In Florida, the Governor and legislators proclaim their love of “equality,” as they funnel millions of public dollars to religious schools that openly discriminate against LGBT students.
The state currently spends $1 billion a year on vouchers and the Legislature recently voted to expand them.
During pride month, Florida politicians love talking about their passion for equality.
They’re much less eager to talk about the anti-equality programs they fund the rest of the year — specifically millions of public dollars they send to schools that discriminate against LGBT families and even expel students who say they’re gay.
At one of Florida’s approved voucher schools in Brevard County, for example, being gay is actually the only expellable offense listed in the school’s “ethics” policy.
Lying, cheating and destruction of school property are also bad, according to the Merritt Island Christian School student handbook — but only to the extent that they’re listed as “Class II infractions” worthy of punishments like a five-day suspension.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is Florida we are talking about — the experimental property of Jeb Bush who in own mind believes is the savior of the Florida’s public education system. Jeb Bush the leader to privatize public schools no matter what it takes.
Jeb is the puppetmaster. Betsy DeVos is one of his puppets.
Right wing Christians use their religious views as grounds to discriminate a particular group, in this case LGBTs. Unfortunately, LGBTs are not a protected class in many states. Public money should not be used by states in religious schools or those that discriminate against LGBTs. The US is not a theocracy so public money should be spent on public, not religious schools.
The Florida voucher promotion was a national ed reform event:
“Two decades after then-Gov. Jeb Bush started a broad push for school choice, the Florida House on Tuesday approved a closely watched expansion that will provide vouchers to thousands of children to attend private schools.
As a sign of the significance of the bill (SB 7070), Bush made a rare appearance in the Capitol and was seated on the House floor for the vote. He was flanked by Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, another longtime voucher supporter, and Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton.”
Nothing for public schools, though. The lawmakers were apparently too busy marketing and promoting the private schools they prefer to get anything done for public school students this year.
Another productive year in ed reform- once again, they provide nothing of any practical value to public school students and families. Our students are the dead-last priority, tacked on as an afterthought to ed reform initiatives – that’s when they’re not actively bashing our students and schools in order to better market private schools.
The new aspect of the latest voucher program in Florida is that the previous plans pretended not to take money from public schools, as they were disguised as tax credits. The new ones drops the pretense and diverts funding from the public schools that 80% of the state’s children attend.
Yup. Hence the timeliness of this article. Here it is, FL voters: your tax $ pulled out of your district pubsch operating funds to support anti-LGBT voucher schools. Keep voting in those Reps.
Good thing we still have some public schools to take the students private schools reject.
DO public schools still exist in Florida? One would never know it reading within the ed reform echo chamber.
The entire West Virginia state government has also been hijacked by charter/voucher lobbyists:
“At stake, in addition to political clout, is a multifaceted education bill that promotes charter schools, among other things. GOP Senate leaders are backing it and Trump’s education secretary has enthusiastically endorsed it, but support from Justice has flagged in the face of teacher unhappiness.”
They don’t even pretend to work on behalf of public school students. They can’t be bothered. Public school students will not benefit in any way from yet another entire legislative session in yet another state.
These people simply don’t return any value for public school students and families. They’re ideologically opposed to our schools so they simply refuse to do the work we’re paying them for. Session after session, year after year, nothing for public school students.
Our students deserve representation in government. They deserve some value returned in exchange for paying all these state employees. It’s ludicrous that they’re completely ignored in every ed reform bill.
Has anyone in ed reform given any thought to the fact that they market these vouchers as meaning “anyone can choose any private school” – and that is completely untrue?
Do they think the public won’t figure this out, that once again they were sold a deceptive song and dance in order to promote this ideological agenda? That private schools can and will still refuse entry to all kinds of students or expel them? That a 7000 dollar voucher does NOT, in fact, mean parents can “choose” any private school because the better private schools cost much more than that?
This is, of course, the whole point of the voucher program. It exists to further a fundamentalist extremist worldview that embraces sexism, racism, and homophobia. It is a mechanism for funding schools that erase the distinction between church and state and that exist primarily to inculcate and reinforce these extremist views.
The people who are advancing these vouchers are sick. They actually believe that homosexuality is deviant behavior inspired by Satan. You have to live in a place like Florida to understand how commonplace such bizarre, primitive delusion is in some parts of the country. This is modern legislation intended to promote a Medieval worldview.
One qualification: To the best of our knowledge, ordinary people in the Middle Ages in Europe were generally more tolerant than are the Christian fundamentalists in the US today. When I spoke, above, of a “Medieval worldview,” I had in mind the views of Medieval churchmen–the official view as opposed to quotidian custom.
