As the forces of reaction gather for an assault on public education in Oklahoma, pastors across the state have joined in an organization called Pastors for Oklahoma Kids. They have an alliance with the dynamic Pastors for Texas Children, which anticipates growing its membership in other states. They believe in public schools and in the historic separation of church and state.
Here is an excerpt from their organizing statement:
Oklahoma Pastors band together to advocate for kids
Oklahoma City, OK: With a new legislative session looming and multiple bills being introduced which threaten the free education of every child, a group of pastors gathered in Oklahoma City recently to form a new grassroots organization: Pastors for Oklahoma Kids.
Pastors for Oklahoma Kids plans to work with other like minded organizations as they form a broad coalition of clergy from across the state of Oklahoma that advocate for local schools, principals, teachers, staff and schoolchildren by supporting our free, public education system, promoting social justice for all children, and advancing legislation that enriches Oklahoma children, families, and communities.
Pastors for Oklahoma Kids has identified three main core values:
WE ARE FOR OKLAHOMA KIDS: 93% of Oklahoma Kids attend Public School. We want to re-shape conversation about Public Education in Oklahoma. We do not believe our schools are failing – that’s a cop out. Therefore we will challenge all who demean, belittle and undermine public education. We believe education is a moral good and obligation of the state to every child.
WE ARE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS: We will advocate for adequately funded schools and paying teachers and school staff the wages they deserve. Because of this we are opposed to ESAs/Vouchers or any other name that inevitably leads to the privatization of Public Schools. We further believe in the wall of separation of church and state and that no public money should be used for religious schools.
WE ARE FOR TEACHERS: We refute the notion that schools are failing. We have failed if we resort to punishing good and godly teachers and administrators by demonizing their calling. We will send a clear message – we are WITH you. You do not stand alone. We join a growing network of clergy in other states advocating for public education, including our neighbors in Pastors for Texas Children.
For more information on Pastors for Oklahoma Kids or to read their Declaration on Public Education please visit: http://www.pastorsforoklahomakids.com
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
That’s really nice. We’ve had a k-8 Catholic school where I live my entire life and there’s never been any bad blood between the public schools and the Catholic school. The religious school kids take extracurriculars with the public school kids and I’ve never seen any conflict at all.
Why do ed reformers want to set them up as competitors? The schools have two different missions. Everyone understands that. Public schools serve a different group and have different goals than Catholic schools. Why would they start a war in a country that is already so horribly divided ESPECIALLY where kids will be on the front lines?
It’s madness. It’s a basic misunderstanding of the compromises that hold communities together. These alliances are fragile. They take years to develop. Why blow them up?
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Because competition eats excellence…. every single time. Competition drives the money market at all costs. You only have to look at the WalMart model to see why/how…..but I know you already know this!
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Chiara: Your note is on target and shows the great difference between (a) Catholic and some other schools, like Montessori, who follow federal and state standards, and (b) “reformer” education (the new Jim Crow).
It also suggests some not-to-subtle divisions that are present within and between religious groups and those who speak for them. Those divisions apparently reside just under the surface of the religious community’s overall support for Trump.
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The private high school I graduated from has been a part of the community for longer than there have been public schools in our area. It has coexisted with our school all that time with a relationship that mirrors some social and philosophical differences, some competition, some good things and some bad. Both entities feel they attend to the mission they have to the best of their ability and recognize the differences they face.
To my knowledge, the private has never asked for state funds. That would seem the difference.
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This news comes on the day after Trump boasts of overturning the Johnson Amendment.
I hope these members of the clergy in Oklahoma will build a network with likeminded groups across the nation, including NPE. I applaud their courage and collective action.
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With 30 pieces of silver, our enemies bought politicians and government bureaucrats and, turned ed. associations into shills for the exploitation of children.
