WA reader anonymously named Substitute Tracher posted this comment:
“The Broward County School Board chair at the Calvary Chapel. At 50:45 she says,
“God has really blessed me this year that a lot of my principals were transitioned out, and he filled those spots with new principals that were saved. Principals that loved the lord.”
Are we really allowed to have a criterion in public schools that principals have to be saved before giving them a job? Won’t need vouchers if that is the case.
Note: The previous pastor of this church resigned after it was disclosed he was committing adultery.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Typical Florida.
We have an assistant principal in Sarasota who wrote a book called Clothed With the Sun, an evangelical anti-gay tirade. Her contract was not renewed for the upcoming school year.
I wasn’t sure which was the worst thing about the book: the hateful content or the atrocious writing. If I was an ELA teacher, I’d sure fight any bad evaluations she was behind. Here is a sample:
“The spirit of the man did not become manifest until God prepared the naturally manifested soul to receive it’s spiritual manifestation.”
Sarah Palin would be hard-pressed to outdo that!
If I may make a correction:
“Sarah Palin would be hard-pressed to outdoodoo that!”
This is sickening and frightening.
Some conservative Christians act like the evangelical mafia. These are often the same people that try to pull out either ‘The Bible’ or the Constitution to justify discriminatory behavior. I guess they never read the part in the Constitution about separation of church and state.
C’mon Diane. There is nothing here that suggests that there is “a criterion in public schools that principals have to be saved before giving them a job”.
In my opinion, both your headline and content on this entry are misleading and overblown.
So you are confident that a Jewish principal would be supported by the chair of this school board? Or a Muslim? Or Atheist?
He states very clearly that he is happier when “saved” principals join on.
Substitute that with “white” or “male” and you could have a serious lawsuit. Why isn’t this one?
artist,
No I’m not. I don’t know enough about the situation to make that call. All I have to go on is what the school board chair actually said. Which is more than you have going for you because I actually watched long enough to know that it wasn’t a “he”.
She was just stating that she was glad that recent hires were “saved”. Given the context and audience, that seems like an appropriate statement. Nothing in her statements asserted or even implied that being “saved” was a requirement for employment by her school board.
“The previous pastor of this church resigned after it was disclosed he was committing adultery.”
I thought the problem was that we had too few adults in decision-making positions.
What a shock
Diane,
This is precisely the kind of religious liberty violation Pastors for Texas Children is fighting. Sounds like we need Pastors for Florida Children.
CFJ
Interesting. People can SAY they are saved. It doesn’t mean they are any different from anyone else. It also doesn’t prevent adultery.
If you are religious, you are poorly educated.
Not true. You are over simplifying the concept.
If you make stereotypical statements about classes of people, you are poorly educated.
WARNING:
Long post about religious curriculum used in “public” charter schools.
Out in the the high desert town of Adelanto, California, the local Adelanto school board voted to shut down first and only Parent Trigger school, Desert Trails Preparatory Academy, led by operator Debra Tarver. The local Adelanto board cited self-dealing, conflicts of interests, and overall corruption in its operations and governance. Though this was covered here on this blog, one aspect that was not talked about was the curriculum used at the school and its sister charter school in Hesperia.
This objection was added later when Tarver appealed to the SB County Board to take over as authorizer, essentially reversing the local Adelanto board’s closing of the school:
The currculum is called:
“A Beka”.
“Founded by Arlin and Rebekah (Beka) Horton in 1972, A Beka Book provides ‘excellence in education from a Christian perspective.’ Since 1977, A Beka Book has operated out of the unaccredited Arlin-founded Pensacola Christian College (PCC) in Florida. Among other rules, PCC has a zero tolerance policy for ‘optical intercourse’ or staring too intently into the eyes of a member of the opposite sex (also known as ‘making eye babies’).”
Huh ????!!!
“… a zero tolerance for ‘optical intercourse’… ‘also known as making eye babies (making babies with one’s eyes) ‘… ”
Are these people serious? Is this an ONION parody or something?
Unfortunately, it’s not. This curriculum is crazy as a soup sandwich, and being paid for by California taxpayers.
A prohibition against “optical intercourse” is just the tip of the looney-tunes fundamentalist iceberg. Mind you, the school in Adelanto is not a private school funded by vouchers, but an ostensibly public charter school — “charter schools are public schools,” says the canard. Tax dollars are used so that kids can learn this.
