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Alan Keyes on Education

American Independent nominee for President; 2004 Republican challenger for IL Senate

 


Sex education is private responsibility; not for school

Human sexuality is primarily a matter of moral and not just physical health. So-called “health-based” sex education programs have done more harm than good. They too often encourage adolescents to consider sexual activity apart from marriage and family life. Especially in government schools, where teachers feel they must deal with sexual matters without reference to moral authority, these courses result in a vapid, context-free presentation of sexual mechanics which degrades and debases the meaning of relations between the sexes.

Sex education is, as a rule, the private responsibility of parents. The government should not usurp this role. Where parents choose to encourage school-based instruction, I strongly support abstinence-based approaches for young adults.

Source: 2008 Senate campaign website, www.alankeyes.com, “Issues” , Oct 1, 2007

Impeach judges for barring legislature prayers to Jesus

Q: Recently, a federal judge ordered the Indiana legislature to censor their prayers. Specifically, the federal judge ordered the Indiana legislature to never allow anyone to offer an invocation prayer in Jesus’ name. Will you as president consider impeachment a possible remedy for this judicial activism?
Source: [Xref Hunter] 2007 GOP Values Voter Presidential Debate , Sep 17, 2007

Present scientific facts that support creationism

Q: Academic freedom is threatened when questioning the theory of evolution. An Iowa State astronomer was denied tenure because of his work in intelligent design in May 2007. Censoring alternative theories--dogmatic indoctrination--has replaced scientific inquiry. Will you encourage a more open approach to the presentation of scientific facts that contradict the theory of evolution?
Source: [Xref Hunter] 2007 GOP Values Voter Presidential Debate , Sep 17, 2007

Equal funds for abstinence as contraceptive-based education

Q: I’m 18. One in four sexually-active teens has a sexually-transmitted disease. Meanwhile, 2.5 million American teens like me have taken public abstinence pledges, to save sex until marriage--the only 100%-proven effective solution and prevention for STDs. Would you bring abstinence-education funding onto equal ground with contraceptive-based education?
Source: [Xref Cox] 2007 GOP Values Voter Presidential Debate , Sep 17, 2007

Schools forfeit funds if they expose kids to gay propaganda

Q: I’m a former homosexual. I used to think I was born gay, and was sexually active in the homosexual lifestyle for 11 years. Now, because of Jesus Christ, my Savior, I’m happily married for almost 15 years, and we have two precious children. Homosexual behavior is immoral and dangerous. I know. Many of my friends today, both male and female, are dead. Even so, schools across the nation teach our children that homosexuality is healthy, normal, and unchangeable. I’m living proof that’s not true. As president would you support legislation ensuring that schools forfeit federal funding if they expose our children to homosexual propaganda that puts them at risk?
Source: [Xref Cox] 2007 GOP Values Voter Presidential Debate , Sep 17, 2007

Parents, not schools, should be responsible for sex ed

KEYES: You voted that sex education should begin in kindergarten but it would be “age appropriate.” Do you believe that in 2nd grade we should be teaching from books like Heather Has Two Mommies.

OBAMA: We have an existing law that mandates sex education in the schools and we want to make sure that it’s medically accurate & age appropriate. [Sex education] is in the law so schoolchildren can exercise some kind of protection against abuse.

KEYES: I think its perfectly appropriate for parents t talk to their children at these tender young ages in a way that reflects their faith and their values, as understood according to their moral identity and religious culture. And I think its dangerous to be touching these subjects at such tender ages in a school environment rather than leaving it to the parents. I believe in empowering parents with the right to choose the environment where their children will be educated rather than usurping their role with a bureaucratically dominated education system.

