The Indiana Department of Education, under fire for its aggressive legislative agenda, is taking its message directly to educators with frequent e-mail communications. The most recent employed a choice of words I've noticed elsewhere in recent months. The missive refers to "non-government" schools where you would expect a reference to "non-public schools." Earlier, I found references to "government schools" in pro-voucher messages from an out-of-state educational choice group.

A quick Internet search revealed the terms are favored by those to the far right of the political spectrum. I found a reference to South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint (who once said that openly gay people should not be allowed to teach school).

"A nation that raises its children in government schools cannot expect its people to stand for the principles of freedom," he told a CPAC audience in 2009.

Then there's Rush Limbaugh, who in 2009 accused President Obama of wanting "to kill any competition with government schools."

But the biggest source of blather about "government schools" appears to come from former shock jock Glenn Beck, who seems to use the term on a regular basis as a derogatory reference to public schools.

Anyone with a view of government as ineffective and inefficient would certainly take delight in linking the term with public schools. I'm just surprised that someone on a state government payroll would want to use the same verbiage as Glenn Beck.