The Oklahoma pastors understand injustice. Community taxes levied, for “human capital pipelines”, to replace schools, demands opposition. Speaking out, is the obligation of good people. It is the right time, for a nation in peril, to have its conscience awakened. Anti-democracy enemies, profited from destruction of education. Outrage at barbarians, from the tech industry, Wall Street and discount retailing, who rob our nation of its most critical common good, is a duty.
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Reblogged this on rjknudsen.
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Our movement is coming to every state in the union! Help us mobilize the faith community for public education support and advocacy! See our website at http://www.pastorsfortexaschildren.com
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Thanks for the link.
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With the charter school industry that’s favored by nominee for U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos bleeding vital funds from the public’s schools, the thoughtful person will ask: “Why are hedge fund people the main backers of the private charter school industry? After all, hedge funds are not known for a selfless interest in educating children.”
Well, the answer, of course, is MONEY.
For example, look at DeVos’ home state of Michigan: There are 1.5 million children attending public elementary and secondary schools and the state annually spends about $11,000 per student which adds up to pot of about $17 billion that private charter school operators have their eyes on. If these private operators succeed in getting what DeVos wants to give them — the power to run all the schools — these private profiteers could make almost $6 billion in profit just by firing veteran teachers and replacing them with low-paid inexperienced teachers, which is what the real objective of so-called “Value-Added” evaluations of veteran teachers is all about.
But wait! There’s more!
In fact, there are many more ways that big profits are being made every day right now by the private charter school industry. Here are just some:
The Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Education has issued a warning that charter schools posed a risk to the Department of Education’s own goals. The report says: “Charter schools and their management organizations pose a potential risk to federal funds even as they threaten to fall short of meeting the goals” because of the financial fraud, the skimming of tax money into private pockets that is the reason why hedge funds are the main backers of charter schools.
The Washington State Supreme Court, the New York State Supreme Courts, and the National Labor Relations Board have ruled that charter schools are not public schools because they aren’t accountable to the public since they aren’t governed by publicly-elected boards and aren’t subdivisions of public government entities, in spite of the fact that some state laws enabling charter schools say they are government subdivisions. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A “PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL” because no charter school fulfills the basic public accountability requirement of being responsible to and directed by a school board that is elected by We the People. Charter schools are clearly private schools, owned and operated by private entities. Nevertheless, they get public tax money.
Even the staunchly pro-charter school Los Angeles Times (which acknowledges that its “reporting” on charter schools is paid for by a billionaire charter school advocate) complained in an editorial that “the only serious scrutiny that charter operators typically get is when they are issued their right to operate, and then five years later when they apply for renewal.” Without needed oversight of what charter schools are actually doing with the public’s tax dollars, hundreds of millions of tax money that is supposed to be spent on educating the public’s children is being siphoned away into private pockets.
Charter schools should (1) be required by law to be governed by school boards elected by the voters so that they are accountable to the public; (2) a charter school entity must legally be a subdivision of a publicly-elected governmental body; (3) charter schools should be required to file the same detailed public-domain audited annual financial reports under penalty of perjury that genuine public schools file; and, (4) anything a charter school buys with the public’s money should be the public’s property.
NO PUBLIC TAX MONEY SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO GO TO CHARTER SCHOOLS THAT FAIL TO MEET THESE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS OF ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE PUBLIC.
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Hi Scisne:
Your post is VERY DISTINCTIVELY clear and is easily understood to all tax payers.
I hope that your post is delivered and posted in every PUBLIC MEETING, like libraries, school cafeterias, Subway stations, and Bus terminals in order to educate and cultivate tax payers, students and voters.
I really enjoy reading your post. May God bless you. May.
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What about organizing a nationwide student walkout of public and nonprofit charter schools in all states with at least one republican senator to make our voices heard that Betsy DeVos is wrong for the Dept. of Education.
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To reiterate a stress that has been between Elizabeth Warren and DT, “those half-breeds” from Oklahoma are doing good! My family’s roots hail from Norman, Oklahoma as well. I have Choctaw ancestry too. I am very glad to hear that the clergy there are in support of the public schools!!!!
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