Source: Illinois Senate Debate #3: Barack Obama vs. Alan Keyes , Oct 21, 2004

Violence in schools due to loss of moral heritage

Q: How would you interrupt this culture of violence? A: The first thing we have to do is restore this country’s allegiance to its basic moral principles. We express great shock and outrage that we are bloodying the hallways of our schools with the blood of our children. What about the blood of our children killed in the womb on the basis of a doctrine that completely rejects the basic principles on which this nation was founded? If our rights come from God, then we ought to shape our children’s consciences in the fear of God. And I think that what we’re seeing in our schools is the direct result of our failure to respect that heritage and to pass it on.
Source: Des Moines Iowa GOP Debate , Dec 13, 1999

Sex education should be abstinence-based.

Human sexuality is primarily a matter of moral and not physical health. So-called ‘health-based’ sex education programs have done more harm than good. They too often encourage adolescents to consider sexual activity apart from marriage and family life. Sex education is, as a rule, the private responsibility of the parents. The government should not usurp this role. Where parents choose to encourage school-based instruction, I strongly support abstinence-based approaches for young adults.
Source: www.keyes2000.org/issues/sexeducation.html 1/7/99 , Jan 7, 1999

Black education historically focused on family & church

During the immediate post-Civil War years, [blacks were] 95% illiterate; this had dropped to 30% in 1910. There was no federal funding, and Southern states refused to spend anything close to adequate amounts on education for blacks. [Blacks accomplished the drop in illiteracy via] the black church and the black family.

[Liberals] argue that black Americans have never made any progress in their history without a government initiative. This assertion is repeated like a religious mantra by the liberals who act as budget shills for the public sector bureaucracy.

When will public policy that affects the black community begin to reflect the real facts of black history? When will we stop accepting approaches to social challenges such as poverty or education based on the false assumptions of black incapacity? When will we begin to demand policies that reflect the strengths, the character, and the positive values that are the real heritage of black America?

Source: Our Character, Our Future, p. 54-6 , May 2, 1996

Government corrupts higher education

Q: What do you consider the greatest strength and greatest weakness of American higher education?
A: The greatest strength of American higher education is the dedication and courage of the many professors who, knowing the difference between liberal learning and politically correct indoctrination, fight to maintain civility, academic standards, and discipline. The greatest weakness is the growing and corrupting role of government in higher education.
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education, “Seven Questions” , Feb 23, 1996

College tuition rises due to taxpayer subsidies

Q: Which is more responsible for the increasing difficulty of paying for college: the rising costs of college or the diminished availiability of financial aid?
A: There are 2 main reason why college is getting harder and harder to pay for. One is that taxes are higher than ever, making it increasingly difficult for families to save for college. The other is that taxpayer subsidization of higher education is driving tuition costs two to three times faster than the inflation rate.
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education, “Seven Questions” , Feb 23, 1996

Alan Keyes on School Choice

Parents & local citizens know better than educrat masters

Parents and local citizens often know better than their educrat masters, but find themselves unable to resist the power of an entrenched and costly monopoly. Education reform is thus a question of liberty and self-government.

I strongly favor school choice approaches that empower parents to take control of their children’s education, in accordance with the parents’ faith and values. Above all, we must break the government monopoly on public education.

Source: 2008 Senate campaign website, www.alankeyes.com, “Issues” , Oct 1, 2007

Empower parents to choose schools that reflect their values

Q: If you are elected president in 2008, what positive and significant legacy, if any, will you leave for Black Americans?

A: The most important legacy of my administration would be to remind people that in spite of all the talk, I don’t believe there is this deep divide between Blacks and whites in America. I believe that we are, in fact, part of one nation and one community. The core of that community is not race; the core of that community is not money. The core of that community is the moral consensus that we are all created equal and endowed by our creator, God, with our unalienable rights. And as a practical matter, I would want to see that unity, that moral understanding restored where it is most important--in the education of our young by adopting an approach to education that empowers every parent in this country to send their children to schools that reflect their faith & values, so that the Black community can re-instill moral, community-based schools that reflect [their own values].

