The North Carolina Council of Churches has joined with parents and other supporters of public education to push back against the privatization movement in North Carolina.
“NC Faith Leaders for Public Education Training in Salisbury
9:30-11:30 a.m. Sept. 12
The Council has committed anew to support public schools in our communities and to advocate on behalf of public education in our state. In this two-hour session, learn to engage in both support and advocacy by joining NC Faith Leaders for Public Education, a network of faith leaders and community members committed to supporting public schools.
https://www.ncchurches.org/priorities/public-education/ to learn more about NC Faith Leaders for Public Education.”
Their help is desperately needed.
The barbarians are inside the gates.
Radical extremists gained control of the legislature in 2010 and enacted an agenda that will intensify inequality, restrict voting rights, and crush public education. The courts have repeatedly struck down their gerrymandered districts. The Tea Party legislature enacted charter schools, including for-profit charters; vouchers; online charter schools; replaced the highly successful North Carolina Teaching Fellows program (which prepared career educators) with Teach for America; and waged war on the teaching profession.
North Carolina was once the most progressive state in the South. No more.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This following is an exercise I found at the wwebsite. It is an extended effort to connect key passages in the Bible to public education. The commentary and illustrationsare from one minister/mother of a public school student. I am reminded of long-ago Sunday School lessons, not nearly as generous in spirit as these commentaries.
https://www.ncchurches.org/lectionary/public-education-2/#text
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Diane, you are the one ( and some others) who are always wailing about the separation of church and state. Now, when some churches are advancing the agenda that you support, your opposition to the “wall of separation”, has disappeared.
Isn’t this a double standard?
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Nope. No double standard. The churches are not asking for government money. They are asking to strengthen the wall of separation.
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I truly believe that the PRIVATIZERS, who are just DEFORMERS of Public Education really like “screwing” teachers and kids. WHY? Their kids attend private schools.
Plus, here’s the real reason: The deformers of public education need serfs and slaves to do their biddings.
At the same time, they make money off the backs of other people’s kids who are not entitled like them and their children.
It’s really this simple and SICK.
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Vice’s latest feature on Friday was about the Christian right and its involvement in politics. The show featured North Carolina and the grassroots work of Christian volunteers, mostly seniors, that go door to door encouraging people to vote for conservative candidates and issues. When people are not home, they leave a door hanger with suggestions on voting. Some of them also stand outside public buildings in which new citizens are sworn in, and try to get them to register Republican.
The show also featured a meeting of the Southern Baptist Conference where they are facing a schism with regard to politics. Some members are protesting the increasing political entanglements, but many others believe Baptists should openly support conservative legislation.
I am glad there are religious people in NC that continue to fight for public education.
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Is there a link for this feature?
I am troubled about religious organizations, getting involved in politics. This is not in keeping with our tradition of separation of church and state. (I have no serious issue with individuals [of a religious persuasion] getting involved in politics. )
If a religious organization starts pushing for a political agenda, the organization should have their non-profit religious tax exemption pulled.
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Oh, you want religious schools to get government money, but you don’t want churches to advocate for public schools.
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I support the concept of families being empowered to make the educational choices for their children. I do not support religious institutions , who have tax exemptions, advocating political causes. The “wall of separation” is meant to keep the government out of religious affairs, and to keep religions out of governmental affairs.
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you are a hypocrite. It is okay for pastors to advocate for funding of religious schools, but wrong if they advocate against funding of religious schools. Nonsense.
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No hypocrisy on my part. I do NOT advocate for pastors/priests/imams/rabbis, pushing any political agenda. I do NOT advocate religious leaders pushing for funding of religious schools. (I do support religious individuals/organizations setting up schools, universities, etc. on their own).
I also believe that pastors,etc should not be pushing the agenda of stopping the empowerment of parents, to be in control of their children’s educations.
We need to keep the wall of separation, operating in both directions. If we permit religious tax-free organizations to dictate political agenda, in either direction, then our splendid tradition of separation of church and state, is in the trash. Dead and gone.
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Preachers and priests and rabbis are openly supporting vouchers. I didn’t hear you object to that.
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Then you may consider this my strenuous objection. I object to religious leaders/organizations pushing for OR against any political agenda. And, this includes school choice/vouchers.
I have lived in a religious theocracy. Anyone who has ever lived under Islamic sharia law, would tend to agree with me.
I have actually met people, who have told me that the USA is a “Christian nation”. I am appalled that anyone would be in that mindset.
Unless we have a separation of church and state, we are on the road to a religious theocracy. God forbid it.
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You don’t get it, Charles.
You sit silently while religious leaders say “give me government money.”
But you object when religious leaders say selflessly, “I don’t want government money.”
The former is selfish. The latter is selfless.
But you can’t tell the difference.
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Separation of church and state means NO GOVERNMENT MONEY FOR RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS. PERIOD.
Not yeshivas. Not madrassas. Not any religious schools. None.
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It is you who does not get it. I strenuously object to any religious leader/organization,
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You just want to use your taxes and mine to fund religious activities.
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Sorry, you are still not getting it. I am opposed to the use of public tax dollars to fund religious activities. The constitution prohibits the establishment of religion.
I am opposed to religious leaders/organizations groveling before politicians to advance any political agenda. And, this means either promoting the disbursement of funds for religious activities, or the opposition to the disbursement.