During the board meeting where the San Bernadino County Board of Ed. was deciding on whether or not to become DTPA’s new authorizer, the Adelanto Board also added to their objections the following:
Desert Trails Preparatory Academy is using “A Beka”, which is a wack-a-zoidal, hard-core Christian parochial school curriculum. In particular, DTPA and its sister school in Hesperia are using its history materials to teach 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. (SEE JUST BELOW)
In response, Charter school operator Tarver and DTPA claims that any religious content or preferences have been purged from the curriculum before its use at DTPA and its sister school.
Oh yeah?
Get a load of this!
——————–
A QUICK WORD ABOUT THE “A Beka” CURRICUUM”
… that is now being employed by this supposedly “public school” called Desert Trails Preparatory Academy.
As you will see at the end of this blog post, I quote liberally from the “A Beka” website. Based on these shorter excerpts alone, one can get the gist of what the “A Beka” curriculum is all about:
— a unique approach to civics: “We present government as ordained by God for the maintenance of law and order, not as a cure-all for humanity’s problems”
— A Beka’s insistence of primacy of “The Bible” as “the foundation of all learning” ,
— “A Beka Books’ science texts teach that modern science is the product of Western man’s return to the Scriptures after the Protestant Reformation”
— staunchly creationist, A Beka “present(s) God as the Great Designer and Lawgiver, without Whom the evident design and laws of nature would be inexplicable,,, ”
— “The A Beka Book science and health program presents the universe as the direct creation of God and refutes the man-made idea of evolution.”
— its certifiably wacko view of human history that it teaches, and pins some kind of blame on “H.G. Wells” of all people.
— its bizarre caricature and rejection of what is taught in public schools as
“the Marxist/Hegelian conflict theory of history” that has humanity moving towards “a Satanic one-world government.”
Seriously, though, this “A Beka” folderol that is taught at Debbie Tarver’s two charter schools is nuttier than a bowl of bridge mix.
—————————————–
Based on their extensive research with experts, the Adelanto Board maintains that “A Beka” has Christianity references marbled in throughout, has such an extreme “Christian perspective” embedded in the entirety of its curriculum, and thus, such purging is not possible.
As such, the Adelanto Board maintains that the charter school operator’s use of this curriculum is a violation of both the state and federal Constitutions, as is the existence of any publicly-funded school using that curriculum. (Private schools that are funded from parents’ tuition and from outside fundraising are free to teach this bat-sh%# crazy stuff all they want.)
Here’s a link to the minutes of the hearing / SBCOE
Board meeting: (go to page 15)
http://www.sbcss.k12.ca.us/att…
Here’s the relevant part of the hearing: (again, go to page 15)
San Bernadino County Board of Education minutes:
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“Ms. Ahluwalia added there are issues relating to the curriculum used by DTPA. She state the charter petition indicates DTPA’s use of various texts from ‘A Beka’ that are being utilized at the school.
“In the footnotes, the charter indicates that any references to religious preferences are omitted at the time of instruction. Based on ASD’s research and review of the A Beka website, A Beka is part of a religious college and institution. Ms. Ahluwalia stated that it is clear that all A Beka curriculum is written in a religious perspective, thus is unclear what DTPA means by the statement that it is omitting any reference to religious preference or how it has supported implementation of omissions.
“She stated that ASD does not believe it is possible to use A Beka curriculum without violating the Constitution.
“Member Brown stated that he read the petition but does not remember reading about A Beka before and was it in ASD’s denial.
“Ms. Ahluwalia responded saying that it was not in the denial, it was in the petition.
“Member Sumpter stated it was in the petition, but it was not in the district’s response to the denial.
“Member Brown asked if ASD is now denying based on this finding even though it wasn’t in the denial.
“Ms. Ahluwalia stated no, and that it is being brought to the County Board’s attention.
Ms. Ahluwalia further stated the resolution specifically states that not all AD’s findings are stated in the denial.
“Member Brown stated if that’s not the reason for denying, then what is the purpose of bringing it up.
“Ms. Ahluwalia responded stating that not every single issue identified by ASD’s Board is included in the denial. In that case, the resolution could be 50, 60, 70 pages.”
.————————————-
Here’s the website for “A Beka”:
“A Beka Book :: Excellence in Education from a Christian Perspective”
https://www.abeka.com/
————————-
From the “A Beka” Website at the link above:
(You absolutely MUST read some of this pedagogical quackery, JACK)
“Distinctives
“Bible — The foundation for all learning
“The A Beka Book Bible program presents the Bible in the narrative style in which it is written. Stories of the Old and New Testaments in the lower grades lead up to the profound truths of the Gospels, Epistles, and other portions of Scripture for older students. The curriculum is designed to be specifically and systematically taught so that students in the Bible program will become thoroughly acquainted with the basic portions of Scriptures.