Source: 2007 GOP Presidential Forum at Morgan State University , Sep 27, 2007

Break up the government monopoly on public education

I support school choice. Parents should be able to send their children to schools that reflect their faith and values, schools of their choice, where they can have an influence over a curriculum that goes beyond just what information kids are given and that affects how their consciences will be shaped, how their character will be developed. Above all, we must break up the government monopoly on public education.
Source: 2004 Senate campaign website www.Keyes2004.com, “Issues” , Sep 9, 2004

Replace the Department of Education with parental control

Q: How much power should the federal government have over state education?
A: We [must] put the control of our educational system back in the hands of our parents. We have to overcome the arguments that those parents don’t have the responsibility, the concern, the love, the capacity to do the right thing. [I] would abolish the Department of Education and make it clear that it is primarily the leadership of the parents, not any level of government, that we have to rely on in this society.
Source: GOP Debate in Johnston, Iowa , Jan 16, 2000

Pro-voucher; gov’t out of K-12 education

Source: 2000 National Political Awareness Test , Jan 13, 2000

School’s bureaucratic monopoly hurts teachers & students

Q: What is the biggest reform issue confronting schools?
A: Schooling has largely fallen into the hands of a remote, bureaucratic, costly, and often ineffective monopoly. Teachers, families, and students all suffer from this state of affairs.
The greatest need is for liberty, both in the public schools, which need to be free from excessive mandates and secondary tasks imposed from above, and in the independent sector, whose families must not be penalized by the tax system.
Source: National Association of Children’s Hospitals survey , Jan 8, 2000

Money should follow parents’ education choices

I strongly favor letting the parents take over the education process. With the parents in the lead, we will know that the cooperation between home, school and faith has been restored. The money we spend on education should follow the choice of the parents, not the choice of educrats & politicians. Let parents decide where the per capita spending is going to go. And that way every parent, rich or poor, will be able to make the right decisions for their child.
Source: Phoenix Arizona GOP Debate , Dec 7, 1999

Value-free public education is brainwashing.

The value-free education offered by the government run schools has all too often proven to be education without value. This is especially true now that Outcome Based Education has been used as an excuse to establish curricular elements that amount to the politically correct brainwashing of our children.
Source: www.keyes2000.org/issues/schoolchoice.html 1/7/99 , Jan 7, 1999

Empower parents against the monopoly of public schools.

Parents and local citizens often know better than their educrat masters, but find themselves unable to resist the power of an entrenched and costly monopoly. Education reform is thus a question of liberty and self-government. I strongly favor school choice approaches that empower parents to send their children to schools that reflect the parents’ faith and values. This should include choices in both the public and the independent schools.
Source: www.keyes2000.org/issues/schoolchoice.html 1/7/99 , Jan 7, 1999

Let communities decide school rules like all-male academies

The Detroit school system wanted to try the idea of all-male academies, aimed especially at young black males. A District Judge decided that this would discriminate against the city’s young females and struck down the idea. The judge should have shown some respect for the judgment of the people who live with the daily life-and-death crisis [of urban life].

Inner-city black males need special help and attention. Is it better to give it to them in al-male schools, or in the all-male prisons they now populate in disproportionate numbers?

[Liberals] supported the creation of a welfare state that helped to destroy the social infrastructure of the black community. Not they want to quash community-based efforts to correct their disastrous handiwork. This is wrong, stupid, and unfair. In Detroit and elsewhere, the dogmatic liberal judges and ideologues should get out of the way and let communities seek answers to their problems. Let the people go.

Source: Our Character, Our Future, p. 63-5 , May 2, 1996

Alan Keyes on School Prayer

We allowed the judges to drive God out of our schools

The major problem in American education today is that we allowed the judges to drive God out of our schools. We allowed the moral foundation of this republic, which is that we are created equal and endowed by our Creator, not by our Constitution or our leaders with our rights. If we don’t teach our children that heritage and the moral culture that goes along with it, we cannot remain free. They will not be disciplined to learn science, to learn math, to learn history, to learn anything, and they don’t want to talk about this except when they’re squabbling about their own personal faith and forgetting that we have a national creed. And that national creed needs to be taught to our children so that whether they are scientists or businessmen or lawyers, they will stand on the solid ground of a moral education that gives them the discipline they need to serve the right, to exercise their freedom with dignity, and to defend the justice because they understand it is our heritage.
Source: 2007 Des Moines Register Republican Debate , Dec 12, 2007

