This is an alarming post. Read at your own peril.
Trump gave a shout out to the glories of vouchers when he spoke to Congress. DeVos, a religious zealot, smiled with gratification as her 30-year crusade to transfer public funds to religious schools now appears near accomplishment.
Trump pointed to a young woman who had achieved success because of receiving a voucher funded by a tax credit in Florida. Her accomplishments are considerable.
But what kind of school did she attend?
“Over the past three years, Merriweather has had the opportunity to tell her story in numerous media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, the Tampa Bay Times, and The 74 (a pro school choice media site funded by charter school and voucher advocates such as the Walton Family Foundation and the Dick & Betsy DeVos Foundation). She’s also been the subject of pro school choice profiles in politically conservative news outlets. And after Merriweather was highlighted at the Trump’s speech, she was interviewed by Fox News.
“None of this is to take away from the sincerity of Merriweather’s writing or the validity of her lived experience. But it needs to be noted that few public school students have had such prominent venues to repeatedly tell their success stories.
“Further, the school Merriweather attended through the school choice program Trump champions is no ordinary school.
“Religious Fundamentalism At Taxpayer Expense
“The private school Merriweather attended and graduated from is the Esprit De Corps Center for Learning in Jacksonville which she has described in testimony she gave last year to a U.S. House Committee as “a church based school, a church that I actually attended.”
“According to the Esprit de Corps website, the “vision for the school was birthed from the mind of God in the heart of Dr. Jeannette C. Holmes-Vann, the Pastor and Founder of Hope Chapel Ministries, Inc.” The education philosophy guiding the school is based on “a return to a traditional educational model founded on Christian principles and values. In accordance with this vision, each component of the school was purposefully selected and designed.”
“A significant “component” of the Esprit de Corps school is its adherence to a fundamentalist Christian curriculum. Its official listing in a Jacksonville directory of private schools describes its education program as a “spiritual emphasis and Biblical [sic] view, which permeates the A-Beka curriculum.”
“A Beka is one of the most widely used K-12 curriculum series for home schooling and private Christian schools,” Rachel Tabachnick explains to me in an email. “This includes many private schools receiving public dollars through voucher and tax-credit programs.”
“Tabachnick has collected textbooks used by voucher and corporate tax-credit schools for over ten years, including curriculum from A Beka Book and Bob Jones University Press.
“In an investigative article for Alternet in 2011, Tabachnick writes, “Throughout the K-12 curriculum, A Beka consistently presents the Bible as literal history and science. This includes teaching young earth creationism and demeaning other religions and other Christian faiths including Roman Catholicism.”
“An A Beka history text she reviews teaches that “socialist propaganda” exaggerated the Great Depression “so that Franklin Delano Roosevelt could pass New Deal legislation” and that the Vietnam War “divided the country into the ‘hawks who supported the fight against Communism, and doves, who were soft on Communism.’”
“Tabachnick quotes a fourth-grade A Beka text that celebrates President Ronald Reagan’s presidency under a banner of “A Return to Patriotism and Family Values.” In describing President Bill Clinton’s administration, an A Beka high school history text calls First Lady Hilary Clinton’s effort to overhaul health care as a “plan for socialized medicine” and describes Vice President Al Gore as “known for his radical environmentalism.”
“Christ Is History, Africans Are Inferior
“In her emails to me, Tabachnick shares excerpts from a newer edition of A Beka’s textbook on “History and Civil Government” that teaches, “The first advent of Jesus Christ to earth – His incarnation, birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension – is the focal point of history. History began with God and His act of Creation. I climaxed with Gods’ act of redemption.” (emphasis original)
“In the current edition of A Beka’s 10th grade history text “World History and Cultures in Christian Perspective” Tabachnick shares with me, “modern liberalism” is described as “the desire to be free from absolute standards and morals, especially the Scriptures.”