——–
“Science/Health
“The investigation of variety, order, and reasonableness revealed in creation.
“While secular science textbooks present modern science as the opposite of faith, the A Beka Book science texts teach that modern science is the product of Western man’s return to the Scriptures after the Protestant Reformation, leading to his desire to understand and subdue the earth, which he saw as the orderly, law-abiding creation of the God of the Bible.
“The A Beka Book science and health program presents the universe as the direct creation of God and refutes the man-made idea of evolution.
“Further, the books present God as the Great Designer and Lawgiver, without Whom the evident design and laws of nature would be inexplicable. They give a solid foundation in all areas of science — a foundation firmly anchored to Scriptural truth.
“Teachability is assured through accurate, interesting writing, carefully planned demonstrations that can be performed with a minimum of equipment, chapter terms and questions, full-color illustrations, consideration of the interests and comprehension skills of students at each grade level, and detailed curriculum/lesson plans.”
————
“History
“A realistic view of time, government, geography, and economics based on eternal truths
“Ever since H. G. Wells published his Outline of History in 1920, the theme of world history texts has been man’s supposed progress from savagery toward socialism, from tribal religions toward one-world government.
“American history is usually presented as a series of conflicts—rich vs. poor, black vs. white, North vs. South, labor vs. management, male vs. female, etc.
“A Beka Book history texts reject the Marxist/Hegelian conflict theory of history in favor of a truthful portrayal of peoples, lands, religions, ideals, heroes, triumphs, and setbacks. The result is positive, uplifting history texts that give students a historical perspective and instill within them an intelligent pride for their own country and a desire to help it back to its traditional values.
“We present government as ordained by God for the maintenance of law and order, not as a cure-all for humanity’s problems.
“We present free-enterprise economics without apology and point out the dangers of Communism, socialism, and liberalism to the well-being of people across the globe. In short, A Beka Book offers a traditional, conservative approach to the study of what man has done with the time he has been given.
————–
“History (of A Beka)
“Over four decades ago, Dr. Arlin Horton and his wife, Beka, started A Beka Bookwith the goal of providing high-quality traditional educational materials that would give students at their Christian school in Pensacola, Florida, a solid foundation for excellence in academics and success in life. At Pensacola Christian Academy—one of the largest Christian schools in America—teachers and parents have seen for several decades the excellent results of learning with A Beka.
“Purpose
“You want methods and materials that work. That’s what you’ll find with A Beka Book—comprehensive, quality curriculum and materials written from a Christian perspective.
“Now more than ever, each child needs a strong foundation in both academics and character; we’re here to help homeschooling families and Christian schools of all sizes give their students the knowledge and skills they need.”
—————————
That’s your tax dollars at work, .. thanks to corporate education reform’s de-regulation of schools, and the law’s allowance for the creation of privately-managed, and unaccountable charter schools. Use of this curriculum will continue until and unless someone decides to sue to stop it.
Wait, here’s some more gems from “A Beka.”
You can find these at:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/8/8/1117894/-LA-Charter-School-Curriculum-Lies
This Daily Kos story says this stuff is in wide used in Lousiana’s charter schools as well:
—————————–
3. “God used the Trail of Tears to bring many Indians to Christ.”
— America: Land That I Love, Teacher ed., A Beka Book, 1994
Yeah, a loving God arranged this genocide for the benefit of those on the death march and human greed for land and gold in the Black Hills had nothing to do with it. (The link provides a timeline of events from the period. I leave it to all of you to decide if the former or latter is what happened.)
——————————–
and this
——————————–
8. SCOTUS enslaved fetuses: “Ignoring 3,500 years of Judeo-Christian civilization, religion, morality, and law, the Burger Court held that an unborn child was not a living person but rather the “property” of the mother (much like slaves were considered property in the 1857 case of Dred Scott v. Sandford).”—American Government in Christian Perspective, 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1997
Interesting twist here. Slavery wasn’t bad for black people (see #5,) but it is a bad thing for fetuses.
\And, be afraid, be very afraid …
——————————–
and this
——————————–
9. The Red Scare isn’t over yet: “It is no wonder that Satan hates the family and has hurled his venom against it in the form of Communism.”
