As we are learning, Tennessee legislators and education “leaders” operate in an alternate universe.
They want to cut the welfare benefits of families if their children get low test scores.
They want to attract for-profit corporations to drain taxpayer dollars out of the public schools, and never hold them accountable for bad results (see, Tennessee Virtual Academy).
They do whatever ALEC tells them because it is hard to think up new laws to help corporations all by yourself.
They are rushing to pass voucher legislation so that every family has the choice to take public dollars to a religious school, but a big thought just occurred: will Tennessee taxpayers be paying to send kids to Muslim schools?
Yes, there are Muslim religious schools in Memphis and Nashville, where most of the vouchers will go.
No law will stand up in any federal court that excludes them.
Gosh, what will those big thinkers do now?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m very happy to hear that Muslim schools will benefit from the vouchers; Masha’Allah!
Can’t wait for the apoplexy to hit the Tennessee legislators on this one.
RIght there with you brother! Bwahahahaha!
Also looking forward to the dedicated LGBT schools!
That should cause some actual strokes.
YES! A Harvey Milk Charter in the South. Lesbians on the football team and transwomen cheerleading. Give the legislatures a stroke several times over to go along heart attack they get when same sex marriage gets through the Supremes! I’ll bet they don’t want for community volunteers and mentors.
Last year the head of the hate group, Louisiana Family Forum, Gene Mills, tried to get an amendment to Jindal’s voucher bill that said they did not have to accept at charters GLBT kids or ESLs. So much for diversity and equality. It did not pass, thankfully. It is said that in Louisiana all the charters are religious except one and it is a special needs school. The wife of Republican Congressman Bill Cassidy is supposed to be starting a charter for learning disabled. Apparently she knows where the money is.
How does this make better schools and our children learn better…When I hear the words Muslin I know it can’t be good…something is just before putting the U.S on the back burnner…My Country I once knew 70 plus years ago it not the same, and believe me it isn’t better either…
Oh the hilarity that is Nashville!
What will they do? Well, they won’t give up on the gospel of vouchers according to ALEC. Maybe they’ll just harass the objectionable schools out of existence with zoning laws. That’s what Georgia minicipallities do with mosques as soon as they seek to expand.: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904823804576504220337373868.html But, Tennessee is no novice at that game, either: https://www.tennessean.com/article/20120805/NEWS06/110090002/8-5-2012-Fight-against-Islam-stretches-beyond-Murfreesboro-mosque?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CNews%20Faith%20&%20Values%7Cs
Bubba, welcome to Byzantium.
I’m a resident if Murfreesboro, where the mosque (actually an Islamic community center) you’re referring to was built. The zoning complaints were brought by a faction of racists led by the pastor of a local megachurch. However, the Tennessee state courts and Rutherford County officials mostly stood up for the rights of those building the mosque, which is now completed and up and running. I am not trying to excuse our wacko state legislators; my point here is simply that it isn’t the Tennessee government using zoning laws to harass Muslims, just a group of a-holes that lack widespread support in the community.
I did not hear about that discrimination in Lilburn. Gwinnett County knows better! Gwinnett is extremely diverse and has the largest school system in Georgia. It is also known for being a good system.
Religious discrimination in Metro Atlanta is quite rare because they have every faith you can think of except snake handlers. There has been a Hare Krishna temple in Atlanta for about 40 years and Buddhist monks used to live in the Baptist church where Farrakahn also held meetings. It was across Moreland Avenue from my house,
But then people have told me that Atlanta has been changing since Nathan Deal got into the governor’s office. Georgia has enroached on Metro Atlanta. Deal was an unelectable crackpot for a long time and the General Assembly has flipped. I would expect discrimination in Cobb County. They have long needed to be seceded to Alabama. But for Gwinnett to go down that far is tragic.
We already have a system in place with public schools for everyone without religion and if that system does not work for you, you pay money to support and then attend a private school that provides religion.
Many of our friends do this, Catholics, Jews, Lutherans, etc. and they don’t expect public money to help them.
They do though receive some public monies in the form of transportation and books.
Will be watching to see what they do about this, can’t believe they didn’t think this through; reminds me of the legislators trying to push through transvaginal ultrasounds.
Oh, they’ll find ways to make sure that none of the money goes to other than good, God-fearin’ “Christian” hands. I mean, look at the percentage of “Faith-Based Initiatives” money that goes to Muslim organizations – practically none.