“From this text, high school students like Denisha Merriweather learn, “The beginning of the 20th century witnessed a cultural breakdown that threatened to destroy the very roots of Western civilization. The cause of this of this dissolution was the idea or philosophy known as liberalism.” (emphasis original)
“The curriculum used by Esprit de Corps also taught Merriweather and her African American classmates about the innate inferiority of the African continent and its people.
“The textbooks teach the narrative that the people of African nations descended from Noah’s son Ham and that Ham’s descendant Nimrod led the rebellion against God by building the Tower of Babel,” Tabachnick tells me. This Biblically supported lesson is often referred to as “the curse of Ham,” which has historically been a primary justification for slavery among Southern Christians, according to numerous sources.
“In the A Beka text “History and Civil Government,” Adam and Eve are referred to as “the parents of humanity” and racial variations in human kind are described as the result of “recessive traits” due to “(1) a rapidly changing environment, (2) a small population, (3) and extensive inbreeding.”
“Current A Beka texts also falsely claim that only ten percent of the population of Africa is literate and that literacy rates may drop further because of communists shutting down mission schools,” Tabachnick tells me.”
Read the entire article. Ask yourself whether religious fundamentalism provides the kind of education that our nation’s children need to prepare for a complex world.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I guess theocracies are only bad when they are Muslim theocracies, not Jewish (Israel) or Christian (the future U.S.?) theocracies.
LikeLike
Ed,
Have you ever been to Israel? It is not a theocracy. There are Arab Israelis and Muslims in the Knesset, the Parliament. Christian holy sites are protected. No one is persecuted for their religious beliefs.
LikeLike
There are equal rights in Israel, to travel, build, own property?
LikeLike
GregB
Possibly for not much longer and certainly not in the occupied territories .
LikeLike
What does that comment even mean? Seems like Ed was chomping at the bit to drop that one regardless of the context of the original post.
LikeLike
I have lived in a theocracy, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I lived under Sharia law. I have no problem with religiously-operated schools, nor the material that these schools teach to the children there. There is a Madras (Islamic school) near my home. If this school wants to teach their children, that Mohammed (PBUH) is a prophet, and that the function of women is to bear sons, I am fine with that.
With the coming of school choice, religiously-operated schools will multiply and flourish. Good. This is part of our splendid American tradition (and constitutional right) of Freedom of Religion.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Add to that: Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists,Taoists, Wiccans, etc.
LikeLike
Charles,
Too bad you know so little about US history or the Foubding Fathers
LikeLike
Charles,
Most state constitutions say that public money is to be used only in public schools. Most states do not have vouchers. The Founders had a profound understanding of the religious wars that had wracked Europe for hundreds of years. They did not want to see these animosities replanted in their new country.
Charles,has it ever occurred to you that you are posting on the wrong blog? Most readers here are teachers, parents and graduates of public schools. We are strongly opposed to funding religious schools with public money. We don’t want the government to pay for Yeshivas, Madrassas, and schools using a Biblical curriculum.
You are entitled to your view. As I am entitled to mine. But it is awfully boring to respond to the same questions again and again.
LikeLike
Currently, about 40 (forty) states have some version of the “Blaine” amendment, which forbids the state from funding religious schools in their respective states.
See http://www.pewforum.org/2008/07/24/the-blaine-game-controversy-over-the-blaine-amendments-and-public-funding-of-religion/
The history of the Blaine amendments, is born in religious bigotry. When the wave of Catholic immigration hit the USA, public schools still had prayer and bible reading. The public schools were going to “protestantize” the immigrant children. When the Catholics set up their own schools (Like Muslims are doing now), many of the states brought in the Blaine amendments, to stanch the funding of Catholic-operated schools with public money.
The federal constitution was written in 1789, and James G. Blaine attempted to get a federal constitutional amendment barring funding of religiously-operated schools in 1875. When the federal amendment failed, the states picked up on the idea.
Give credit for the Blaine amendments, to whom it is due. Not the framers of the US constitution.
There is a case before the US Supreme Court now, which is going to send the Blaine amendments to the ash-heap of history.
