Up North Progressive

While Pasquale Battaglia and friends still frantically search for someone, anyone to charter it’s not really a taxpayer-funded Christian school Livingston Classical Academy (or is it Lindbom?), there’s a new friend joining the LCA team to help the God And Country Education Project become a taxpayer funded, for-profit charter school – Hillsdale College’s Barney Charter School Initiative Director Philip Kilgore. In the Livingston Daily Press & Argus it appears Kilgore is now actively involved in helping LCA find a charter authorizer.

One of the (former potential charter partners) told us that they were looking for a school that had a larger demographic need for a charter school, and since there are already several charter schools in the area, our location didn’t fit their needs,” said Phillip Kilgore, Hillsdale College charter school initiative director. “We just need to find a charter that meets their needs.

Kilgore’s use of pronouns is very compelling, it appears Hillsdale College may now be directly involved in getting LCA the charter they need to open their doors to the 200 interested families they claim want to send children to their for-profit charter school, even though they admit now it won’t likely open this fall as they originally planned.

Hillsdale College eschews ALL forms of public funding in order to keep their strict Christian, Ludwig von Mises worshiping, Classical Liberal Arts institution out of the evil clutches of the State. It seems like if Kilgore is directly involved now with LCA gaining a charter, wouldn’t that be getting very close to the college being involved with the state? Why would the Barney Charter School Initiative be so involved with one charter school?

Because so far Hillsdale College charter schools don’t exist in Michigan. The reason why is obvious, and it comes from the source. Pasquale Battaglia from the beginning intended to open taxpayer-funded charter schools that use Hilldale College’s Judeo-Christian philosophy as a basis for the curriculum, just like they do at Hillsdale Academy. That school is the only Hillsdale College school operating in Michigan, and it is a private school. That is the only legal way Hillsdale College can operate a school based on their classical education philosophy in the state.

No matter how much Battaglia, Streetman, and now Kilgore insist LCA won’t be a Christian school, there’s too much evidence from the source that proves otherwise. There’s a reason why we don’t pay for religious education with taxpayer dollars – it’s unconstitutional.