Republicans hold a supermajority in the Missouri legislature. They can pass whatever they want. The House just passed the first voucher law in the state’s history. Thirty Republicans voted against it. The program will cost the state $50 million for starters. The measure now goes to the State Senate. Do they know that most voucher studies show that kids are harmed by switching from public schools to religious schools? Do they care?
Proponents of a measure allowing students in the St. Louis area to draw scholarship funds in order to attend the school of their choice won a narrow victory in the Missouri House on Thursday, sending the proposal to the Senate for debate.
The measure survived on an 82-71 vote, winning the minimum number of “yes” votes necessary to advance to the upper chamber. Thirty Republicans voted against the measure.
Republicans are also considering a proposal to establish Rush Limbaugh Day to honor a native Missourians. The measure was sponsored by a legislator known for his contempt for gays.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Rush Limbaugh Day
We’re not in Kansas anymore. We’re down the hole in Wonderland with Alice. CBK
Will the kids celebrate Rush Limbaugh Day by smoking expensive Cuban cigars and flying the Confederate Flag? Or maybe they should celebrate by burning The Diary of Ann Frank books and Pride/BLM flags? Maybe a parade downtown with the KKK in robes carrying torches, the Oath Keepers sporting their military style guns, and the Proud Boys dressed in their protest kilts? Sounds like a really festive event and something deserving of a celebration….NOT!
Celebrate with 30 oxycontin a day.
Citizens will drive by a statue of a tree bearing two large fruit balls, one labeled EARTH, the other, much larger, EARTH ALTERNATE.
Roots are labelled, REPEAL OF FAIRNESS DOCTRINE..
Rush Limbaugh is on the ALTERNATE EARTH side, sitting on and shoveling from a stack of bags of fertilizer named after him.
A window is open, out of which the 1899, William Vandiver coined phrase: “Frothy eloquence neither convinces me or satisfies me” is being thrown.
Darrell Yes, but where sits the Cheshire cat? CBK
Leading mostly Democrats, frightened Republicans, out of town?
Out of Alice in Wonderland. tac erihsihC?
What’s next, Josef Goebbels day? I assume that Jefferson Davis Day was already taken.
We can expect the Dems to remain silent about religion no matter how many religious state conferences and religious organizations strategize to elect GOP politicians.
Topic avoidance has been so successful to this point (sarcasm).
Linda Well, there’s “religion” as general notion, or used as a smear; and then there’s “right” or “left” religion taking up political causes in different venues–enormous difference.
It would be difficult for a religious person, like for instance Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi, to criticize “religion” without distinguishing between different political expressions of it, especially since the Constitution expressly regards freedom of its expression. CBK
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/02/25/religious-left-politics-liberal-471640
“could go one way or the other”, how much time has passed since college Newman Societies moved to the right and how solid is that position?
Evidently those interviewed for the article think (want to believe?) they have the monetary influence, political clout and congregants’ will to thwart the culture of libertarian economics and conservative religion. What objective standard would the article author ask readers to apply to confirm their conclusion?
The examples of Warnock and Biden’s wins seems thin evidence as contrasted with the state legislators passing voucher bills. The former may be the result of many variables and the latter more closely associated with the win of the religious right (and libertarians).
Missouri – The “Show Me (only if you agree with me) State”
The charter, “choice”, and privatizers are making a full court press this year after everything stalled last year.
The bill that passed could result in $50 million less in tax collections draining public services statewide. And, to appease the rural legislators, the law would only allow students from urban districts to choose to leave their district.
For those in states with horror stories, feel free to write to Missouri legislators and Governor.
It all starts with the Abrahamic religions’ faith belief systems that are indoctrinated into children from the day they are born.
As one who is not a believer in those faith belief systems, there is no way I could be elected to even dog catcher in the vast majority of towns in the Show Me State. Without the cross or star or scimitar it is almost impossible in Missouri to be elected to any public office. And once elected those faith believers try to enforce their orthodoxy onto everyone else, hence the legislature’s vote for vouchers, which has been defeated by 2/3s majority each time it has been put on the ballot in this state.
Voltaire was right in saying “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” The faith belief absurdities that the vast majority of Show Me Staters believe allow for such atrocities as public funding for schools that push those faith belief absurdities. Nice gig if you can get it, eh. Money for nothing, chicks for free!
Good points, Duane. One thing that galls me is those who are mired in the notion that American white Christians have a majority within them who are willing and able to thwart men like Charles Koch. A second is their pretense that the American white Christian establishment has been the effective vanguard for the equality of women, people of color and the LBGTQ community.
The beginning from eight years ago, “Catholics Backing School Choice Initiative in Missouri…$300,000 from Archdiocese of St. Louis and $11,000 from Missouri Catholic Conference”.
