State governments
and Commonwealth have enacted legislation that
has preserved the promotion of an inclusive and
more tolerant society. In the recent decades,
more work is done for such promotion. All educational
authorities are regulated by Anti-discrimination
legislation that has been enacted by state governments
and Commonwealth. It is found that these laws
are not equally implemented in private and public
schools. Extensive exemptions are provided to
the private schools. The private schools are found
to be engaged more in discriminatory practices
while such practices are strictly prohibited in
public schools and other sectors. All the public
schools have to follow the anti-discriminatory
legislation while all the private schools have
been given the authority to choose whether they
want to practice discriminatory behavior. (Liptak,
2004)
The treatment of private and public schools under
anti-discrimination laws is different. It means
that more rights are given to contract workers,
employees and students in the public schools as
compared to the rights given to the contract workers,
employees and students in the private schools.
Exemptions have been established for some areas
of discrimination. A de facto bias has been created
that makes the grounds of pregnancy and sexuality
more lawful for private schools racial discrimination.
(Essex, 2001)
The Convention Against Discrimination in Education,
the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation),
the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights and the International Convention on the
Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination
have set up some goals for schooling that should
be achieved in the Twenty-first Century.
According to the goals, all the students should
be free from any kind of bias whether it is based
on language, culture and ethnicity, sex, disability,
religion or differences of geographic location
or socio-economic background. These goals will
serve as a foundation and all the private and
public schools will have to enact according to
these goals. These goals include that all the
students have the right to learn in a safe and
supportive environment that is free from any discrimination,
all the students have the right to be treated
with dignity and fairness, and all the students
should treat the other students with the same
dignity and fairness. (Liptak, 2004)
Legal Framework for Private and Public Schools
The legal framework for private and public schools
include Racial Discrimination Act , Equal Employment
and Opportunity Commission Act , Sex Discrimination
Act, and Disability Discrimination Act .
Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission Act
This act was established to provide a framework
that will hear and conciliate the complaints related
to unlawful discrimination under the Sex Discrimination
Act, Racial Discrimination Act and Disability
Discrimination Act. This commission is also responsible
for the inquiry of any discriminatory act. The
definition of discrimination for these purposes
includes any exclusion, distinction or preference
that has been made on the basis of sex, color,
race, religion, age, disability, sexual preference,
political opinion and social origin. Two exemptions
are found. (Neil, 2002)
First, any exclusion, distinction or preference
is not included in this act that is related to
a particular job.
Second, any exclusion, distinction or preference
is not included in this act that is related to
the employment of a person in such institution
that is associated with a particular belief, doctrine
or teaching of a particular religion. If the teaching
of a particular religion is against the homosexual
behavior then the employment of a person that
is openly engaged in homosexual activities could
be refused and here, discrimination will be constituted
under the Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission
Act. (Neil, 2002)
The Disability Discrimination Act
Public and private schools are treated equally
on the ground of this act. According to this act,
no one has the right to discriminate another on
the basis of discrimination. Exemptions are found
for public and private schools. (Peace, 1999)
The Racial Discrimination Act
According to this act, no one has the right to
discriminate other on the basis of race. No exemptions
are found for public and private schools. (Zall,
2000)
The Sex Discrimination Act
According to this act, no one has the right to
discriminate others on the basis of sex, pregnancy,
marital status or potential pregnancy that is
related to contract work, employment and the provision
of education. So, on the basis of this act, all
the students have the right to get admission and
to access the benefits provided by the school.
The institutions don’t have the right to
expel a student or to subject students to any
other detriment on the basis of sex. The institutions
can not refuse any employment or dismiss the teachers
of staff on the basis of marital status, sex,
pregnancy or potential pregnancy. A number of
exemptions are found in this act in the administration
of public and private schools. The religious private
schools are exempted from this legislation. (Javaid,
2002)
Discrimination is More Prevalent in Private
Schools
Some of the private and public schools are found
to try hard to get rid of negative discrimination
and their overall performance is satisfactory
while other public and private schools are found
to perform poorly. Although discrimination against
students is found in both the private and public
schools, discrimination is practiced in private
schools in such ways that are totally unlawful
in public schools. If some discrimination occurs
in public schools, the affected can seek for some
legal help. As a result, specific policies are
developed by the educational authorities make
it sure that the legal obligations are complied.
Where as private schools are exempted in some
cases from anti-discriminatory provisions of the
legislation. So, the educational authorities of
private schools don’t bother to develop
specific policies to assure that legal obligations
are complied. (Hardy, 2004)
Pregnancy
It is found that most of the young women who become
pregnant during their studies in schools live
in areas that are low-socioeconomic. .70 % of
the young women attending a public school become
pregnant. There are hundreds of potential pregnant
young women each year while attending a private
school. Public schools have developed specific
policies that deal with the continuing education
of pregnant students. So, in public schools, pregnant
and parenting students are allowed to continue
their education while in private schools, pregnant
and parenting students are encouraged to leave
the school because the educational authorities
fear that their school will have a bad image if
pregnant students will continue to come to school.
(Zall, 2000)
Sexuality
Although sexual abuse is common in both private
and public schools, it is more prevalent in private
schools as most of the private schools are single
sex, that is, male-only and female-only schools.