Perhaps they are sick, or perhaps they are like the editorialist I read today in the Chattanooga paper who feels that the conflict we see in public education could be solved by the “free market.” He saw the free market approach to education a panacea for problems like students not being willing to join in a prayer vs students whose parents want prayer. Let them have a choice and all these social divisions will go away because the government will no longer be blamed for being too liberal or too conservative.
He did not explain how this was actually going to work. He just pointed out things that were not controversial because of the fact that people were not required to participate in them. He convienently ignored market failures to solve segregation in housing or inequality in income distribution.
I was not familiar with him, but he seemed to be a free market faith guy. Play the game with no refs.
Want to pray? Go to church. Want to learn? Go to school. Don’t expect taxpayers to pay for your kid going to school to pray.
Does seem reasonable, does it not? Why are those who seem the most dedicated to their religion want somebody else responsible for they way they practice it? How ballistic would they go if an imam gave the prayer before a football game?
“a fundamentalist extremist worldview that embraces sexism, racism, and homophobia”… I’m just finishing up Donald McRae’s “The Great Trials of Clarence Darrow,” namely Leopold & Loeb, the Scopes “Monkey Trial,” & Ossian Sweet — 3 of the 4 last big cases of his career, which took place in 1923-1925 & addressed the fundamentalist extremist worldview that embraces racism, homophobia, & anti-Darwinism. What I’ve learned from the book is how broadly these attitudes were held in the majority of US [all of South, & most of SW & Midwest] nearly a century ago– & by comparison, how little has changed in nearly a century. It has given me understanding for how slowly cultural attitudes change. Also gives perspective on recent articles re: resurgence of anti-Semitism in Germany & to lesser extent France… A recent op-ed by a German in the NYT notes that all the govt-promoted legal changes, monuments to Shoa etc led many to slumber, thinking, we got that behind us, but in fact the old cultural attitudes have barely changed at all…
It was a shock to me to move from New England and start living in Florida and teaching in a Florida school. I could tell many horror stories. I recently auditioned for and performed in a play put on by a local repertory company. The theatre was run by and the show directed by a woman who told me that she hadn’t spoken to her sister in years because the sister was a lesbian, and she just didn’t “approve of such behavior.” Yup: her homophobia was that blatant, and she didn’t have the slightest embarrassment about it. I said to her, “I said to her, ‘Has it ever occurred to you that if you removed all the gays and lesbians, there would be no freaking theatre left–maybe just you standing on a bare stage?'” Soooo freaking bizarre. But run-of-the-mill here.
Bob Shepherd: I really wonder if there is a flaw in humankind. We spend gigantic amounts of money to develop ever greater killing machines but can’t spend money on helping people. It’s okay, in some circles, to hate those who are in any way different…be it Muslims, gay or trans people, libtards, immigrants, anyone who is poor, people from ‘shit-hole’ countries [mainly because they are poor], Middle Easterners, Asians, Latinos, etc.
Why can’t we work to help others and spend as much of our resources to alleviate hunger, fix rotten water supplies and work to have clean water for everyone, homes for those who live on the streets, food for the hungry, decent schools and education and healthcare for everyone?
Instead we increasingly pollute the air, the ground and the streams and oceans. Even sea animals such as whales are dying from the plastics and can’t send signals because of the noise pollution.
Coral reefs are dying and no one cares.
This planet is our only home. Forget about the moon or Mars. Why is it so hard to get people to care about what really matters?
Does anyone, like Betsy DeVos, really need 10 yachts? There is an imbalance and too many are suffering because of the unlimited greed of the wealthy and politicians who bow to their wants while forgetting that they are supposed to serve the majority.
Your comments are right on. I cannot understand why humankind is taking itself down the path of destruction. We see what we are doing to this planet and the all living creatures on it yet we can’t seem to stop the destruction of this third rock from the sun apart. We are told every day how destructive we are but we do nothing to change the direction we are going.
Human babies do not come into this world with the innate desire to destroy. We do not come into this world hating. Babies are blind to color, race, gender, etc. The skills to hate and destroy are taught to us starting at an early age.
I know this will not go down well but I firmly believe part of the basic problem lies in all the religions of the world. So many wars have been started with some foundations based on religion.
Maybe some day we will wakeup. I hope it is not too late.
moeone2015: We say that we are a Christian nation and condemn the extremists in the Middle East. I’m not saying that what they are doing is right, but we need to recognize that the Christian past doesn’t shine so brightly.
How many civilizations have been destroyed by the need to spread Christianity to the heathens? I’m not a history buff but we certainly didn’t treat the native Indians nor the Hawaiian natives with any respect. Native American Indians still don’t get the respect that they deserve.
The riches of S. America were taken from the natives and nobody seems to care.
Natives from Africa weren’t willing participants and many died on the overcrowding done on slave ships. The South even today is fighting to keep blacks from being treated with respect. Well, that lack of respect isn’t limited to the South.