See
http://www.adflegal.org/the-playground-case
and
http://www.adfmedia.org/News/PRDetail/8831
(There is a video that is well worth watching)
I am not reading/posting on a wrong blog. I find the comments and viewpoints here, interesting. I would not find such information elsewhere.
I graduated public school/university. I strongly support public education. I also support school choice. There is no conflict.
Religious institutions of higher learning, are being financed with the public purse, all over the USA. No one objects. University students get federal/state money to attend these institutions. It is only a matter of time, before the support goes to K-12. Already, in many states, public money is flowing to parents/children to attend non-public education.
LikeLike
Charles,
The best way to protect freedom of religion is to keep it independent of government funding. Where government money goes, accountability and mandates follow.
Case in point: Religious colleges in New York accepted state funding, and in exchange, agreed to remove religious symbolism and identity.
LikeLike
It sounds as though you endorse highly selective “freedom:” – “If this school wants to teach their children … that the function of women is to bear sons, I am fine with that.”
You’re fine with little girls being taught such things about themselves? Shame on you, and pity for any women or girls in your life.
The fact that you quote MLK while denying civil and human rights to half the population kicks this into its own category of flawed ideology… or perhaps these are the deliberate provocations of yet another web troll.
LikeLike
There is an Islamic Madras near my home. See http://www.kaa-herndon.com/
In this school, the tenets and pillars of Islam are taught. Including the Islamic belief, that the function of women is to bear sons. And that the husband has the right to discipline (beat) his wife. Islam also permits polygamy, the husband can have up to four(4) wives.
Although I do not personally subscribe to the beliefs of Islam, I support the right of this Madras, to teach their students anything they wish. Would you go into a Catholic school, and stop them from teaching about the Virgin Mary? Would you go to a Mormon school, and stop them from teaching that Joseph Smith was a prophet?
Since you wish to deny the freedom of Muslims to teach their religious beliefs, are there other beliefs you wish to censor?
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln Quotes. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.
LikeLike
Charles,
No one suggests denying anyone freedom of religion.
The position of many commmenters here is that taxpayers should not be expected to pay for schools that teach religious beliefs such as those you describe. Any school that gets public money would be subject to civil rights protections, academic standards, testing, etc. Many of the schools you like will have to abandon some of their practices and teachings once they get public money. If they prefer autonomy, they should not take public funding.
LikeLike
Q The position of many commmenters here is that taxpayers should not be expected to pay for schools that teach religious beliefs such as those you describe. Any school that gets public money would be subject to civil rights protections, academic standards, testing, etc. Many of the schools you like will have to abandon some of their practices and teachings once they get public money. If they prefer autonomy, they should not take public funding. END Q
You are quite correct. If people object to public funding of students attending religious institutions, and studying religious material, why do no one object to this occurring at the university level?
Taxpayers are subsidizing the educations of students at the Islamic University of Minnesota, where students are learning that women are inferior to men, and that husbands can beat their wives. Where is the outcry?
Universities which accept students, paying with BEOGs have not had to give up their religious dogmas or beliefs. Why would a middle school or high school, which accepts voucher students, have to relinquish their dogmas?
You are absolutely correct, that with government sheckels come shackles. Once non-public schools open up to students paid for by public money, the controls will not be far behind.
LikeLike
I am not a Muslim, and I do NOT practice Islam. Islam teaches certain concepts about women:
The husband has the right to beat his wife ( or wives)
A girl can marry as soon as she has her first menstrual period.
Marriages are arranged (in Saudi Arabia), often within cousins (children are born retarded, and with other congenital defects)
The testimony of a women in court is half the testimony of a man.
A man can divorce his wife, simply by saying “Tarlig”
Women may only eat at the same table with their relatives.
The function of women is to bear sons.
Women may not drive (In Saudi Arabia)
If a woman is divorced, the children remain the property of the ex-husbands family in perpetuity.