Prohibiting school prayer is symptom of deeper problem

The court-initiated prohibition of school prayer is only the symptom of a deeper problem--the neglect of moral education and character formation. The value-free education offered by the government-run schools has all too often proven to be education without value. This is especially true now that Outcome Based Education has been used as an excuse to establish curricular elements that amount to the politically correct brainwashing of our children.
Source: 2008 Senate campaign website, www.alankeyes.com, “Issues” , Oct 1, 2007

Tax-credited programs for Christian schooling

Q: I’m 17, and I’m the product of school choice. In the public schools I repeated the 7th grade three times, because of my deficiency in math & English. My mother then sent me to New Generation, a Christian school. After one year, my math improved 5 grade levels, and my English improved 3. Will you support school choice for other students like me with similar tax-credit programs?
Source: 2007 GOP Values Voter Presidential Debate , Sep 17, 2007

Pray in the classroom, pray in the hallways, pray everywhere

If they tell us that we cannot pray in the classroom, we should pray. If they tell us that we cannot pray in the hallways, we should pray. If they tell us that we cannot pray at graduation ceremonies, we should pray. Because what they are doing fundamentally violates probably the most important of our God-given rights, which is the right to appeal for aid to our Almighty God.

When the tyrants who seek to oppress you tell you that you cannot even appeal to God for His aid, you know that they have in mind a tyranny without limit. [In that situation], that which actually provides the foundation for the most reliable courage against tyranny is interfered with, and our children feel fearful and hesitant to call upon and to speak the name of God. And in my opinion the proper recourse against this is not to wait upon the courts, but simply to do what we unequivocally have the God-given right to do--to pray WHEREVER and WHENEVER we feel that it is necessary for us to pray.

Source: Organizational website, RenewAmerica.us, “On The Issues” , Aug 3, 2004

Use bully pulpit to advocate prayer, not coerce it

Q: Is there a contradiction in advocating abolishing the department of education, yet using the bully pulpit to push for more prayer in schools?
A: I don’t see the contradiction at all. Using the bully pulpit is not coercion. I would not use federal leverage to force state and local officials to adopt any particular approach to prayer in schools. Since we took prayer out, we seem to have let violence and decline in. And I think we ought to draw those lessons.
Source: Phoenix Arizona GOP Debate , Dec 7, 1999

Let God into schools to keep Columbine shooters out

In a statement after the Littleton, Col. school shootings, said the incident was a “reminder of the tragic consequences of the moral void that is threatening our young people.. If we would let God into our schools under normal circumstances, then we probably wouldn’t have to see our children turn to God when faced with this kind of evil.”
Source: CNN.com coverage , Jul 2, 1999

The Constitution does not forbid prayer in schools.

As President, I would do everything in my power, through public speeches and persuasion, by proposing legislation, and by careful scrutiny of the candidates for judicial appointments, to turn the tide against constitutional interpretations that undermine religious freedom.
Source: www.keyes2000.org/issues/religionschoolprayer.html 1/7/99 , Jan 7, 1999

We need prayer in schools and by educators.

We not only need prayer in schools, we need schools that are in the hands of people who pray. Above all, we must break the government monopoly on public education.
Source: www.keyes2000.org/issues/schoolchoice.html 1/7/99 , Jan 7, 1999

Other candidates on Education: Alan Keyes on other issues:
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George W. Bush (R,2001-2009)
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Bill Clinton (D,1993-2001)
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Jimmy Carter (D,1977-1981)
Gerald Ford (R,1974-1977)
Richard Nixon (R,1969-1974)
Lyndon Johnson (D,1963-1969)
John F. Kennedy (D,1961-1963)
Dwight Eisenhower (R,1953-1961)
Harry_S_TrumanHarry S Truman(D,1945-1953)

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