— American Government in Christian Perspective, 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1997
——————————–
and this
——————————–
13. “Global environmentalists have said and written enough to leave no doubt that their goal is to destroy the prosperous economies of the world’s richest nations.”
— Economics: Work and Prosperity in Christian Perspective, 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1999
——————————–
and this
——————————–
14. Globalization is a precursor to rapture:
“But instead of this world unification ushering in an age of prosperity and peace, as most globalists believe it will, it will be a time of unimaginable human suffering as recorded in God’s Word. The Anti-christ will tightly
regulate who may buy and sell.”
—Economics: Work and Prosperity in
Christian Perspective, 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1999
Wait a minute, though. If 9, 13, and 14 are correct, why aren’t they pushing for these things to occur if it would lead to the Rapture — where all good Christians are saved, and then fly up to heaven?
Why aren’t they donating to socialist President Obama the same way thta they are supporting sending Jews to Israel — the reason being that backing Israel will hasten the Rapture?
With this load of crap, they’d better stay far away from teaching any kind of critical thinking skills.
—————–
Some with more standing than I should sue the ever-lovin’ sh#@ out of San Bernadino County Board of Ed, Desert Trails Preparatory Academy, and Debbie Tarver personally over this flagrant violation of the separation of church and state … and using your and my public tax money to promote one particular — and one particularly CRAZY — religious perspective over any others.
That person or person could be, say, an Adelanto parent who’s traditional public school — one that abides by the separation of chuch and state — is being starved of funding in order to pay for this Frankenstein-like charter school, and in particular, Debby Tarver’s $200,000+ combined salary. That kind of bread goes a long way out in the High Desert … i.e. DTPA leader Debbie Tarver’s sprawling Victorville mansion.
Thank you, Jack, for bringing this to our attention. Could you possibly share the name of the Adelanto board member who objected to the Beka curriculum, which is an outrageous curriculum to be used in a public school? I ask this because I have attended board meetings of the Adelanto School district where they wanted to send all the science books back for a review of the parents a second time because those books taught evolution. Some teachers in that district also post the ten commandments, and there used to be religious materials in the bathrooms of the school district. So I am finding it difficult to think that the board as a whole would object to this curriculum.
I imagine the entirety of the Adelanto (AESD) Board objected to the A Beka curriculum as in the AESD’s December 2015 Board meeting, they voted unanimously to close DTPA, and later (March 2016) cited that as part of the rationale.
(Incredibly, the Adelanto Board’s documents related to its denial also mention me or my nom de keyboard, “Jack Covey” and also the “Diane Ravitch” blog, but that’s another story.)
Here’s an article about the SB County BOE reversing the Adelanto Board’s vote to close DTPA. I deluged the article’s Comments section with suggestions on what it should investigate next:
http://www.sbsun.com/social-affairs/20160307/parent-trigger-charter-school-switches-from-adelanto-to-county-school
For example, there is a shadow corporation “Ed Brokers” that totally controls the DTPA governance, with DTPA charter operator Debra Tarver in absolue, sole control over Ed Brokers, and Tarver also in absolute, sole control over the appointment and removal of all DTPA’s (Desert Trails, Inc.) board members. As such, there’s no checks and balances in place, and no mechanism for holding Tarver accountable. As a result, and in contrast to the whole charter school notion of local board’s holding charters accountable, the AESD Board has ZERO power whatsoever over the governance or operations of the Tarver-controlled DTPA charter charter school.
In addition, I pointed out to San Bernadino Sun’s reporter Beau Yarborough, the reporter who wrote the above article, that the California Franchise Tax Board just suspended Ed Brokers’ operations. I also provided a link confirming this. This suspension, from early 2016, forbids Ed Brokers from conducting any business of any kind until the suspension is lifted… including any actions regarding removing or appointing DTPA’s board members. I pushed Yarbrough, “Why not call — or in some other way contact — the California Franchise Tax Board for all the documentation related to that suspension, then write about it?” I even provided the phone number, address, and email for doing so.
Alas, Yarborough won’t (or “can’t”… i.e. is forbidden by his bosses to) look into the California FTB’s suspension of Ed Brokers.
Apart from that, here’s the link to the San Bernadino County Board board meeting minutes related to this: (CLICK, then go to page 15)
Click to access CB_mtg20160307_agenda.pdf
Members of the Adelanto Board are pleading with the SB County Board to not take over as operator, and let the school close. “Keep that sh#@ out of Adelanto!” in so many words.