Adultery is a capital crime, women (and men) are executed for adultery. (It takes 4 male witnesses, or 8 female witnesses)
Read more about it at:
http://www.baronessgoudie.com/blog/2013/02/13/sharia-law-discriminates-against-women-and-children
Islam is the fastest growing religion in the USA. Muslims are setting up Madrasses, and teaching these concepts in their schools. Islamic universities are flourishing in the USA, and students are attending them, with BEOG’s and other taxpayer funding, such as the GI Bill, and student loans.
Where is the outrage?
LikeLike
Teaching that the function of women is to bear sons, is one of the minor points of Islam. I have detailed several other of the items that are taught in Islamic Universities and schools in the USA and abroad.
One concept that is also taught there (with your tax dollars going to the students), is Female Genital Mutilation. Islam teaches that a women is more likely to remain faithful to her husband, if she cannot achieve orgasm or pleasure during intercourse. Therefore, in many Islamic countries (and in the USA), the clitoris (and other female anatomy), is amputated after puberty.
Read all about it:
http://www.clarionproject.org/news/us-gov-covers-islamic-female-genital-mutilation
LikeLike
Charles,
Many religions have beliefs and practices that are strange, even abhorrent to others.
You have just given another reason why public funds should not be used to teach such practices. Genital mutilation is a “belief” to you. To me, it is a crime.
LikeLike
Q Genital mutilation is a “belief” to you. To me, it is a crime. END Q
Be Fair! I never said that FGM is a “belief”. I said it is a concept that is taught by some Muslims.
Tying a young girl down on the ground, and slicing off her clitoris with a piece of glass or a tin-can lid, is utterly disgusting and abhorrent to any civilized person.
I am ashamed of you.
LikeLike
Charles, as I read your comment, you said that religious schools should be funded by the public and should be free to teach their concepts. You identified genital mutilation as a concept “taught by some Muslims.” I wonder why you are ashamed of me for finding this concept repellent.
LikeLike
I wonder that, too, Diane.
Not to mention the belief, that he referenced, that husbands can beat their wives.
Among other things.
And he still thinks that public money should be going to schools that teach such beliefs? Which are, by the way, against the law in this country.
Oy!
LikeLike
Q I wonder that, too, Diane.
Not to mention the belief, that he referenced, that husbands can beat their wives.
Among other things.
And he still thinks that public money should be going to schools that teach such beliefs? Which are, by the way, against the law in this country.
Oy! END Q
Again, I am NOT a Muslim, and I do not support their beliefs and practices. (I could never give up beer and pork barbecue). I have lived in Saudi Arabia, under Sharia law, and it is not for me.
Islam teaches many concepts/beliefs/.practices, with which I do not agree. Do not blame the messenger.
Just because I study Islam, and report its beliefs, does not mean that I believe in Islam. Be fair.
The fact is, that Islam is being taught at Islamic Universities, all over the USA. Students are attending these universities, and using public money (BEOG, etc), to attend them. YOUR tax dollars are being used to teach Muslims, that men can beat on their wives, etc.
Public money is already going to universities which teach Islamic concepts and beliefs.
My question is, where is the outrage?
Freedom of religion is not absolute. The mormons had to renounce polygamy, before the Utah could be admitted to the Union, in 1895.
Do I believe that public money should go to parents who enroll their children in religious schools? Yes. Definitely.
LikeLike
Wait: what? Do you know what the Separation Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution says? Do you know how the United States Supreme Court has interpreted that clause? How is the flourishing of religious schools part of “our splendid American tradition (and constitutional right) of Freedom of Religion”? Do you have any evidence from history or jurisprudence to support that claim? Do you know what the European Enlightenment was?
LikeLike
Apparently, Charles has not read the 1st Amendment. Or if he has, he has not understood it.
I have no objection, myself, to any parents who want to send their kids to a religious school. As long as the school gets no public funding and the parents get no tax credits for the tuition they pay. They want a religious school, they can pay for it.
LikeLike
Wait: what? Do you know what the Separation Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution says?
-Yes. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; ….
There is no specific “separation” clause or phrasing in the first amendment.
The amendment only says that there shall be no establishment of religion, nor prohibition of the free exercise of religion.
