The Nevada state constitution contains this language:
Article 11, Section 10: “No public funds of any kind or character whatever, State, County or Municipal, shall be used for sectarian purpose.”
Mercedes Schneider explains how the Nevada Supreme Court did a fancy rhetorical two-step to conclude that the state constitution does not forbid vouchers, it just forbids funding them. Got that?
She then shows a video of Betsy DeVos, Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education, telling a Florida lawyer how corporate taxes can be used to provide vouchers for use in any school, including religious schools. This, despite the fact that the Florida state constitution explicitly says in Article 1, Section 3:
“There shall be no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting or penalizing the free exercise thereof. Religious freedom shall not justify practices inconsistent with public morals, peace or safety. No revenue of the state or any political subdivision or agency thereof shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.”
This, despite the fact that the voters of Florida rejected an effort to change this portion of the Florida state constitution to allow vouchers for religious schools in 2012. The so-called “Religious Freedom Amendment” was voted down by 55-44%.
US Secretary of Education nominee and “true pioneer of the school choice movement across the country,” Betsy DeVos, explains how the educational tax credit enables what would be public money (collected in the form of corporate taxes) from becoming public money at minute 4:45 in the 2015 Youtube video below in which Edward Pozzuoli, the president of Florida-based Tripp Scott Law Firm, interviews then-American Federation for Children (AFC) Chair DeVos, about tax credits.
The entire 9-minute video is an eye opener; DeVos talks about how the AFC does it all: finds the school choice candidates (she’s particularly keen on private school choice); puts “political effort” behind electing/defeating candidates; “works on the policies… the actual legislation,” and “helps parents and kids to find schools and schools to find parents and kids.”
“Reformers” intent on replacing public schools with for-profit charters and religious schools don’t let a little thing like the state constitution get in their way. Conservatives used to call themselves “strict constructionists” when it came to the federal or state constitution. They insisted on abiding by the original intent of those who wrote the constitution. It turns out now that they believe quite the opposite and are ready to reinterpret the clear language of state constitutions to achieve their goal of privatization.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
Betsy DeVos teaches corporations how to ignore state Constitutions and break the law.
They should rename that building the US Department of Charters and Vouchers.
There’s great opportunity here for people who support and value public schools. It’s wide open. We won’t have representatives in DC but we could end up with new, strong state and local entities or organizations.
Holes tend to get filled and there’s a huge hole in ed reform- the 90% of schools that are public schools. The only question is whether people who value public schools fill the existing hole.
I genuinely think an anti-public school Secretary of Ed is an opportunity.
Betsy DeVos is a Protestant who has said she is driven to expand God’s Kingdom. She’s upset because public schools are the anchors of communities. She believes that was the role of churches in the past and she wants to return to that and thinks vouchers funding parochial school education is the key.
Is this woman so short sighted that she’s unable to see where this can go? What happens when people with differing beliefs want vouchers to expand their school offerings, too? Because that means not just Protestant schools will likely increase, but schools for other denominations as well, including parochial schools for Catholics, madrassas for Muslims, yeshivas for Jews, as well as schools for satanists, witches, pagans, atheists etc.
When the government of a diverse democracy opens the door to funding any religions, then it has to fund all of them and that’s a rabbit hole which leads to severe segregation and G-d only knows what else. Maybe she does see where this can go and aims to start religious wars. There are nutters out there who want to trigger “the Rapture”…
Well stated. We need separation of church and state. This is not a theocracy, nor should we aspire to be one.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. This is a powerful ed reform group in my state- Fordham. Look at what they focus on- charters, vouchers and testing and measurement for public schools:
https://twitter.com/OhioGadfly
93% of the kids in this state attend public schools. We can probably reach those parents simply by focusing on something OTHER than testing and measurement.
Ed reform has essentially abandoned the field on any positive agenda for NINETY THREE PER CENT of parents and children in this state. That’s a HUGE opportunity for some new entity or group- one that focuses on PUBLIC school parents and children.
I’m a public school parent and I would be shocked if someone came into my district and said something positive. It has been YEARS where it has been a steady diet of testing, scolding, negative mandates and budget cuts. It doesn’t have to be cheerleading- but it could be some kind of positive agenda- one that offers real value to kids and parents and existing public schools instead of this grim, technocratic “managing what we measure”.
The exclusive focus on choice and testing in ed reform ignores 90% of parents and children in public schools. I would certainly be interested to hear from “experts” who value existing public schools. I can’t be the only one.
They weer “strict constructionists” when they didn’t control all three branches of the government, but now they’re “strict destructionists (of public education).”
The words “directly or indirectly” will cause a flurry of legal activity.
Betsy Devos will not last her term as she will be thwarted right out of her dyed blonde hair. NYC had a chancellor Ms. Kathy Black who was hired by midget mike bloomberg. Ms. Black was so similar to Devos in that they are both debutantes who have no educational experience, married to rich people and want to change the world of education except for the fact that Ms. Black lasted only three months after parents protested to get this witch out of town. I am predicting the same for Ms. Devos as she will not last her term bank on it.