The Dover, PA ID fiasco is a clear case of 'takeover' but it relied on apathy and stealth - once they revealed their nuttiness in actual policy moves, the 'silent majority' got invovled and tossed them out.  It's not unlike HOAs being goverened by the worst busybody retirees. Similar battles are going on in Kansass right now.  While nothing's ever certain, people who formerly took it as a given that the fundies would never take over now realize that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.  I'm sure we'll forget the threat again in another couple of decades, but for now, the inroads made by the Xianist right are being rolled back.

The 'exodus' approach was tried by the exact same people for the exact same reasons after Brown v. Board of Education.   The segregationist academies - often named using combinations of, "Heritage", "Christian" and Academy - blossomed during the decade following the integration of public schools and introduction of bussing.  But, for the most part, within 20 years, they'd all closed up shop.  Tuition is expensive, and that's a tough additional burden when you're paying property taxes no matter what and you're tithing.

The Catholic Parochial system - one historically successful church-funded system - is straining under the burden of non-tithing low income families.  Most other historically successful church affiliated schools are the more traditionally understood private schools - they fund themselve s through tuition, and parents demand quality for their money - quality meaning educations that will ultimately better prepare their students for the future.  Although the Episcopal Church has a network of schools, we don't really see them as much of a threat.  At the risk of sounding classist, I don't see the SBC as having the same kind of wealth correlation as the Episcopals do.  The bigot/dominionist element requires a certain amount of general ignorance (at the grassroots level) to thrive, and that doesn't generally correlate to high income levels.  

The objective of the voucher movement is to address this specific failing - to divert the resource/revenue stream out of public entities which have to play by certain constitutional rules into institutions that don't - institutions which are free to discriminate in the guise of religious liberty.

Of course, the 'charter' schools - funded with public revenues, but free of public regulations - aren't doing any better than public schools on the objective test measures, on average.

The real threat is economic migration out of the schools - if parents can afford to buy out of the system, then the resulting concentration of low-income students will lower performance, and the whole shebang becomes an ugly negative feedback loop.  This is a form of voting with your feet, and if the current Busing cases in front of the Supreme Court serve to elimnate racial composition as a basis for busing and district boundry drawing, well, the schools will become a pastiche.  The Baptists won't capture them all, but they will be able to concentrate and takeover some (see Kiryas Joel).

Although the rulings regarding Kiryas Joel are reason to hope, they also make clear your main point: vigilance is essential.

by montpellier on Thu Jun 15, 2006 at 02:27:10 PM EST
Parent

When these people organized to takeover the Southern Baptist Convention, they terminated everyone who disagreed with them.

by Mainstream Baptist on Thu Jun 15, 2006 at 12:56:52 PM EST
Parent