Do you know how the United States Supreme Court has interpreted that clause?
-Yes. There are a multitude of cases. My favorites are Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002), and Abingdon v. Schempp (1963).
How is the flourishing of religious schools part of “our splendid American tradition (and constitutional right) of Freedom of Religion”?
Many of the finest universities in the USA, are religiously-affiliated. Harvard and Yale were founded to train ministers. The Amish run their own schools, where they teach religion (and other topics) to their youth. Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, Muslims all establish and run institutions of learning.
I have lived in a communist dictatorship and an Islamic kingdom. Only in a free society, can various religions set up and run schools and houses of worship, freely.
Do you have any evidence from history or jurisprudence to support that claim?
-Yes. I visited Dachau concentration camp, and I saw up close and personal the history of religious and racial bigotry.
Do you know what the European Enlightenment was?
-Yes
LikeLike
Here’s the problem Charles: in every instance you cite of religions developing their own denominational schools, they did so on their own dime–they were, as the First Amendment requires, “separate” from the Federal Government. What Betsy DeVos wants to do is allow religious schools to receive–in a violation of the separation clause that is abundantly clear to me–government funds through the backdoor of vouchers. That, I believe, is the issue at stake in this discussion.
And what has Dachau to do with any of this?
LikeLike
I have read and memorized the First Amendment. I cherish it. I lived in a country where just believing in a religion (other than Islam), would get your jailed or barred from the country.
Here it is:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
LikeLike
The word “Separation” never occurs in the First Amendment. And yes, I do know the exact wording of the amendment.
Here it is:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
I also know how the Supreme Court has interpreted the establishment clause. My favorites are the Cleveland voucher case, and Abingdon v. Schempp (1963).
The USA is a land of many different religious faiths and religious traditions. Congregationalists in Massachusetts, Baptists in Rhode Island, Quakers in Pennsylvania, Huguenots in South Carolina, Amish in Ohio, Mormons in Utah, Hindus in California, and on and on.
Many of these religions set up schools to teach their young people. The right of religions to set up schools is beyond dispute.
And, parents have the right to send their children to religious schools, instead of government-run public schools. See Pierce, Governor of Oregon, et al. v. Society of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, 268 U.S. 510 (1925)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierce_v._Society_of_Sisters
The Pierce case, hammers it home. Religious groups can set up schools, and parents can send their children to these schools, instead of public schools. The education of children in religious schools, is corollary to the free exercise of religion.
And yes, I have heard of the enlightenment.
LikeLike
Q Here’s the problem Charles: in every instance you cite of religions developing their own denominational schools, they did so on their own dime–they were, as the First Amendment requires, “separate” from the Federal Government. What Betsy DeVos wants to do is allow religious schools to receive–in a violation of the separation clause that is abundantly clear to me–government funds through the backdoor of vouchers. That, I believe, is the issue at stake in this discussion.
And what has Dachau to do with any of this? END Q
Of course, the instances I cited, were of different religions developing their own schools, all on their own, without any disbursal of government funds.
It is important to note, that it was not until 1925, that the Supreme Court addressed the issue of religions being able to set up schools, and that parents had the right to refuse the public school education.
The first amendment addresses two(2) issues. Establishment of religion, and freedom of religion. Establishment of religion, is the government using tax dollars to set up a religion. And the free exercise clause, covers the individual’s right to worship according to the dictates of conscience.
I have read the First Amendment, front to back, and I cannot find any mention of schools. The Amendment does not require any individual to do anything. The Amendment is a “check” on the power of government, prohibiting government from setting up a religion, and prohibiting government from interfering with an individual’s religious exercise.
School choice/vouchers tread on neither of these issues. The Supreme Court held in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002), that public monies could be rebated to individual parents, as long as the voucher payments were part of an overall school choice plan.
Today, in Indiana, and about 11 other states, parents are exercising their free choice to utilize their voucher payments, at the school of their choice. Vouchers are redeemed at religious schools, and there is no constitutional issue.
see
http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/voucher-law-comparison.aspx
And my visit to Dachau, is not related to the school choice issue, I was stressing my complete revulsion to religious and racial bigotry.
