Bishop Joseph P. McFadden of the Roman Catholic diocese of Harrisburg, an outspoken proponent of school voucher programs in which taxpayer monies go to private religious schools, has recently criticized the American public school system claiming that “totalitarian governments would love our system” in an interview with an ABC affiliate. McFadden also said, “This is what Hitler and Mussolini and all those who tried to establish -- a monolith -- so all the children would be educated in one set of beliefs and one way of doing things.”
Andy Hoover -- ACLU of Pennsylvania's Legislative Director and an opponent of school voucher programs in which taxpayer monies go to private religious schools -- comments specifically for this article.
Hoover, commenting on McFadden's remarks, says, “I don't think Hitler would appreciate children learning about free speech or freedom of religion. He also wouldn't appreciate Jewish children being educated.”
McFadden argues that public schools want to, like totalitarian regimes, teach children only one way of thinking. Public school systems, though, are to be neutral on matters of religious belief and thus do not indoctrinate children. On the other hand, children in private Catholic schools will be indoctrinated to believe the claims of the Catholic faith regardless of whether parents would like this for their children, Hoover notes.
Another Catholic leader weighing in on the issue of school voucher programs, Archbishop Chaput, mentioned in the ABC article, wrote, "Some Catholics - too many - seem to find it easier to criticize their own leaders than to face the fact that they're discriminated against every day of the year."
Hoover, responding to this, says, "If school vouchers had passed in Pennsylvania, schools that would take voucher students could discriminate -- and they do discriminate -- based on disability, language skills, sexual orientation and religion. Some do not, but they can, and that is why they shouldn't get public funding."
Hoover says that McFadden makes it sound like public schools indoctrinate people like Nazis did, but this is far from the case. Hoover explains, “Public schools have open meetings, school board members who have to run for election and re-election and the political system has an impact on schools.” An open democratic system, Hoover says, is "completely opposite of what totalitarian governments have."
“Any time someone brings up Hitler in a debate, you know they've lost,” Hoover says.
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