The Magazine of the Pennsylvania Family Institute

adio transcript(rather than a tax credit or grant to thefamily), and courts have consistently ruledthat to do so for religious institutions isunconstitutional.Pre-K Counts does not target the at-riskchildren. Rather, it targets districts, offeringa service to all citizens without regardto income level. Why should alreadystrappedtaxpayers fund preschool for thechildren of millionaires?Private community-based organizationsthat currently complement and enhancethe work of parents in a majority of thefamilies by supplying valuable formal andinformal programs will be at risk.Pre-K Counts and any similarly constructedprogram will not encourage educationalvariety and options in curriculumand programming. Preschooling will movetoward a one-size-fits-all arrangement.The Pre-K Counts program proposes$75 million for 11,100 students. That’s anaverage price tag of $6,750 or more perchild. Yet, the existing pre-K EITC programin the last three years cost the taxpayersonly $15 million while helping10,935 children — an average cost perchild of $1,370.The real answer on this, and runawayeducation expenditures and taxes, is to putmore decision making where it reallycounts: at the family level. Employingmarketplace options for families canimprove quality and lower costs.Similarly, expansion of the hugely successfulK-12 EITC program, along withtargeted grants for the especially needy, nomatter where they live would, in my view,provide the kind of quality-improving,cost-reducing impetus needed if we willever see real property tax relief for families.The legislature needs to resist new,expensive government education programs.Otherwise, we’ll lock more Pennsylvaniafamilies into a vicious cycle ofhigher taxes, which forces less time forparents to have with their children, whichimpacts school achievement, which thenleads some to call for more governmentprograms, and that accelerates this cycleall the more. It’s time to say, “Stop.”Michael Geer is the president of the PennsylvaniaFamily Institute. He presented testimonyin opposition to the Pre-K Counts programbefore the Senate Appropriations Committeein May. Visit www.pafamily.org andclick on “Media” to read his testimony.ISLAM’S INFILTRATIONOF AMERICA: AffectingSchools and ChurchesPresident Abraham Lincoln onceobserved: “The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophyof government in the next.”With that idea in mind, what PastorJack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel, ChinoHills, Calif., tells us is going on inschools in California and elsewhereshould, at the very least, give pause to parents asthey consider the future being created for their childrenand grandchildren.Pennsylvania Family Institute President MichaelGeer interviewed Hibbs last month at the Watchmenon the Wall Pastors’ Briefing held by the FamilyResearch Council. The complete interview can beheard on PFI’s weekly news and information radioprogram, The Common Good, or by visitingwww.pafamily.org and subscribe to the podcast.A partial transcript follows.Michael Geer: What is the messageyou brought to the pastors here?Jack Hibbs: Well, the challenge ofIslam to the church is a message that isstarting to resonate more and more withpastors as they begin to open up theireyes to the spiritual threat and thenational and international threat thatIslam is bringing. A lot of people thinkthat Islam is a benign and harmless religion,but history shows clearly in thelast 1,300 years that Islam, the teachingsof the Koran, the hadiths (traditions) ofIslam and what is being taught inmosques around the world is anythingbut peaceful and gentle if one is tobelieve and be obedient to the Koranand Islamic teaching.MG: You shared some examples ofwhat is going on in California, even inlocal school districts where your churchis located. What are some of the thingsthat you see happening in terms of infiltrationof Islam or teaching of Islam tokids in the schools?JH: There is an absolute indoctrinationof Islam in the public school systemand not just for the Californiapopulation. The textbook that is beingused in seventh-grade courses acrossthe United States is a book titled,Across the Centuries, and in that bookthere are over 200 pages in favor andpromoting Islam.Jack HibbsFor example, our children in Californiaare memorizing the five pillars ofIslam in public school and quoting sixverses of the Koran.Our children arebeing asked to wearrobes and to plot atrip, an imaginaryHadj, on a computer course, fromChino Hills, Calif., to Mecca. They aresupposed to figure out how muchmoney they would need, what food theyneed to bring and what they would do.All their foods must be Islamic-typefoods in obedience to the Koran. Also,for six weeks they adopt Muslim namesand speak to each other using thesenames.MG: If these teachers were using theBible and teaching Christianity in thisway, the ACLU would be up in arms.What has its response been to this situation?JH: The ACLU is in absolute supportof Islamic infiltration of the doctrine inpublic schools introduced as socialdiversity.Islamic indoctrination is what we arehearing in California as an offering,almost an olive branch, in response to9/11. Rather than taking a stand, wehave acquiesced and almost surrendered.For example, in the school district ofLos Angeles, if a student asks for aKoran, they are given a Koran; if theyask for a Bible, they are not given aBible. There is not equal access.To hear Hibbs’ full interview on the infiltrationof Islam, what it means for thechurch in America and how pastorsshould respond, visitwww.pafamily.org.13