LikeLike
Hmmm, Charles, you’ve seem to have left out quite a few of us in being able to be supposedly “free at last”. You know those non-believer, agnostics, atheists. Oh, that’s covered under your “etc.”
The day this country elects an atheist, dark skinned, transgendered or non-gendered person as president will be the day that “we are free at last.
LikeLike
This is sickening. How can “Christian’ beliefs stray so far from the ‘love thy neighbor’ message that Jesus gave?
The love of Jesus includes all people. It is not limited to a few who think they are the best and act as if nothing else matters. They have strayed too far. It is not right to have children learn this message. God’s message is to love everyone. We are all the same and deserve to be treated equally.
LikeLike
Which god’s whose message of “to love everyone” should one believe, if believe it at all?
While I heartily concur with the second half of your last sentence that all should be treated equally (but we are not “all the same” at all), religious beliefs wherein “my one god” is the only one has been the source of not treating all equally throughout at least Western history. Each man’s interpretation of that “one god” is a major part of the problem. And Enlightenment thinking has attempted to surpass that type of thinking.
LikeLike
throughout at least most of Western history. Ay ay ay.
LikeLike
“That we are all the same’ means that we are all worthy of respect. There is no one religion that should claim the exclusivity of righteousness. All of mankind needs love, respect, a home, healthcare, adequate food and the basics to live a fulfilled life.
There are different religions but all point to loving each other. It is the extreme elements that miss this message.
Statistics have shown that our DNA is 99.99% the same. It is false divisions that cause problems.
Mankind is the only species that spends so much energy and creativity to kill our own members.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Carolmalaysia, data also indicate that humans share 98.8% of our DNA with chimpanzees. Just saying.
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/human-origins-and-cultural-halls/anne-and-bernard-spitzer-hall-of-human-origins/understanding-our-past/dna-comparing-humans-and-chimps/
LikeLike
Mankind isn’t the only species to do horrendous things to its own kind. We just have mastered it (unfortunately much of that violence is dogma driven).
LikeLike
The history of organized religion in a nutshell:
My God is better than your dog … I mean god.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“But it needs to be noted that few public school students have had such prominent venues to repeatedly tell their success stories.”
Correct that to “no public school students have such prominent venues to tell their success stories”
Which is deliberate. A deliberate and careful exclusion of the stories of successful students who go to public schools.
50 million public school students and the US Department of Education can’t find a single one who is happy in their school and a successful student. That seems unlikely. I suspect they aren’t looking very hard.
LikeLike
Even if she attended a non-religious private school, the question still remains whether her turnaround was solely because of the private school or if a change in her other life circumstances helped.
-She moved in with her godmother into a Habitat for Humanity home where she finally had her own room, which in her own words, gave her “stability.”
-She didn’t have to switch schools anymore.
-Her godmother had a job with a decent wage.
-Her godmother was a good role model.
-She was enrolled in an after school community program that provided academic support and structure after school.
These are outside of school things that she didn’t have when she was in her public school.
Read her story here: https://www.the74million.org/article/denisha-merriweather-in-her-own-words-the-private-school-scholarship-that-changed-my-life
LikeLike
Teaher111,
I don’t know what turned her life around. I don’t think public money should fund fundamentalist schools that don’t teach accurate, up to date math, science, and history.
LikeLike
Tax monies shouldn’t fund any religious schools, fundamentalist or not no matter what they teach.
LikeLike
Agreed, Duane.
There is a long established principle of separation of church and state.
Any church that needs government funding to survive doesn’t have much of a following.
And any church that relies on government funding will eventually lose its religious identity and autonomy.
The founders understood this.
DeVos doesn’t.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Duane E Swacker
I’m with Duane.
LikeLike
Given that all recognized churches are tax exempt (including from real estate taxes) all are already effectively receiving government funding.
