Posted Wednesday, February 25, 2004 by Gene

Oh, holy shit
Just catching up on the marvelous running blog on Salon.com-- in a section called the "War Room '04"-- when I found a simply amazing quotation.

You've all heard by now about how Rod Paige, the nation's Education Secretary, referred to the nation's largest teacher's union as a "terrorist organization." Well the passage below is far more disturbing. Again, this is excerpted from Salon.com:

Paige claims he's criticizing the union and its lobbyists, not teachers, but the Progress Report points out that this "terrorist" remark is not the first time Paige has attacked the integrity and morals of public school teachers. "Last April, Paige said, 'The reason that Christian schools and Christian universities are growing is a result of a strong value system... That's not the case in a public school, where there are so many different kids with different kinds of values.' Paige, who oversees a public school system that serves 47 million students said, 'All things equal, I would prefer to have a child in a school that has a strong appreciation for the values of the Christian community, where a child is taught to have a strong faith.'"

I repeat: these are the words of the NATION'S EDUCATION SECRETARY. His argument appears to be that the public school system would be working much better if all the students were Christians.

You know what? Fuck this, I'm moving to Canada.