Dad responds to permission slip for religious school event... hilarity ensues....

[Violet_Crumble]

92. There's a school chaplain program in Australia...

It's wrong, and needs to be gotten rid of...

The National Schools Chaplaincy Program (NSCP) was announced in October 2006 by the Howard government. It provided $90 million of Commonwealth funding over three years for school chaplains which was subsequently increased to $165 million. The Rudd government announced that it would honour these funding commitments and that the program would be reviewed and expanded to include secular counsellors, but only if a suitable religious chaplain could not be found by the schools. As it currently stands the Commonwealth is committed to funding religious chaplains in around 2600 schools across Australia.

This program should be opposed as direct government funding of religion bad public policy. Taxpayers' money spent in education should employ the best people available to help students, not just the religious.The preferencing of the religious, over the non-religious, for no reason other than their religiousness, is unacceptable in Government policy, particularly at a Commonwealth level. At the very least all schools should to given the choice employ non-religious counsellors or welfare workers under this program, not just those that cannot find a chaplain.

The NSCP breaches the spirit of the Australian Constitution. It undermines the separation of church and state. It is at odds with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Declaration on Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief (1981) ("the Religion Declaration&quot which are incorporated into Australian Law through the operation of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986.

http://www.stopthenscp.org/

And in the Budget of a few weeks ago brought to us by a hard-line conservative government, they've cut funding for any secular counsellors...

Budget 2014: Funding for secular counsellors cut in school chaplaincy program

A school group says the scrapping of funding for non-religious counsellors under the National School Chaplaincy Program is doing students a disservice.

Labor allowed secular student welfare workers to be funded under the scheme but the Federal Government has reversed the decision in the federal budget and will only pay for chaplains.

Kylie Catto from the West Australian Council of State School Organisations is unhappy with the move.

"State schools provide for a very diverse population of students, the current program gives them the option of having a school chaplain or a student welfare worker, we think that works well, giving schools the choice and we believe removing the choice is inappropriate," Ms Catto said.

She says it is particularly disappointing given schools are under increasing pressure to provide pastoral care.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-15/cut-to-secular-advisors-program-in-federal-budget/5455176

btw, David Thorne's really fucking funny. If anyone hasn't read more of his stuff, they should go and do it coz it's hilarious...