Well, it looks like the voucher war could be on! Here is the story from the Lancaster papers:

Corbett education plan has foes and allies

The battle over vouchers is an educational battle and a political one. It is dangerous! The story will tell you that is dangerous for public education. This is true. The economics of public education look bleak. This would push them to a whole new level of difficulty. I am concerned, however, that the main danger of the voucher plan is to private schools. It is no secret that the economy is not what it used to be. Private schools like Veritas Academy live on the razors edge. Enrollment for most schools has fallen significantly over the last decade. In Lancaster/Dauphin/and York Counties the enrollment in Christian schools fell by about 25% over the last decade. For some schools the drop was as much at 50%. Vouchers would turn this trend around, no doubt. They will give many students (and maybe all students eventually) more educational choice. For these reasons, they must be good, right?

Not so fast! Here is the danger. Vouchers will make desperate schools (like the Christian schools in our area) dependent on funds from an entity that has an increasingly different values statement. We worship Jesus Christ and bow to Him as King. This cannot be tolerated presently in the public square or in the public schools. I know that the writers of the voucher laws and the present governor are trying to wall off schools so that the voucher can pose less of a threat to the schools. I worry that no wall, however rational or helpful, will be sustained when the governor’s office is filled by a different party or a different person (which happens in PA every 4 to 8 years).

What happens when schools receive the note that teaching students that Jesus is King, that the gospel is true, that faith in Christ is the ONLY way of salvation, or that “lifestyle choices” (the artist formerly known as sin) like homosexuality are sinful and self-destructive no matter what the TV or the psychologists say is no longer acceptable if you are to continue to receive voucher money. This will, no doubt, happen.

As Homer once almost said: “Beware of Greeks (or politicians) bearing gifts!”