Writing in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, a group of Texas pastors expressed their support for public education and their strong opposition to vouchers for religious institutions. They believe in separation of church and state.
They wrote:
Speaking passionately and personally, we pastors are for Texas children, and we are alarmed at the language and legislation coming from some of the most powerful people in our land. It attacks neighborhood and community schools and the dedicated, faithful educators who nurture and instruct our children.
The Texas Senate recently passed Senate Bill 4, providing tuition tax credits to donors giving scholarships to private schools. These are plainly private school vouchers.
The lieutenant governor’s hand-picked advisory board issued a letter calling every public school classroom “a Godless environment.”
We are offended. Several of our spouses and many of our members work in public schools, and many of our children attend them. We are certain they take God with them.
We see first-hand the dedicated servants committed to the moral, ethical and emotional well-being of children as well as their academic preparation. We know the love with which counselors, administrators, classroom teachers and other staff work with the broad range of students.
They encourage all, fretting over those with particular challenges, pouring their hearts, their hours, their energies into the precious lives of children, no matter their native ability, economic background or ethnicity. Former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, R-Mo., also an Episcopal priest, points out that objects — like chewing gum — may be kept out of schools, but not God. God is the creator of heaven and earth.
Pickpocketing public coffers while simultaneously attacking public schools — anchor of the common good — seems to us inadequate leadership.
We applaud the 12 senators who opposed the disappointing voucher legislation, and we urge our representatives in the Texas House to defeat vouchers. Here’s why:
Our state Legislature has repeatedly rejected private school vouchers because they divert public money to religious schools in violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits any establishment of religion.
This time the ruse is not to give religious schools money directly but simply to allow a reduction of funds in the public treasury to be diverted to private schools.
Religious liberty is at stake. The separation of church and state is intended not to protect the state from the church, but to protect the church from the state.
With Thomas Jefferson, we believe it is sinful and tyrannical for government to compel people to pay taxes for the propagation of religious opinions with which they disagree, or even with which they agree. Authentic religion must be wholly uncoerced.
Faith should be dependent on the persuasive power of the truth it proclaims and not on the unwanted, and unneeded, assistance of the Texas Legislature.
George W. Truett, pastor of Dallas’ First Baptist Church for the first half of the 20th century, said on the steps of the nation’s capital: “Religion needs no prop of any kind from any worldly source, and to the degree it is thus supported, it is a millstone hanged about its neck.”
As a practical matter, vouchers channel public monies to private schools with no public accountability. Private schools could use public money to discriminate on race, gender, religion and special needs.
Private schools define and meet their constituency’s needs, but public money must come with public scrutiny.
Vouchers have always been defeated in Texas because they neglect the lawful, public system and, thus, violate the Texas Constitution.
Article 7, Section 1, says: “A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.”
Texas benefits from a robust economy, yet hovers near the nation’s bottom in per-pupil spending. We feast at bounty’s table while some children subsist on crumbs.
Education is God’s gift to all persons. Education is a core component of democracy.
We pray the Texas House will defeat vouchers by whatever name.
Let us, rather, defend and protect public education in Texas, and let us affirm and support those who shape children on our behalf.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/other-voices/article20059371.html#storylink=cpy
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Amazing. Hope others join in this clear manifesto.
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“Religion needs no prop of any kind from any worldly source, and to the degree it is thus supported, it is a millstone hanged about its neck.”
Yes. The degree of understanding of this truth is what separates the true Christians from the faux xtians who forget (or intentionally ignore) the actual teachings of Jesus. Never understood why one would worship a god who needs to be defended or otherwise propped up by mere humans.
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“The lieutenant governor’s hand-picked advisory board issued a letter calling every public school classroom “a Godless environment.”
Obviously the board hasn’t studied much theology. If they had they would know that their god is omniscient and omnipresent. I wonder if the board members went to a “godless public school”???
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“We are certain they take God with them.”
The pastors must have studied with those “godly” board members.
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“Education is God’s gift to all persons.”
Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay! Yep, humans would just be big monkeys or small apes if that god wasn’t so gracious.
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“Faith should be dependent on the persuasive power of the truth it proclaims. . . ”
And what “truth” is that???
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“Authentic religion must be wholly uncoerced.”
What is “authentic religion”?
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I don’t know why they’d take advice from me, but I think it’s a short-sighted move for religious schools.
They’re going to turn into one more contractor seeking public funds, and that group gets bigger and bigger every year the more and more we privatize.
