South Carolina. I don’t know much about the state. I do know it’s most famous for being the home of Stephen Colbert and Governor Mark “Appalachian Trail” Sanford. The state also has a third claim to fame: insane politicians.

Last Friday, Raw Story reported on Ray Moore and one of his bright ideas. 

Moore is a retired Army Reserves chaplain and a candidate for lieutenant governor of the Palmetto State. He also wants to replace public schools with schools run by churches.

Just to be clear, the man is not advocating school choice, which I support.

Instead, he is calling for the complete abolishment of the public school system. That is an absolutely terrible idea. Yes, public education in America has its problems. However, leaving an education system to the church doesn’t always work out.

One of the worst examples of an entirely church-run educational system was the residential school system in Canada, the cold nation I once called my home.

According to CBC News, residential schools were set up in the early 19th century to help aboriginal citizens of Canada assimilate to Western society. 

They would learn English and Christianity and pass that knowledge on to their children and future generations. Predictably, things went very wrong.

At St. Anne’s Residential School in Fort Albany, Ont., children were horrendously tortured and abused by staff members. It’s stomach turning stuff.

According to a report from The Globe and Mail, kids as young as 6 years old were forced to sit in an electric chair and receive shocks. On the even darker side of the coin, some children were forced by school staff to eat their own vomit. 

Amazingly, this abuse was carried out by members of the Anglican Church. I guess those psychopaths never learned the “Love your neighbor” part of Christianity.

In addition to horrible ghosts of the past that serve as a strong reminder of why a religious organization should not be in charge of an education system, I am also deeply concerned about those who might not be able to afford a private education. 

In an interview on “The Janet Mefferd Show” last Wednesday, Moore said people who were not members of the Christian faith could attend private, secular schools if his plan ends up being implemented. There is just one problem.

According to data from the 2013 U.S. Census Bureau, the poverty rate in South Carolina was nearly 18 percent. Those are not the people who can afford a private education.

I’m not against private schools, and I’m not against religious schools. The only institutions I really don’t like seeing privatized are prisons and defense industries, but that’s a conversation for another day. Today, people need to say “no” to Mr. Moore and his idea. Public and private education can coexist. People deserve to choose for themselves.

– Evan Pretzer is a junior communication major from from Weyburn, Saskatchewan. He can be contacted at 335-2290 or by [email protected]. The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the staff of The Daily Evergreen or those of Student Publications.