This gives rise to homosexuality and thus gays
and lesbians are evolved. Private schools pressurize
such students to leave the school. (Javaid, 2002)
Discrimination in Religious Schools
Discrimination is strong practiced in the religious
schools on the ground of sex, sexual preference,
parental status, age, disability, marital status,
and industrial activity, status as a career, physical
features, pregnancy, religion, race and political
beliefs. These acts are practiced if they are
relevant to the religious beliefs or principles
on which a particular school is established. The
educational authorities can expel any employee
on the religious ground if the employee is found
involved in performing its religious practice
during working hours. (Mardesich, 2001)
Private Schools: Fear from Vouchers
Conservatives are mostly united in support of
``school choice'' --giving parents vouchers to
be spent at private schools. The reasons are obvious:
public schools have been a mess for decades, and
private schools can be expensive. Yet vouchers
could present a danger. If private schools accept
publicly funded students, it will invite more
government intrusion into private education. When
Milton Friedman first proposed school vouchers
in Capitalism and Freedom (1962), he assured us
that ``the role of the government would be limited
to ensuring that the [private] schools met certain
minimum standards.'' (Andrews, 2002) Since then,
however, the government's reach into education
has become longer, its social-engineering agenda
more ambitious, and its cultural model further
removed from religious tradition. No incident
better illustrates this than the controversy in
District 24 in Queens, New York, whose board refused
to approve a curriculum that has first-graders
being taught the wonders of gay and lesbian marriage.
The New York Schools Chancellor Joseph Fernandez
suspended the school board for their action. His
decision was wrong, of course, but few deny the
government's right to regulate public-school curriculums.
Do we want the same people involved in private
schools? (Bauman, 2002)
No one doubts that school vouchers would bring
private schools under federal, state, and local
anti-discrimination laws to a greater extent than
is now the case. Some choice advocates have considered
this a virtue. Contrary to critics' claims, vouchers
will not result in racially segregated outcomes.
In fact vouchers would encourage a racial commingling
that does not occur in our present neighborhood-based
public schools. Most choice plans include non-discrimination
clauses. But ``non-discrimination'' does not mean
what it appears to mean. Far from ensuring fairness,
these laws enable the exercise of arbitrary state
power. To the extent that private-school standards
produce disparities that fall along racial lines,
the schools would face pressure to change those
standards. Indeed, any deviation from statistical
equality becomes ipso facto evidence of the denial
of a right, alias `discrimination. (Belfield &
Levin, 2002)
Religious high schools that accept vouchers may
not immediately be forced to allow gay groups
on campus. But if recent political trends continue,
it is not absurd to expect such things in the
future. Once private schools become semi-public
through vouchers, any number of controls that
now apply to business could come into effect,
as documented in Forbidden Grounds, Richard Epstein's
attack on anti-discrimination law. Certainly private
schools would come under regulations like the
Americans with Disabilities Act, which, in today's
legal environment, will mandate de facto quotas
for even the mentally retarded. (Gill, 2001) The
most famous example of vouchers is Wisconsin's
program, with legislator Polly Williams as its
most public advocate. Private schools participating
in the program must sign a ``Notice of Intent
to Participate'' which forces them to abide by
``all federal and state guarantees protecting
the rights and liberties of individuals including
freedom of religion, expression, association,
unreasonable search and seizure, equal protection,
and due process.'' Broadly interpreted, this could
bring a self-governing private school under complete
legislative control. Voucher programs can be written
so as to ``construct a choice system that does
not invite government intrusion into private schooling.''
(Howell & Peterson, 2002)
Yet even if initial legislation poses no dangers,
it can always be amended at a later date, or altered
by a judge. Politicians might cite the precedent
of housing vouchers. The Department of Housing
and Urban Development's ``certificate program
is highly intrusive. It strictly regulates who
may rent units from private owners, the monthly
rent, the amount of assistance, the terms of contracts,''
and ``types of housing'' involved. Federal regulations
even demand ``good cause'' for lease termination.
In 1982, three Supreme Court decisions argued
that when there is a close financial nexus between
the state and the private action, the private
party can be regulated as if it were a state agency.
``In effect,'' voucher programs might force private
schools to ``become an arm of the state.'' (Levin
& Driver, 1997)
The United States would not be alone in the publicization
of private schools. Programs in Western Europe
establish the rule that the greater the amount
of the voucher, the greater the regulation. High-subsidy
schools must obey regulations concerning curriculum,
organization, functions, facilities, equal access
for all groups, teacher salaries, and hours of
instruction, class size, conditions of work, and
more. The proof is documented in Choice of Schools
in Six Nations by Charles L. Glenn, a treatise
published, ironically, by the Department of Education
to support the case for vouchers. (Miron &
Nelson, 2002)
Conservatives have argued for a linkage between
funding and control in other areas. When the National
Endowment for the Arts placed restrictions on
the ``artists'' it funded, conservatives rightly
said, If freedom of expression is what you want,
don't take public money. The same was true of
the ``gag rule'' that prevented publicly funded
clinics from discussing abortion with pregnant
women. Conservatives rightly pointed out that
free speech is not absolute when other people's
money is being used. The party picking up the
tab tells the piper what tune to play. Private
schools do not have to take vouchers, of course.
But by refusing them, a school subjects itself
to unfair competition from subsidized schools.
When faced with the option of shutting their doors
versus watering down the curriculum and taking
down religious symbols, private schools will joint
the program. (Moe, 2001)
Yet even if all these objections were met, and
school choice eventually led to budgetary savings,
it would hardly justify giving up the independence
of private schools, a sector in which merit and
excellence still matter. Like successful businesses,
private schools do well precisely because they
are funded with private money and are managed
independently of politics. Instead of making public
schools more like private schools, which should
be the goal, vouchers may well do the reverse.
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