Carol and Moe, I see it a little differently… Seems to me a basic piece of this is in fact wired into social behavior [maybe not in DNA but thro eons of survival-mode], loosely-termed “tribalism.” The expansion of the great religions was a good thing, in its time, in linking together larger groups of humans, across tribal & then national borders.
I would argue trade is the actual driver of cultural divisions, in any era. Viewed longterm, trade is a peacemaker, and during times of general plenty, old tribal divisions lose importance & attitudes are given a chance to evolve. But during trade changes/ expansions, there are always populations being unsettled into new patterns of sudden plenty or scarcity. Meanwhile cultural [tribal, racial, religious] attitudes change only incrementally, and are easily revived when scarcity threatens.
You dare to ponder the planetary picture. There’s a key but often-unmentioned factor: population increase, an unpredictable driver: population rates decrease during times of scarcity—but increase when starvation threatens—and decrease again during times of moderate plenty. Your observation no doubt is that resources could run out while humans are still trying to shake out all these social variables…
Why isn’t this post blowing up? Where is the outrage?
The state of Florida is KNOWINGLY supporting schools whose official policies forbid students from being LGBTQ+!!!!
People do not get outraged at things that do not affect them. So what if the Jews are persecuted? So what if the Roma people have to put up with hostility? It is not me. I do not know any people separated from their children because they want to come to the United States.
For every letter to the a representative decrying this policy, I bet the same representative gets five angry letter advocating death to queers.
Exactly why we need our outrage. If you are in Florida, I hope to see you at St. Pete Pride 6/22/19!
Extreme prejudice against lesbian, gay, and trans persons is still very, very common in backwaters of the United States, and in these places, one finds an enormous amount of fear of LGBTQX people. It’s a BIG mistake for people in progressive parts of the country to think that this battle for rights around orientation and identification has been won. In some parts of the country, it’s just beginning.
Two pieces:
Is Sexual Orientation Innate? https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/2019/03/17/is-sexual-orientation-innate/
Casey, in Memoriam. https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/2019/03/18/casey/
Reblogged this on What's Gneiss for Education and commented:
I’m so glad I teach and live in New York.
The one bright spot about this is that the Orlando Sentinel, and not for the first time, is calling out FL’s outrageous public policies. And they are not the only ones, there are a couple of other mainstream FL that regularly herald FL’s pubsch-policy foibles. Their journalists are unmuzzled, & seem to be way ahead of their voters.
YES!!!
Indiana is determined to make charter schools expand. This law was signed by the governor on 5/5/19.
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House Bill 1641 – Charter school matters – Indiana General Assembly, 2019 Session
…Reduces the time frame that a school corporation must make a vacant or unused school building available to a charter school. Provides that, if a school corporation does not comply with the requirements regarding a vacant or unused school building and charter schools, the school corporation must submit any proceeds from the sale of the vacant or unused school building to the state board of education (state board) to provide grants under the charter school and innovation grant program. Requires a school corporation to sell certain vacant school buildings to an accredited nonpublic school or postsecondary educational institution for an amount not more than the minimum bid for the school building or an amount agreed to by both parties…
http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2019/bills/house/1641
How about this great law? Became a law in Indiana on 5/2/19. I feel so much safer knowing that children 18 years of age can now legal own and use a machine gun. I think our legislators are crazy. What exactly is an 18 year old going to do with a machine gun? What is any adult going to do with a machine gun?
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Machine guns. Defines “machine gun”. Provides that a person may not sell, give, or in any other manner transfer ownership or possession of a machine gun to any person under 18 years of age. Provides that a person who knowingly or intentionally sells, provides, or in any other manner transfers ownership or possession of a machine gun to a person under 18 years of age commits a: (1) Level 5 felony; (2) Level 4 felony if the person has a prior conviction for the offense; or (3) Level 3 felony if a person under 18 years of age uses the machine gun to commit murder. Makes conforming amendments and a technical correction.
OMG, IN going right down the toilet on gun laws like FL et al red states.
Last week in our wealthy, peaceful, never-had-a-scary-school-incident 1950’s-like central-NJ town, a school shooting was headed off by quick action/ coordination between a Delaware police precinct & ours. The DE police warned of some nutjob headed to our town & where/ what he might have in mind. Our guys spotted him sitting in his SUV in the parking lot of one of our elemschs at 3:30 pm– locked down the school & arrested him. He was equipped w/an automatic handgun & lots of ammunition.
No details at this point; presumably he was an alienated Dad in a custody battle or something like that. But I compared DE’s gun laws to ours: theirs are not as loose as IN or FL, but far more liberal than NJ, i.e. you can purchase such a weapon w/o permit or registration, & can open carry no problem…