A Pew Research Center survey conducted last November indicates that roughly half (51%) of adults in the U.S. believe public K-12 education is headed in the wrong direction. Neal McCluskey of the Cato Institute says the poll confirms suspicions.
"The public has a lot of concerns about how public education is or is not working," he submits. "They tend to think it's not working very well, and they tend to think it's not doing the basic things that they want it do – although they tend to say that their own school is working pretty well."
But McCluskey thinks there is an upside to that dissatisfaction.
"Once you have school choice, it's very hard to eliminate it," he tells AFN. "The more people who exercise it, the more who will defend it and who'll want to expand it. And so, I think that school choice is here to stay."
According to the self-described "fact tank," a major reason for the negativity was people believe schools are not spending enough time on core academic subjects.
In higher education, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) recently provided an example of that. The Christian Post reports the university was getting ready to start a sexual BDSM workshop for students with its new "Introduction to Bondage" class.
According to internal documents obtained by Campus Reform, 500 ft. of black nylon rope and 1,000 "extra heavy duty" paper grocery bags were some of the items ordered for the course, which was to be taught by "renowned local expert" named "Fynch" who has reportedly penned pornographic stories posted to an online fetish platform, including at least one story about gang rape.
"Bondage is a form of consensual and recreational sex play that involves tying, restraining, or binding a person with rope, handcuffs, or other items that can restrict movement," the now-deleted course description stated.
"This is just another example of how twisted and distorted our culture is when it comes to healthy relationships and sexuality," laments Daniel Weiss, president of Sexual Integrity Leaders. "That this would come up during a – quote, unquote – 'healthy relationships week' is pretty appalling."
Still, IUPUI is not the only university or college to soft-pedal torture techniques as relationship fun.
"It may be the first instance at this particular university, but these kinds of courses have been offered for decades, with educators trying to push the envelope and the limit to what they can get away with," Weiss asserts. "I would probably warn my own kids to stay away from a university such as this that would even consider offering this."
And as President Biden is again pushing to "cancel" student loan debt, Weiss also questions the kind of education taxpayers would be covering.
"To think about normal people having to pay off someone's debt to study this is appalling," he contends. "I think it just shows you how far gone our culture [is] in some of these areas. It's really important for Christians to be informed and to really stand vigilant against these things."
The university canceled the class after the popular Libs of TikTok account posted about it and public backlash ensued.