Sometimes more money isn’t worth what you trade for it 🙂
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Especially when what’s being traded is your soul.
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I think they derive their credibility to a certain extent from their “outsider” status re: the state. That only applies to those who find them credible, of course, and many people don’t, but a very large group of people DO. I don’t know that I’d trade that for a voucher. It’s in really short supply these days, credibility 🙂
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I am sending a link of this article to my state legislators who believe in, and push for, tax credits being given to wealthy people when they give money to private schools.
Then they want to be excused from paying taxes that support public schools? Why do they think that they should get to decide which children will be provided with well financed schools?
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Kudos to the Texas pastors. They understand that no private school is able to provide as many equal opportunities as public schools. Once this democratic institution is abandoned, the citizens all states will be the losers. They will have given up a fundamental right to those that want to profit from our students. If we as a society lose this right, who knows what agendas will be sold to our students in the land of little oversight or accountability?
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These ministers represent the best in America’s religious traditions. They deserve the highest praise and the TX legislature should listen to them. — Edd Doerr (arlinc.org)
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Those drunk with power often go too far and provoke their own undoing. Perhaps this ugly private war on public education has reached that point.
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Do you know why some parochial schools don’t want vouchers? They don’t want to take, and often cannot care for, the “undesirables” the “hard-to-reach” the “problem kids” the learning disabled, the hard to control, the hard to teach. The days of nuns hitting kids with rulers (yes, I went to catholic school as a kid) are long gone. The teachers are lay and don’t make much money. Most of them stay a year or two to get their permanent certificates and the first opportunity to get to the public schools, they are gone (unless they have a deep seated religious root and a spouse who earns a living wage). The religious schools want compliant, ruly, easy to teach kids, with a side of religion.
However, some parochial schools will take students from differing religions, in an effort to financially stay afloat, and I wonder how does that work for them? Do they take the students over to church X times per week and leave the non-catholic, for instance, students back at the school to do another activity? My sis in law sent her kids to Catholic school back in the early 90s, and they were not Catholic, and the kids went to church and studied religion. True story. That school, now closed, would have taken in anyone, and any voucher, just to get paid, make money, stay open. They shut down in 2004, but the church still stands, and now gives mass in spanish and portuguese. English no more, and that is the neighborhood demographic.
Do parochial schools offer specialized learning? Generally, my belief is “no.” Private schools don’t offer much either for “problem kids” – they wind up tossing back the kids who need the most attention back to the public schools. Isn’t that how it works?
Charters are the same.
Perhaps those politicians hell bent on vouchers just look at it as another way to bust unions, divert public school funds and starve the public schools, and open up charters? ”
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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Pew Research.org reports that 78.4% of Americans are Christians and only 1.6% are Atheists. Is the lieutenant governor’s hand-picked advisory board issued saying that public school teachers are all Atheists and Godless?
http://religions.pewforum.org/reports
If teachers reflect the country, that means almost 80% of teachers are Christians and if they practice Christian values in the classroom even if they don’t preach or pray during class, does that mean they are not Christians?
In addition, “But among the questions most often answered incorrectly is whether public school teachers are permitted to read from the Bible as an example of literature. Fully two-thirds of people surveyed (67%) also say “no” to this question, even though the Supreme Court has clearly stated that the Bible may be taught for its “literary and historic” qualities, as long as it is part of a secular curriculum.2 On a third question along these lines, just 36% of the public knows that comparative religion classes may be taught in public schools.”
http://www.pewforum.org/2010/09/28/u-s-religious-knowledge-survey/
Here’s the rub. If teachers were allowed to preach in the public schools and lead children in prayer, what religion or Christian sect would be allowed or would we have to let them all in and give them equal time?
Largest 25 Denominations/Communions from the 2012 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. Total church membership reported in the 2012 Yearbook is 145,691,446 members.
1. The Catholic Church 68,202,492, [ranked 1 in 2011] , down 0.44 percent.
2. Southern Baptist Convention 16,136,044, [ranked 2 in 2011] , down 0.15 percent.
** Since the 2010 census of nondenominational/independent congregations, we now know that this grouping of churches, if taken together, would be the second largest Protestant group in the country with over 35,000 congregations and over 12,200,000 adherents.
3. The United Methodist Church 7,679,850, [ranked 3 in 2011] , down 1.22 percent.
4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 6,157,238, [ranked 4 in 2011], up 1.62 percent.