And since many (if not all) of those churches are involved in “educating” their members in some shape or form, they all effectively receive government money for church dictated education.
Not only that, many churches engage indirectly (eg, through PACs) in political campaigning and lobbying, which is (supposedly) strictly forbidden for any non-profit.
The tax exemptions amount to billions of dollars every year and the fact that churches are exempted from real estate tax has a direct impact on public schools, since many school districts are funded through property taxes.
LikeLike
My argument was that the improved circumstances outside of school that happened around the time she transferred out of public school possibly played a more significant role in her success and not just the fact that she went to a private school. The voucher crowd would have the public think that the private/charter school was the catalyst for her change and similar changes in other students.
Imagine how many troubled students would change if they got a new home, their parent/guardian got a stable, good paying job, and they had the means to pay for structured activities outside of the school day.
LikeLike
It’s funny that Jeb Bush and Trump and DeVos exclude any mention of successful public school students, because if I were an ed reformer and people thought I wanted to eradicate public schools I would go out of my way to find a public school student who was successful AS A RESULT of ed reforms. They could say “look at this example – we’re not opposed to public schools, in fact, we made a public school better”.
Maybe they can’t find any because there are no public school students in Florida who benefited from Jeb Bush’s ed reforms so they have to go to private schools.
LikeLike
Well, since she attended a Christian fundamentalist, “literal interpretation of the Bible” school, I guess I’m glad that she at least is not going into a scientific field. Small comfort, that. Very small.
But how did and does she really feel about what she learned at Esprit de Corps regarding the “innate inferiority” of Africans? What, is she suffering from Stockholm syndrome?
I don’t want any taxpayer dollars going to any schools that teach sh!t like this, especially private schools, or charter schools, or any schools not accountable to the public.
And frankly, if any public schools are trying to teach such garbage, they should lose all their funding, as well.
LikeLike
Glad to see er college studies (apparently in social work) taught her some thing good: “I hope to see all schools serving children in poverty embrace a wraparound model, providing not only education but also health, social, dental, and other community services such as after-school programs.” (from the 74 site cited above.) Hopefully a core curriculum corrected some of the misinformation taight at the fundamentalist school.
I think it is repulsive that her Afro-American fundamentalist Christian school teaches poor black kids that God started Africans off on the wrong foot.
LikeLike
Remember that god is infallible, omniscient, omni-present!
(At least according to their myths)
LikeLike
It’s not that God started Africans off on the wrong foot.
It’s that She started Africans off on the wrong continent.
So both feet were involved.
LikeLike
And yes, all should definitely read Bryant’s article.
The fundamentalist xtian regressive right has been working to get to this point with so many of its adherents in powerful political positions since the 70s. We have to continue fighting this hydra and can’t give in to their biased, close-minded dogmatic way of thinking/being.
LikeLike
I do not know of any religion, though I think there has to be one somewhere, which has a fundamental belief that there are two gods, one male, one female. Otherwise they are the same as there is only one god religions. Perhaps if one existed and had a significant number of members…..litigation could happen against one god religions receiving public money……it would be a form of sexual disrimination. As far as I am concerned, that is already the case.
LikeLike
Many native American religions had/have more than one deity — eg father sky and mother earth.
If there is actually just one God who is responsible for creation of life, wouldn’t God have to be a hermaphrodite?
I know.
I’m probably going to hell for even asking that question.
LikeLike
I guess we’ll have a jolly ol time down there together, eh, SDP?
LikeLike
Look forward to the contests between the atheist voucher schools’ debate teams and the fundamentalist voucher schools debate teams (oh wait, the Republican regime will figure out a way to shut down atheist voucher schools).
LikeLike
Like!
Except that aren’t all public schools atheist? At least in the eyes of so-called believers like Betsy DeVos??
LikeLike
They are worse than atheist.
Much worse.
They are Liberal.
In other words, they worship Satan.
LikeLiked by 1 person
DeVos family says public schools are “godless.” It is true. When you have students from many different religions, nonsectarian schools are best.
