Nora or Devereaux Cannon

There is an interesting new book coming out on that quote:
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
No phrase in American letters has had a more profound influence
on church-state law, policy, and discourse than Thomas
Jefferson's "wall of separation between church and state," and
few metaphors have provoked more passionate debate. Introduced in
an 1802 letter to the Danbury, Connecticut Baptist Association,
Jefferson's "wall" is accepted by many Americans as a concise
description of the U.S. Constitution's church-state arrangement
and conceived as a virtual rule of constitutional law.
Despite the enormous influence of the "wall" metaphor, almost no
scholarship has investigated the text of the Danbury letter, the
context in which it was written, or Jefferson's understanding of
his famous phrase. Thomas Jefferson and the Wall of Separation
Between Church and State offers an in-depth examination of the
origins, controversial uses, and competing interpretations of
this powerful metaphor in law and public policy.

About the Author
Daniel L. Dreisbach is an Associate Professor in the Department
of Law, Justice, and Society at American University. He is the
editor of Religion and Popular Culture in Jefferson's Virginia
and Religion and Politics in the Early Republic.

LINK to Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/081471935X/qid=1028672496/
sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/102-2958212-3286500


----- Original Message -----
From: "Luz Shosie and Ned Vare" <nedvare@...>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2002 5:12 PM
Subject: [Unschooling-dotcom] Re: 2199 -- private school/public
money


| on 8/6/02 3:31 PM, [email protected] at
| [email protected] wrote:
|
| Tia wrote, in reference to one of my posts:
| > Actually . . . there's a Sudbury Valley type school in North
Vancouver that
| > is publicly funded, has been for years now.
| >
| > You're probably right in general that they need to be
privately funded in
| > order to work, but it's these absolute statements that keep
putting me
| > off.
|
| Ned answers:
|
| It was Thomas Jefferson who wrote that forcing people to pay
for things that
| violate their beliefs [like state-funded churches} is tyranny.
(sorry, I
| can't locate the exact quote)
|
| It's a reasonable objection -- and many people have it -- that
forcing
| people to pay for (or accept) things that go against their
beliefs or best
| judgment is bad government. Public schools do that to almost
everyone. If
| there's public funding for a private school whose program goes
against the
| wishes of many people, then the funding is a form of tyranny --
strictly
| speaking -- because many people are forced to pay for it who
wouldn't do it
| voluntarily. Public schools do that to almost everyone.
|
| Thirty years ago, I was involved with a group that wanted the
local public
| school system to fund our new, innovative private school. (This
was in
| Aspen, Colorado and I was even on the city council) Our
proposal was not
| accepted and the families (most of whom were wealthy) had to
pay for their
| own children's schooling all by themselves, or with private
help. That was
| (is) how it should be.
|
| Since I've come to what I jokingly call my senses, politically,
and am a
| libertarian, I have been ashamed of being in a group asking the
government
| (taxpayers) to fund a private activity. Not the least of what's
wrong with
| it is the fact that the government will always want to control
it, and if
| it's a school, that means *make it like its other schools --
rotten.*
|
| Ned Vare