In the Adelanto Board’s original motion (December 2015) to close DTPA (technically the term is “non-renew”), the AESD Board mentioned all the stuff about self-dealing, conflicts of interest, corruption and incompetence in its operations and governance.
In (March 2016) testimony before the SB County Board,, the AESD Board — through its lawyer, Ms. Ahluwalia, who testified to the board — concede that the AESD Board did not mention any of the problems related to the A Beka curriculum in the wording of its denial (“non-renewal”).
In Ms. Ahluwalia’s testimony (March 2016), the AESD Board tacked that on and added this in their statement to the LA County Board, and said the reason for the initial omission in December 2015 was that, if they had included ALL of their countless problems with DTPA, the motion would have been 50-70 pages long.
This is on page 15 at
Click to access CB_mtg20160307_agenda.pdf
In the above document, “Ms. Ahluwalia” is the lawyer representing the Adelanto Board (AESD).
However, as to your original question, the entire AESD Board voted unanimously to close (“non-renew”) DTPA, and the entire board was aware at the time of the objections related to the “A Beka” curriculum, so I imagine all of them had a problem with it.
—————————–
Again, here’s the relevant back-and-forth:
—————-
(page 15)
“(AESD lawyer) Ms. Ahluwalia added there are issues relating to the curriculum used by DTPA. She state the charter petition indicates DTPA’s use of various texts from ‘A Beka’ that are being utilized at the school.
“In the footnotes, the charter indicates that any references to religious preferences are omitted at the time of instruction.
“Based on AESD’s research and review of the A Beka website, A Beka is part of a religious college and institution. Ms. Ahluwalia stated that it is clear that all A Beka curriculum is written in a religious perspective, thus is unclear what DTPA means by the statement that it is omitting any reference to religious preference or how it has supported implementation of omissions.
“(Ahluwalia) stated that AESD does not believe it is possible to use A Beka curriculum without violating the Constitution.
“Member Brown stated that he read the petition, but does not remember reading about A Beka before and was it in AESD’s denial?
“Ms. Ahluwalia responded saying that it was not in the denial, it was in the petition.
“Member Sumpter stated it was in the petition, but it was not in the district’s response to the denial.
“Member Brown asked if AESD is now denying based on this finding even though it wasn’t in the denial.
“Ms. Ahluwalia stated no, and that it is being brought to the County Board’s attention.
“Ms. Ahluwalia further stated the resolution specifically states that not all AD’s findings are stated in the denial.
“Member Brown stated if that’s not the reason for denying, then what is the purpose of bringing it up.
“Ms. Ahluwalia responded stating that not every single issue identified by AESD’s Board is included in the denial. In that case, the resolution could be 50, 60, 70 pages.”
Jack, thank you for all your research and lengthy reply. I do wonder why the ASD board, superintendent, and lawyer isn’t screaming to their constituents about this curriculum. I doubt that an Adelanto parent will have more standing than you do, unless it is a city council person, but then they are too busy trying to legalize pot so that they can sell it and get the city out of debt, a city that has 4 prisons in it. Perhaps this would be an opportunity for the Adelanto Teacher’s Union or some of the other educational organizations in the high desert. There has to be some education and answering of questions before suing. The last time I wrote the SB County Education Supt., his secretary forwarded my letter to the offending party, and I doubt the Supt. even saw it. Educationally, the whole area is on a different planet.I know you’re doing a lot of research and are frustrated. Is there any way anybody can get in touch with you to brainstorm ideas?
Why is this not on Youtube? This should be shared, and shared, and shared.
That is so cliche. Pastors committing adultery. Happens so much of the time it’s almost comical. Or sad, one.
BrowardCounty is very diverse and very Jewish (in my experience working there in an arts academy). This sort of surprises me.
How does she know the religious views of the people who left and the religious views of the principals coming in? Religion should not be part of the discussion. The fact that she knows these things is an issue.
I know the religious views of lots of people I work with. We’re human beings and we talk about our lives with each other. Why is that an issue?
Is anyone paying attention to the fact that Broward County has a majority Jewish population? I have friends and family that work in education in that county and I can assure you the other levels of employees in the system are concerned that this will become a litmus test for employment, evaluation, and success.
Sad state of affairs.
Gary, I seriously doubt that Broward County has a majority Jewish population. Nationally, Jews are about 3% of the population. Can you back up your statement with facts? Documentation?