A religious organization must know that with federal sheckles, come federal shackles. If you permit a government to come into your religion with money, that federal regulation will be right there, along with the funding.
You say Q You sit silently while religious leaders say “give me government money.”END Q
I most certainly do not. If a religion starts to ask the government for financing, I will be the first to demand that no such thing ever occurs.
Then you say Q But you object when religious leaders say selflessly, “I don’t want government money.” END Q
I most certainly do not. When a religious leader/organization steps up and says that no tax money comes into my religious organization, I will be the first to applaud. The first amendment prohibits the establishment of religion. Every religion should know this, and demand to be free of the restraints that accompany the public money.
Then you claim: Q Separation of church and state means NO GOVERNMENT MONEY FOR RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS. PERIOD. END Q
I am 1000% percent in agreement with you. There must be no public funds going to religiously-operated schools.
However. there is a compromise. The Supreme Court has ruled, that when the government provides parents/students with public money, that the parents make the choice to send their children to a religiously-operated school, and the parents make the decision, as part of an overall school choice program, that there is no violation of the establishment clause.
This has been settled constitutional law, for over 16 years.
Currently, in the USA, no public money is going to any religious school, anywhere.
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Q You just want to use your taxes and mine to fund religious activities. END Q
I most certainly do not. NEVER. No public money must ever to go a religion for religious activities. FORBID IT ALMIGHTY GOD!
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Really?
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My mistake. There is public money flowing to some religiously-operated schools. Money can be provided for safety equipment, and other such items. (See Trinity School District v. Pauley, 2017) .
Other funds go to such items like transportation.
The constitutionality of funds going to families to assist them in meeting the costs of attending religiously-operated schools has been the law of the land for over 16 years.
Why do some people continue to “beat a dead horse”, and continue to insist that there is a violation of the establishment clause, when clearly there is not?
In your own state of New York, the law requires that textbooks be provided to all students in grades 7-12, including private schools. The Supreme Court ruled in the cast of Board of Education v. Allen (1968), that this program was neutral with respect to religion.
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Any, I repeat, any public money flowing to a religious private sector school and/or sect, money that is lost to traditional public schools, is using public money to fund that a religious sect or it’s school doesn’t have to spend as an operational expense. That frees up funds that the religious sect or religious school can spend elsewhere like paying for lobbyists to influence elected officials.
“Religious Groups Spend $400 Million Annually Lobbying in DC, Study Finds”
“The number of religious groups lobbying in Washington D.C. has grown five times larger from 1970 to today, according to a Pew report released Monday.
“The number of lobbyists grew from only 40 religious advocacy groups in 1970 to nearly 200 today. The growth has accounted for 1,000 jobs in the Washington D.C. area.
“The study found that just under $400 million is spent annually by the lobbyists to influence lawmakers on more than 300 issues, according to the study.”
https://www.christianpost.com/news/religious-groups-spend-400-million-annually-lobbying-in-dc-study-finds-62750/
The Koch brothers founded ALEC in 1973. I think both the explosive growth of religious groups lobbling in Washington D.C. and ALEC are interconnected.
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Q Any, I repeat, any public money flowing to a religious private sector school and/or sect, money that is lost to traditional public schools END Q
I disagree. Consider the case in Missouri, at the Trinity school. The state provided shredded tire chips to the religious school. No money was robbed from the public school system.
In some states, the state government uses money to provide for transportation or books, or other such non-instructional items. The state would have bought the books anyway, regardless of whether the students attended a public school or not.
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The examples you give do not include tuition.
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Sorry, but there is no current link on YouTube, other than a trailer. However, it is being shown on HBO this week under the title “American Piety and Terror in Congo.” These are two separate topics on the show. According to my HBO schedule, the show will be repeated today at 9:35 PM, tomorrow at 3:00 PM, and Thursday at 7:30 PM. You should check your local listings as I am in the Central Time zone.
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“Radical extremists gained control of the legislature in 2010”
My first read through of that phrase saw “Racist” instead of “Radical” so I propose a revision:
“Radical racist extremists gained control of the NC legislature in 2010” and they call themselves Tea Party People.
What kind of tea do they drink?
They drink a tea brewed by the KKK that roasts the pages of Bibles to come up with the dried and crumbled, bagged Biblical tea blessed by their Lilly white pure high IQ god.
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I wonder how many TeaPartyPeople actually drink tea?
Or know anything about the price of tea in China?
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The Tea Party People don’t drink tea. They drink illegal moonshine with a very high alcohol content — so much alcohol that it kills brain cells until there is no brain left.
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TAGO!
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Since the tea party gained control of the Republican Party, you do not hear the phrase much anymore. Perhaps that is because the 2010 image that wrested control of both houses from the hapless democrats does not really function as an image of power, it being related to the riot that challenged the ascendancy of the British and thrust the colonies into open rebellion. Nothing to be rebellious about now. They better be quiet. Now they own all the failures and can be unseated by another insurgency.
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Moshe Schulman attended a public school for the first time as a high school junior. His prior experience was at an ultra orthodox Jewish school. He wrote about how public school gave him insights that made him a better person in an April 26, 2018 article for Forward. If there are truly reformers who want privatization for religious reasons, they should read the article.
Forward.com/opinion/399839/growing-up-orthodox-i-was-taught-to-fear-black-people/
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