I went to an event at Hebrew College last night, the first in a discussion series called "Jewish & American: Confronting the 21st Century." The event was entitled "Red, Blue and Jewish: Changing the Way We Talk About Politics," and it featured Steve Grossman and Jeff Jacoby in conversation. I love Jeff Jacoby's columns in the Globe -- he's a Midwestern transplant to Boston, politically conservative and Jewishly educated and committed, like me. Last night only increased my good opinion of him.
Of course, as often happens at these events, most of the questions from the audience consisted of mini-political diatribes thinly disguised as questions. Most of them had to do with Israel and the Middle East, and all but one came from middle-aged men. The one that wasn't asked by a middle-aged man was asked by yours truly -- I decided to represent my gender and age group (and place of employment) by taking the microphone towards the end of the evening.
I said that I work at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, and that our research consistently shows the strong, positive impact of Jewish day school education on future Jewish identity. How would the two candidates' positions on the economy and taxes, as well as education, impact our community's ability to educate our youth?
The question went over very well, as it tied together Jewish concerns and political positions, not to mention eliciting responses that showed real differences between the candidates. Afterward, I went to introduce myself to Jeff Jacoby. He was happy to meet another Midwesterner and hear a little bit about Milwaukee's voucher program, and he said that we should have a whole evening devoted to audience questions like mine! I totally agree. Bring it on!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Local Politics
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3 comments:
It would be nice to increase enrollment at Jewish day schools. One big problem with vouchers, though, is if you give vouchers to kids to go to JDS's or Catholic schools or that like, you have to give vouchers to Muslim kids to go to Islamic schools. I wonder what the ruckus would be over that, considering the hatred of many Americans for any type of funding or support for an Islamic center, moderate as the people building it may be. In some ways, "Muslim" or "Arab" is the new Jew, Italian, Irish, gay, Japanese, you name it.
Not to mention the obvious Constitutional problems, but I digress.
Oh, also forgot to mention the chederim and Yeshiva high schools that teach nothing but Halacha (not sure the extent that it happens within the Charedim in the US, but I know it's widespread among the Charedim in Israel). That means no math, no science, no world history, no work-a-day skills. Would those be "voucher-funded" as well?
There are no Constitutional problems, obvious or otherwise, with vouchers. Wisconsin's supreme court upheld the Constitutionality of Wisconsin's voucher system, and the national supreme court has allowed publicly-funded busing for religious school students. The first amendment wasn't meant to drive religion from public life -- it was meant to prevent the establishment of an official religion and to equalize the status of all religions. Vouchers for religious schools fall within those guidelines.
All private schools that receive vouchers would have to meet federal and state academic standards. This includes Orthodox Jewish day schools and Muslim schools.
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