Charles Foster Johnson, leader of Pastors for Texas Children, explains why he opposes vouchers and how he is organizing like-minded faith leaders in Indiana and other states.
He believes in separation of church and state, a basic article of religious freedom.
He doesn’t want his tax dollars supporting religious faith he does not share, as he does not want the government subsidizing his own faith. That’s the reason for separation of church and state.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is good news and the argument is both reasonable and concise.
LikeLike
Johnson and the other Texas pastors’ outreach into other communities is commendable. I hope they can get some vocal African American pastors to support strong public schools as poor minority students have been the primary target of privatization. There is an abundance of black Black and integrated Baptist churches across the south that need to hear about the pitfalls of privatization so they can learn how to organize to defend the right of their children to attend a public school. In the north the AME churches also would benefit from hearing the Texas pastors’ message.
LikeLike
What is striking about Johnson’s point of view is the degree to which it hardens back to the day when churches saw government interference in religious matters as European-style politics, a thing to be avoided. Fresh from the violence of the reformation, early American thought saw ties between governments and religious organizations as the motivating factor in the continual wars many of them had come across the pond to escape.
As Johnson points out in this interview, all of the divergent religions have a vested interest in steering clear of particular theology becoming the companion of schooling. What he did not point out is how the vouchers would creep into the faith-based schools, pushing them toward a more homogeneous religious group. To an extent this would threaten the religion more than it would the public. Already, private religious schools seem willing to compromise values to field winning ball teams. It should be obvious to all what addiction to voucher money from the state will do.
Separation of church and state helps us all. Universal education helps us all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
As I described below, calling for the eviction of the “money changers” from both education and politics is a logical next step in this preachers battle.
LikeLike
A while back, I wrote a post expressing my great chagrin with the editorial writer for the New York Times.
Here is an example, in a post by Alan Singer, who offers the Times list of possible chancellors, including John King, who never met a standardized test or a no-excuses charter he didn’t like, and John White, the voucher-loving TFA Broadie now in Louisiana.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/1/18/1733788/-Times-Endorses-Anti-Fari-a-Candidates-for-NYC-School-Chancellor-Alan-Singer-on-the-Daily-Kos?_=2018-01-18T03:21:07.368-08:00
LikeLike
well said
LikeLike
Good for the pastors of Indiana.
In the meanwhile Donnie boy sells property in FL to the Russians:
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-sold-40-million-estate-russian-oligarch-100-million-and-democratic-802613
NOTE the Russians paid: $100 million for a $40 million estate.
I thought people who read Diane’s blog need to know this latest move by Donnie boy.
LikeLike
This is encouraging news!
LikeLike
Great guy, this pastor. I’d suggest that he look to the story of Jesus throwing the money changers out of the temple as a biblical example of another way, another front to move forward on: laying bare the influence of money on education. The ultra wealthy money changers now afflicting education policy must be evicted from the temples of both public education and of government itself. How are the Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions not understood as the being a blasphemy that favors the money changers over the all others? Why do we not demand that “One citizen, ONE VOICE, one vote.” be made the law of the land?
LikeLike
On the other hand…
“One myth that Americans live by is the separation of church and state. Some like the idea; others hate it; but the irony is that church and state were not separated at the founding of the United States and are not separate now. In fact, they were united in the sense that the state is a church — the Church of America — and you can’t separate a thing from itself. The religion this church administers is not Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, or anything else that comes to mind when most people think the word religion. It’s Americanism, a species of nationalism. Nationalism and religion are cut from the same cloth.”
Full FAITH and credit…
National HOLI(Y)DAYS.
LikeLike
Historians refer to this as the civil religion. It is fraught with problems. Democratic institutions are messy. One aspect of it has been th lack of favor shown to any sectarian group. The Know Nothings were a minority.
LikeLike
Dear ICPE members and those interested in the Texas Pastors for Public Education.
While we are delighted to hear about the support for public education from the Texas Pastors for Public Education, we have a few reservations about an alliance with any religious group.