LikeLiked by 1 person
RE: the grand plan for block-funding of voucherized school choice:
(a) The article says “One of the easiest ways Trump could make good on his promise to expand [school choice]… is to create a federal tax credit that incentivizes corporations to donate to state programs such as Florida’s. Such a credit could be embedded in a broader tax code overhaul that would need a simple majority in Congress to pass…
how these tax-credit programs work – they give individuals and corporations tax breaks when they donate to nonprofits which then distribute the money in the form of scholarships to private schools.”
That sounds much more complicated than Trump’s proposed “use $20 billion of existing federal dollars to establish a block grant for the 11 million school age kids living in poverty. Individual states will be given the option as to how these funds will be used.”
(b) How on earth is the ED (& the many state DOEds which have incorporated their policies) going to square public funding of curriculums like Esprit de Corps’ A Beka curriculum w/state stds/ assessments? I can see it if states do not venture beyond Math & Eng, but I gather many already have science stds in the works or onboard. [Are there any history stds in the works?]… Is the plan to just scrap/ abort state stds/ assessments for science & history?
LikeLike
Here’s how: make standards all about skills, not content. This is already the case in ELA. Soon will be in science and history.
LikeLike
“Is the plan to just scrap/ abort state stds/ assessments for science & history?”
We can only dream so!!
LikeLike
Thanks Diane!
LikeLike
Great article, Jeff.
LikeLike
Excellent article,Jeff! Thank you! Have already passed it on to others with attribution to you of course!
LikeLike
Trump is an object lesson in how “success” in this society can be totally fake.
LikeLike
Until we see his tax returns, I won’t believe he is a billionaire
Probably floated on debt from world’s richest man: Putin
LikeLike
Not according to Forbes. Putin isn’t even in the top 10, but then again some of those funding edudeform are.
LikeLike
DeVos should open two school chains, one based on magical thinking, the other based on magic. Trump should open another online university based on sidewalk scams.
LikeLike
Conservative values. That’s an oxymoron if I ever heard one.
LikeLike
The modern “conservative” is not a conservative at all. He/she is a reactionary regressive who would like to MAGA (sic) back to a time that never was and never will be.
LikeLike
The anti-public school campaign in ed reform is really ramping up with Trump’s election.
Here’s The 74:
https://www.the74million.org/
Every single piece on public schools is negative, every single piece on charter or private schools is positive.
These people run public education and they’re opposed to public schools. The worst part is, public schools often PAY them as consultants and speakers!
You’re really not obligated to hire people who are opposed to the continued existence of your public school. That’s just dumb.
Eva Moskowitz would never hire anyone who spent their entire professional career lobbying against charter schools. Why should public schools?
There’s no duty to fund the political opposition to your school. Abstain. Boycott.
LikeLike
I plan to open a charter school that aims to bring back the rich New York City tradition of three-card monte scams on public sidewalks. If atavism and superstition is what we want in our schools, then what the heck, let’s go whole hog.
LikeLike
Where do I apply?
LikeLike
Duane, you’re going to need the classroom materials the syllabus requires. Get thee to a 99-cents store and buy: 1. A TV tray; 2. a deck of cards
LikeLiked by 1 person
I may need a little professional development. Any suggestions?
LikeLike
Maybe something on Youtube? In the almost 14 years I’ve lived in the Five Boroughs, I’ve only seen one three-card monte game in progress. Back when I used to visit here in the late seventies and early eighties, you could barely walk down any street without seeing one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Do you need an ESL teacher?
LikeLiked by 1 person
“In an investigative article for Alternet in 2011, Tabachnick writes, ”
I really appreciate it when people are not sparing any effort to do such good investigative work.
LikeLike
So is this why there so many attacks on Jewish schools? A friend of mine just took her child out of a Jewish school here in Florida after a third bomb threat. Is this tactic to get the schools to close so there aren’t any to qualify for funding? Sort of like Texas déjà vu they require abortion clinics to meet certain standards which they can’t they close and then when that standard is found unconstitutional there are no funds to reopen them
LikeLike