, which recently gave homosexuals similar rights to those enjoyed by other citizens (e.g women, persons from ethnic minorities). Unofrtunately that legislation DID provide exceptions for religious institutions - a scandal, so far as I am concerned, if any public funding is involved, which is very often the case in faith schools.

22 March 2005, 09:16:50 GMT