Life
Issues
/ Family
Ethics
Political
Action
Committee
of Southwest Washington
|
Life
Issues
/ Family
Ethics
Political
Action
Committee
of Southwest Washington |
2008 Superintendent of Public Instruction Survey
Candidates: You can copy and paste the survey questions below into your email write screen, type your answers, reformat as desired, and then send to lifepac@lifepac.org. Alternatively, you can send in your own composition using some of the survey's themes. Responses will be authenticated.
THE NATURE OF PRO-LIFE ISSUES
1. Direct threats to innocent human life include first of all the issues of:
abortion, which takes the lives of well over a million US children annually;
embryonic stem cell harvesting; direct euthanasia; and cloning. In
addition, by using the consistent ethic of life principle in defending life,
various other threats to
human life have been identified. Often included among these issues are poverty, capital punishment, racism,
unjust war, nuclear arms proliferation and exploitation. Each and every human being is unique and important, and one's personhood or
worth should not be arbitrarily determined by another's choice. No one
exists solely as a means to someone else's happiness. The choices we make, as
individuals and as a society, must be weighed in light of their impact on human
life and dignity.
SEX EDUCATION
2. The Washington State Legislature passed ESSB
5297 last year requiring school districts to teach "scientifically accurate"
(aka comprehensive) sex education, if
they teach sex ed at all. The typical comprehensive sex education program
spend as little as 5% of the time teaching abstinence principles (Zogby 3/27/07), instead
spending significantly more time teaching students how to put condoms on
models of male genitalia and promoting alternative forms of sexual activity
called outercourse, which may include showering together and mutual masturbation
as effective ways to avoid pregnancy and disease. In contrast, an emphasis
on abstinence means teaching students about building healthy relationships and
bolstering self worth and self-control. Would you be ready as
superintendent to assist school districts in emphasizing healthy relationships,
self worth and self-control as opposed to the promotion of sexual
experimentation and abortion?
3. What should a parent do if they object to the
content of their child's comprehensive sex ed instruction? What other options
are available to parents, public or private, instead of comprehensive sex ed?
Please name them.
HIB ACT OF 2002
4. A few years ago, the Washington State
Legislature passed the Anti-Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying [HIB] Act of
2002, to enable school districts to reduce violence in Washington State public schools
by requiring school districts to discipline certain harassing, intimidating and
bullying behaviors.
Has this been a good approach to reducing school violence?
SCHOOL CLINICS
5. Should school board policy allow the on-site dispensing
to students of birth control drugs or devices, give abortion counseling, or give referrals to off-site
abortion clinics without parental knowledge or consent?
ABORTION
6. The 14th Amendment states "nor shall any state deprive any person of
life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person
within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The Supreme
Court in Roe v. Wade, 1973, stated that "if this suggestion of personhood is
established, the appellant's case, of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to
life would then be guaranteed specifically by the [14th] Amendment." The
Court regrettably concluded though that "we need not resolve the difficult
question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines
of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the
judiciary, at this point in the development of man's knowledge, is not in a
position to speculate as to the answer." Do you believe that
life begins at
conception and is present throughout pregnancy, and that, therefore, the State
has a compelling interest in protecting that life from and after conception?
7. Is taking the life of a
pre-born child though abortion ever permissible?
_____ No, it's never permissible
_____ Yes, to save mother's life
_____ Yes, in cases of rape or incest
_____ Yes, for physical deformity
_____ Yes, it's always permissible.
8. Do you support
parental notification and/or consent before a minor (under 18 years of
age) could have an abortion? A judicial bypass of parents would be allowed
when necessary.
Notification?
Consent?
PLANNED PARENTHOOD
9.
Should your school district partner in any way with the nation's biggest
abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, which received over
$336
million dollars in governmental grants and contracts last year, and aborted nearly
265,000 babies? Should they be allowed to make
presentations to students or provide literature, birth control chemicals or
devises, or abortion services?
SCHOOL CHOICE
10. The Supreme Court in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002), held that Ohio's school voucher law did not violate the First Amendment's establishment clause. It states "the Ohio program is entirely neutral with respect to religion. It provides benefits directly to a wide spectrum of individuals, defined only by financial need and residence in a particular school district. It permits such individuals to exercise genuine choice among options public and private, secular and religious. The program is therefore a program of true private choice" and "the program does not offend the Establishment Clause." Blaine Amendments, as both Ohio and Washington State have, can permit school vouchers at times because State funds go to parents who "exercise genuine choice" in choosing where the voucher will be used at. What is your position regarding the use of school vouchers in Washington State?
STUDENT RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION
11. Recently at Heritage High
School in Vancouver, students wanting to meet together in the student
commons for morning prayer were required instead to meet in a
classroom. The students met anyway in the commons and were subsequently suspended.
Given that the students gathered in a way that did not
interfere with other students, should they have been allowed to pray
together in the student commons? Heritage High School subsequently
removed the suspension from the students' records and now allows them to
meet for morning prayer in the commons.
QUALIFICATIONS
12. Please state your professional experience, community involvement, education
and other qualifications for the office of Washington State Superintendent of
Public Instruction.
13. May LifePac post your returned survey on our website? Your
response is only posted with your permission.
Please give your campaign web address if you have one.