RE: public/guvment schools

["Dale Courtney" <dmcourtn@moscow.com>]

> It is unfortunate that Mr. Wilson's comments are not posted 
> to this list. 

Here is his Letter to the Editor from 28 May.
______________________________________________
'Government schools' explained 
I was pleased to read Janice Boughton's letter (Opinion, May 18 & 19)
for two reasons. First, her response was free of the prevailing hysteria
and displayed charm, grace and wit. 

Second, she raised a question worth addressing seriously. She asked why
I was willing to do the extra typing in order to hammer out "government
schools" as opposed to the more ergonomic "public schools." Is this
supposed to be some sort of code? 

No, this is done simply in the interests of precision. Schools, like
newspapers, are all about the flow of information. And if there were a
newspaper that was printed at taxpayer expense, and if that newspaper
was the dominant paper in most communities, and the journalists who
worked for it had to be state-certified, and all the articles had to be
reviewed and approved by government committees, and if certain opinions
contrary to the accepted orthodoxies were excluded, what would you call
it? I would call it a government newspaper. 

And this brings me to the obvious question. Why are so many liberals
First Amendment absolutists when it comes to the flow of information on
newsprint, but when it comes to the flow of information involved with
classrooms, textbooks, teacher certification and so on, world without
end, they do not understand what could possibly be meant by the phrase
"government schools" 

Douglas Wilson 

Moscow