Scientology school defends $1.4mil gov funding.

So the Australian government is funding a scientolgy school to the tune of $1.4million over the next 4 years. I have never liked the Australian governments penchant for funding private schools anyway but this, i feel, needs to change. I wasnt even aware that there was a scientology school in Australia.
Scientology has always drawn negative attention and rightly so, yet Australia still recognizes it as an religion which allows it to recieve $1.4mill of taxpayers money.
Disgraceful

www.abc.net.au...

A private school in Sydney with links to Scientology has responded to criticism that it is receiving about $1.4 million of federal and state government funding.
On its website, the Athena School in Newtown says it teaches from the booklet The Way to Happiness, which was written by Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard.

Greens MP John Kaye has questioned why the school is being given the funding.
"It's time for both the state and federal education ministers to take this seriously," he said.
"The whistle has been blown on Scientology by Senator Xenophon.
"It's time for the state and federal governments to act to make sure that their money is not being used to promote Scientology."

He told Parliament last week that recognising Scientology as a religion granted legitimacy to a cult that bullies, intimidates and exploits.

[edit on 2-12-2009 by pazcat]

[edit on 2-12-2009 by pazcat]

Interestingly i find this aswell on a wiki page about the Athena school.

The schools teacher's do not have formal teaching qualifications, instead they have completed a six month scientology course training them in L. Ron Hubbards training techniques.A 2007 Herald Sun article queried the school's abilities, citing the website which included misspellings including "mathmatics(sic)" and the book title "How to use a dictionay(sic)". In 1999, when asked by the state government for a copy of their curriculum, the Athena school refused access to it, citing that it "concerned the business affairs of the school and would have an unreasonable adverse effect on those affairs

en.wikipedia.org...

Here is the schools website
www.athena.nsw.edu.au...
Also from a week ago, www.radioaustralia.net.au...

A group sponsored by the Church of Scientology says it's been targetting children in thousands of schools across Australia.

www.abc.net.au...

I really dont think it is right to be giving these people money, especially peoples tax money. I smell government crackdown in the future.

[edit on 2-12-2009 by pazcat]