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The Times Examiner Posted December 3, 2008
Marshall Fritz visited The Times Examiner each time he came east from California to conduct conferences and was always helpful in providing information on education matters.
The Alliance is dedicated to helping families choose academic independence by freeing themselves from government schools and to educating the public about the history of and danger of state-controlled education. The Alliance supports the complete separation of school and state.
Schaeffer described Fritz as “like a good teacher, he always showed his love for people by not letting us get away with fuzzy thinking. At the same time, like a good friend, he would try to give anyone a chance.”
Continuing, Schaeffer said: “More than anything else, Marshall was a man devoted to truth and goodness. He stood fast on principle, solid as the rock he often seemed when those around him wavered or doubted.”
A funeral was held in California, November 7th, with a graveside service, November 8th. On November 19, Ron Paul gave a moving tribute to Marshall Fritz in the House of Representatives.
In 1994 Marshall Fritz founded the Alliance for the Separation of School and State and was Chairman of the Board until his death. He was a leading national spokesman in how ending state, federal and local government involvement in schooling can improve education for all children, strengthen the family, and even lead to the turnaround of our collapsing society.
Prior to founding the Alliance, he was president of the unaccredited Pioneer Christian Academy. His ideas for high quality education were so advanced that his school received endorsements of educators from William Glasser to Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman to New York State Teacher of the Year John Taylor Gatto.
Fritz was the lead author of the Proclamation for the Separation of School and State that stated simply: “I proclaim publicly that I favor ending government involvement in education.”
More than 30,500 individuals have signed the proclamation. They include many prominent individuals from government, education and business. A listing is found on the Alliance web page at schoolandstate.org.
Alliance President Alan Schaeffer joined the Alliance in 2004, after selling his bicycle shop in Connecticut and moving his family of seven across the country to Fresno. Alan holds a degree in philosophy and is overseeing a new phase of the Alliance vision that focuses on helping parents choose independence now.
A December 1999 study found that 90 percent of Americans believe parents should have the right to send their children to school where they wish and that 55 percent of parents with children in public school would like to send them to private school.
The number of public school primary and secondary students in the United States reported during the 2002-03 school year was 48,375,400.
During the 2003-04 school year the number of primary and secondary students attending private schools was 6,256,000 or 11.5 percent of all US students. These students attended more than 29,000 schools that made up 23 percent of all US primary and secondary schools.
The number of home schooled students in the US during the 2002-03 school year was estimated at near 2 million. The exact number is not known because of varying reporting requirements of individual states.
The Alliance for the Separation of School and State believes government should not be involved in education. They explain why:
“By placing the minds of our children under the control of the government and the many individuals and groups who use the government to affect their ends, we essentially cancel the protections of our constitution. We’ve been suffering the results of state education for a long time now, but because children are taught by their government that the state is good and beneficent, that it is the only adequate repository of knowledge, we have come to fear intellectual freedom and to suspect those who embrace it.”
The Alliance believes public schools cannot be reformed:
“This is what we’ve been doing for over 150 years now. It’s time to face the fact that our experiment in state schooling is flawed in its very concept. We cannot afford to keep sacrificing one generation of children after another just because we can’t admit we’ve made a mistake or because some people don’t want to give up their power or influence.”
The Alliance for the Separation of School and State is located at 1071 North Fulton St., Fresno, CA 93728. The toll free number is 1-888-325-1776. The web page is http://www.schoolandstate.org.
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