On the surface their voice against tax dollars being used for vouchers and home schooling seems as though we have the same goals for educating our young people. My fear, and one I have seen play out in the classroom, is the promotion of religious ideologies in our schools. This can start out innocently such as inviting students to church programs and bringing books to read that espouse a particular religion. The very thought that our schools could be used to promote religious ideologies concerns me.
The idea that religious leaders including pastors are the “voice of moral authority” strikes me as promoting religion over our constitution, our Bill of Rights and our democracy. Our moral authority is our belief that in a democracy all have a right to believe and practice their own beliefs.
There are many references to “God” in Rev. Johnson’s statements, and we believe an alliance with religious organizations have the potential to lead to the “slippery slope” and the promotion of a particular religion influencing what students learn and believe.
Religious organizations play an important role in our communities already. Regardless of the good intentions, there can and will be unintended consequences. We are not comfortable with ICPE embracing this alliance without carefully considering the ‘strings’ that will be attached to the resources offered.
In conclusion, we recommend we proceed cautiously and ask question such as, who will monitor this activity? Who will make judgments and evaluate the activities they will propose?
Our public education system should be the pinnacle of freedom of and from religious ideology.
Phillip & Joan Harris
LikeLike
I would submit that you are confusing Baptists like Johnson with those like Jerry Falwell. Shakespeare famously suggests that “all that glisters is not gold”. I would suggest that everybody who makes reference to God is not trying to seriptitiously move you in some amoral direction. To some people, God’s direction is toward good for his children, an all inclusive group of not just Christians, but all people on earth.
My mother prayed each night at the dinner table for “all your people everywhere”. I can guarentee that included every human in the world, for I knew her well.
LikeLike
Phillip and Joan Harris,
You misread Rev. Charles Foster zjohnson. He has no ambition to insert his religion into public schools. He is devoted to separation of church and state. He has fought for increased public school funding. He is our friend and ally.
LikeLike
I share the same concerns with Joan and Phillip Harris. It appears that the Charles Foster and his group appear to be more like some of the religious folk in the early 1800s who argued strongly and consistently against any religious/religion involvement by the government. I sure hope so.
LikeLike
I agree with those who say that religious and the state should be separate. Why don’t you?
LikeLike
You have my take on the issue wrong, Diane.
I worry about some religious folk who have shown that they will use any kind deceit possible to get their version of the god mythology cult into the body politic. These folks have talked a good secular game in the past as a means of lulling others into thinking that they are oh so innocently for the separation of church and state, when, indeed, they aren’t and are using that separation as a Trojan Horse to get what their preferred brand of xtianity foisted onto others.
LikeLike
Joan, for those of us self-diagnosed as AIIDS*, please explain what ICPE stands for. Gracias.
*Acronym Identification Impairement Disorder Syndrome-soon to be in the DSMX
LikeLike
Just a reminder that all of ed reform assured people that charters wouldn’t lead to vouchers, and yet that’s exactly what happened.
We were misled. Democrats, specifically, misled their voters.
All of ed reform is backing vouchers now, in their usual lockstep manner.
Is anyone in the “movement” ever going to address this? That they blatantly lied to voters about vouchers?
LikeLiked by 1 person
and, importantly, are voters interested in being enlightened: many in the public realm have been/are sucking up the Big Money messages as unassailable truth.
LikeLike
This is easy – for red states, get a billboard saying “Do you want to give your tax dollars to Madrassas?”. In blue states, say “Trump doesn’t believe in separation of church and state”.
That’s why we should all appreciate the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in Texas. Whatever “established” religions can apply for, so can they.
LikeLike
In states that have school choice/vouchers, this is already happening. Indiana has four(4) Islamic schools, and Indiana parents are eligible to receive vouchers to pay for tuition at these (and other religiously-operated) schools.
LikeLike
We need this kind of action against High stakes testing it is stripping students of options.
LikeLike