Diane, thanks for your tirelessness in this epic battle. Here, as often, you are using on of your greatest weapons: humor!
Hopefully this will kill vouchers in TN, if not the TN GOP will fight with each other so much they will kill it.
This blog July 7, 2012
“A Louisiana legislator, Rep. Valerie Hodges, who voted for Governor Bobby Jindal’s “reform” legislation is shocked to learn that students will be able to take their state vouchers to Muslim schools. She voted for the voucher plan on the assumption that students could take them only to Christian schools. Now, she is worried. She had “no idea” that taxpayer dollars would go to non-Christian schools. She wanted to help children learn about the religion of the Founding Fathers.
Louisiana was the first here too! Guess if Tennessee follows Louisiana’s past behavior the school will just withdraw it’s voucher application and then everyone can go back to pretending Louisiana/Tennessee is only Christian, Conservative, Evangelical, Baptists.
Oh, and, as on church lady/parent said to me, there are a few Catholics and she thinks a few Jewish people.
LOVE THIS! I don’t think public money should go to any private schools, but that conservatives might go into apoplectic fits like this brings a smile to my face. Jeez these people are stupid!
If the church lady is talking about Louisiana, there are a lot more than a “few” Catholics. The parochial school system in Louisiana is massive and influential and there are many Catholic politicians including Mitch Landrieu, the mayor of New Orleans and his sister, Senator Mary Landrieu. Jindal is Catholic, a convert from Hinduism. And one of his appointed members of the board that makes the school policies, BESE, is an administrator for the parochial schools. There are also a goodly number of Jews and there is a mosque, but it is kind of away from the street where you don’t see it unless you are looking for it. The former mayor of New Orleans had a St. Joseph’s table in City Hall . each year. And last Friday, all the local and state courts, all the government offices and a lot of businesses as well as the public schools were shut down for Good Friday. I have heard that 20% of the children in Louisiana go to Catholic school, the highest in the country.
Did they not read about the brouhaha in Louisiana?
Sweet! Louisiana is finally first for something! Oh, wait, isn’t being first in religious discrimination right up there with being first in childhood poverty, obeisity, diabetes, new AIDS cases, murder rate, pollution, and soon regressive sales taxes on the poor so corporations can pay zero taxes?
“Louisiana, still the best at being the worst!”
I have tried to explain FOR YEARS to advocates of “prayer in school” that the problem with that is that there are so many different viewpoints on religion that there would be no way to meet all needs or to selectively leave out some religions. They don’t seem to comprehend the fact that freedoms apply to all people, not just to one group.
Debbie: you are quite right, but remember that people who argue for various kinds of “choice” literally don’t get your point. For example, one of the many teachers I worked with was firmly of the opinion that Catholics (as well as almost every other self-identified Christian groups) were not Christians. She longed for a world where everyone else could be set straight. And in school, to boot.
Now imagine a school system where either her views were imposed on everyone else (so that the vast majority labored under mandated religious re-education) or where people who held her views were barred from teaching because they had a [very small] minority religious POV. Like the so-called education reformers, this teacher found it impossibly difficult to question in any way why her POV shouldn’t be imposed on everyone else even given its anti-democratic and impractical outcomes.
How about this choice? Put the necessary resources and prestige behind public schools so that all parents have excellent choices in their own communities. Then let the rest scramble to match the excellence of public education.
Of course, this would violate the sacred principle of rigging education so that the well-to-do not longer had the choice of accessing education opportunities for their children that are decisively superior to those provided to the children of the vast majority.
Imagine, we might even end up in a world where all sorts of mischief is caused by websites dedicated to the pernicious goal of a “better education for all.”
I shudder just thinking about it…
🙂
Exactly. When people whine about prayer in school I always say, “Whose prayer?”
Now catch this one. One of the best evangelical preachers in the state of Louisiana is a guy named Keith Mozingo. He is the pastor of Metropolitan Community Church of Baton Rouge and is gay. Sermons are on Youtube. Check out the Easter sermon in a few days. Oh, he taught public school in Tennessee for many years.
I still wonder why the Muslim school near New Orleans suddenly pulled out of the voucher race last school year. Maybe Tennessee is better at civil rights than Louisiana is. This state nearly shut down completely for Good Friday.
I imagine thy feared the wrath of the God Fearing Christians if their voucher program was approved.
Yes, my point was that it seems each person’s idea of a religion is individual. The proponents of fundamentalist christianity don’t seem to give the same rights to other faiths. They don’t seem to think about it.