Founder and Chair of Alliance for Separation of School and State passes

Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania
3915 Union Deposit Road #223
Harrisburg, PA 17109
www.lppa.org

For Immediate Release: November 12, 2008

Contact: Doug Leard (Media Relations) at Media-Relations@lppa.org or
Michael Robertson (Chair) at 1-800-R-RIGHTS / chair@lppa.org

Harrisburg, PA –  The LPPa expresses their sadness at the passing of Marshall Fritz on November 4th of pancreatic cancer.  Marshall was founder of the Alliance for the Separation of School & State (http://www.schoolandstate.org/home.htm) and was its Chairman of the Board until his death. He was a leading spokesman in how ending government involvement in schooling can improve education for all children and strengthen the family.  A frequent speaker at Libertarian conferences across the country, Marshall was a featured speaker at the 1993 LPPa Convention. 

Prior to founding the Alliance in 1994, Marshall was president of the unaccredited Pioneer Christian Academy. This school received endorsements of educators from William Glasser to Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman to New York State Teacher of the Year John Taylor Gatto.

Prior to his work in K-12 education, Marshall was the founder of the Advocates for Self-Government (http://www.theadvocates.org/), an educational organization that teaches Americans who ardently love liberty how to express their views positively. Marshall served on the Advocates’ Board of Directors until his death. 

LPPa Media Relations Chair, Doug Leard, who previously served as a Director of Outreach for the Alliance stated “Marshall was a passionate advocate for freedom. He left a successful career at IBM to make a positive difference for liberty and he certainly achieved this mission.  With the Alliance and Advocates, he leaves behind two strong organizations that will carry on his legacy.” 

In 1987, Marshall invented the now world-famous World's Smallest Political Quiz (http://www.theadvocates.org/quizp/index.html) which almost instantly tells takers which political group they are most aligned with, while also introducing them to a far more diverse, and accurate, multi-spectrum portrait of American politics.  Over ten million card versions of the Quiz have been distributed. On the Internet, an online version of the Quiz has been taken over 11.5 million times. Thousands continue to take it online every day.   Educators have found the Quiz to be a natural for classroom use, and today it appears in the supplemental material for some of America's most popular high school and college textbooks.

Marshall has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Educational Leadership, Current Thoughts and Trends, and Family Voice. He is the publisher of The Education Liberator, The School Liberator, and the lead author of the "Proclamation for the Separation of School and State," which states simply "I proclaim publicly that I favor ending government involvement in education."

Worldwide, more than 30,000 individuals have endorsed the Proclamation. Prominent signatories include educators ranging from John Taylor Gatto to Mary Pride and Thomas Szasz; business people such as Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza; religious leaders from D. James Kennedy and Tim LaHaye, to Rabbi Daniel Lapin and the late Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.; and from Congressman Ron Paul to former U.S. Secretary of Interior and Energy Don Hodel.

The idea to liberate schools from government involvement is a new idea that is moving into the mainstream, specialty, and electronic press, including the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Daily News, Detroit News, Dallas Morning News, Financial Times of London, Human Events, Conservative Chronicles, Practical Homeschooling, Christianity Today, WorldNetDaily.com, FoxNews.com, and has received editorial endorsement from the Orange County Register and World magazine.

The Libertarian Party is the third largest political party in Pennsylvania and the United States. More than 200,000 people across the country are registered Libertarians, and Libertarians serve in hundreds of elected offices. Please visit www.LP.org or www.LPPA.org for more information. 

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