5. The Church of God in Christ 5,499,875, [ranked 5 in 2011] , no update reported.
6. National Baptist Convention , U.S.A. , Inc. 5,197,512, [ranked 6 in 2011] , up 3.95 percent.
7. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 4,274,855, [ranked 7 in 2011] , down 5.90 percent.
8. National Baptist Convention of America , Inc. 3,500,000, [ranked 8 in 2011] , no update reported.
9. Assemblies of God 3,030,944, [ranked 9 in 2011] , up 3.99 percent.
10. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 2,675,873, [ranked 10 in 2011] , down 3.42 percent.
11. African Methodist Episcopal Church 2,500,000, [ranked 11 in 2011] , no update reported.
12. National Missionary Baptist Convention of America 2,500,000, [ranked 11 in 2011] , no update reported.
13. The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod (LCMS) 2,278,586, [ranked 13 in 2011] , down 1.45 percent.
14. The Episcopal Church 1,951,907, [ranked 14 in 2011] , down 2.71 percent.
15. Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc. 1,800,000, ranked 15 [ranked 17 in 2011] , up 20 percent.
16. Churches of Christ 1,639,495, [ranked 15 in 2011] , no update reported.
17. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America 1,500,000 , [ranked 16 in 2011] , no update reported.
18. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church 1,400,000, [ranked 18 in 2011] , no update reported.
19. American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. 1,308,054, [ranked 19 in 2011] , down 0.19 percent.
20. Jehovah’s Witnesses 1,184,249, [ranked 20 in 2011] , up 1.85 percent.
21. Church of God ( Cleveland , Tennessee ) 1,074,047, [ranked 22 in 2011] , down 0.21 percent.
22. Christian Churches and Churches of Christ 1,071,616, [ranked 23 in 2011] , no update reported.
23. Seventh-day Adventist Church 1,060,386, [ranked 24 in 2011] , up 1.61 percent.
24. United Church of Christ 1,058,423, [ranked 21 in 2011], down 2.02 percent.
25. Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. 1,010,000, [ranked 25 in 2011 ], no update reported.
http://hirr.hartsem.edu/research/fastfacts/fast_facts.html
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God help us if the bill is passed in Texas……Diane, you have given me an education tonight. Now, my brain hurts!
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Someone ought to tell these illiterate pastors that the United States Supreme Court already ruled over a decade ago that vouchers don’t violate the First Amendment. (The Zelman case.)
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WT,
Don’t call people you disagree with “illiterate.” I agree with the Texas pastors, and I have a PH.D. In history.
Fact is that vouchers have been on state and local ballots many times and have NEVER passed. The last time was Florida 2012. The effort to roll back the amendment in the state constitution banning vouchers lost 58/42 despite Jeb’s best efforts and big money. That’s why they are called “opportunity scholarships.”
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Thanks for filling your role: spewing propaganda for sport. You are classic example of that.
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Dr. Ravitch,
Absolutely nothing in your comment refutes what I said — that vouchers don’t violate the First Amendment. Having a PhD in history doesn’t authorize you to overrule the U.S. Supreme Court, sorry about that.
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Voucher is still an ongoing debate that divides the court. Just because they approved one case in Ohio does not mean–or predict that they will approve vouchers in other states. It’s based on whether they see merit in taking the case. And it solely depends on who is going to serve as a chief judge. Don’t expect Kagan, Ginsberg, or Sotomayor to follow exactly the same decision as Rehnquist did in Zelma. It’s not gonna happen.
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Aren’t these “scholarships” another way for corporations to avoid taxes, while at the same time harming public schools, which is the point altogether?
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As one of the “illiterates” spoken of so kindly by WT, please let me say that SB4 as passed by the Texas Senate does not pass the test employed by the SCOTUS in the Zelman case (2002 to be precise, WT). Mr. Justice Thomas made it clear in his concurring opinion in Zelman that the Cleveland voucher program was approved by the 5-4 majority only because it zeroed in on a particular problem in a particular part of a particular city, specifically, it assisted poor African Americans in a neglected neighborhood of Cleveland. Texas SB4 is far too broad under that reasoning. More particularly, the test the majority established in Zelman requires that the state funds (vouchers) go directly to the parents of children going into private schools. Texas SB4 does not pass that portion of the Zelman test.
That said, I still believe that Lemon v. Kurtzman and the Everman case remain far stronger and better reasoned law. They remain better precedents. But, then, I’m just an illiterate.
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