The Catholic League is on Parler. The head of the League, Bill Donahue, and, EWTN host, Raymond Arroyo, appear to have been quite fond of Rush Limbaugh. Donahue recently posted his view about the Equality Act, “the biggest assault on Christianity in recent memory.”
Neither main stream media nor Dems will shed light on the foregoing because one religion in particular gets protection.
Linda is showing how the right-wing works, and how most or even all of that Politico article is right-on (from BETHREE5 above).
Guess what, Linda, . . . (stab-in-the-heart) there are right-wing Catholics in Missouri. ARRRRWWWWW! And BTW, equality is a relatively solid part of Christian doctrine. (Warning: I understand that understatements are permitted here.) CBK
In the City of St. Louis, there are a number of Lutheran schools in addition to all of the Catholic schools. The opening of so many charter schools has greatly impacted the enrollments at the Catholic and Lutheran schools, in addition to the smaller number of K-12 school aged children just due to generational birth rates.
The opening of the Concept Charter School [Gulen] Gateway Science Academy in St. Louis City in Epiphany Catholic parish almost caused a number of surrounding Catholic schools to close. See the St. Louis Post Dispatch article by Elisa Crouch from October 12, 2010.
Not all Democratic representatives voted against the bill. They have Catholic and Lutheran constituents.
So, the $311,000 of parishioners’ money which was spent to advance school choice public policy led to success for grifting privatizers, to the creation of segregated Muslim schools in the inner city and, if Missouri is like Ohio, to financial assistance for parents of kids attending affluent Catholic schools. No doubt the bishops call it a win. As Jefferson said, in all countries, in all ages, the priest aligns with the despot.
The irony of the Concept chain Gulen Gateway Science Academy is that it is housed in a former Catholic school in a Catholic parish. Many Catholics attend the school. The neighborhood is predominantly white.
Linda I think many, if not all Catholic schools are just trying to survive like everyone else, probably similar to Montessori schools, and where both systems were here and integrated well with public schools as well as with secularized culture in general, long before the charter wave occurred.
In bed with despots? Maybe for the loud right wing bullies among us, but not for many others, . . . (a little over the top there, Linda?)
Also, in notes here, I see that the charter schools have severely diminished the number of students applying to Catholic schools.
Further, I don’t know that Catholic schools can be rightly considered “affluent,” . . . the one’s I taught in were not . . . though many who attend are from upper-middle class or higher families, precisely because they are charged for attendance where not all can afford it, and non-Catholics pay more than Catholic students (at least they used to).
Sigh . . . I see Linda hasn’t lessened her own dependence on exaggeration, hasty generalization, and innuendo for making her arguments. CBK
What is so maddening is that these legislators have way more public school parents among their constituents than Catholic or Lutheran parents.
NCSL reported that 37% of Missouri state legislators answered a question about their religious affiliation as Unspecified/NA. The number is not a majority but, it isn’t insignificant. If Dems took on the threat that religion poses to the Republic of the U.S., and they developed a strategy specific to it, the likelihood of change would be greater, IMO.
Linda “If Dems took on the threat that religion poses to the Republic of the U.S. . . . “
Pardon me, but do you mean “religion” per se is a “threat to the Republic of the U.S.”? What do you mean by (what looks to me like) an inordinately broad and altogether negative treatment of the term “religious”?
Do you read with any reflective thought whatsoever any of the notes here that talk about right and left wings; or political differentiations both OF various religious affiliations AND of people within any singular affiliation; or doesn’t that mean anything to you?
I would rather not say what the OR is that should follow that question, but you can believe I am thinking it.
Following Linda’s narrative lead: How’s THAT for my little bit of innuendo? At least it’s about one person’s viewpoint and not about an entire world’s worth of “religions.” goog grief! CBK
Frances-
In describing two Gulen schools, in Utah and Illinois, a reporter from In These Times, who Wikipedia chose to cite in its entry for Gulen schools, identified the following, the boards were entirely made up of men. The demographics of the students enrolled in the Ill. school were 58% Hispanic/Latino, 25% African American, 12% Asian and 5% white.
What is the white student population as a percentage at the school you reference? Is the school anomalous as can be inferred from your comment?
Linda,
When the first campus of the Gateway Science Academy [Smiley campus] opened in Epiphany parish, the school had neighborhood attendance boundaries. Also, no bus transportation was offered. The neighborhood is predominantly white.
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website is not easy to navigate. I couldn’t find the page with the breakdown by race of students in St. Louis schools on their website. However, I was able to find an article by Blythe Bernhard, the education reporter for the St. Louis Post Dispatch [daily newspaper] from February 8, 2021. She references the racial make up of charter schools. She writes, “Charter schools in St. Louis once educated a higher percentage of Black students compared with SLPS, but now attract more white families. In 2007, Black students made up close to 90% of charter school enrollment; the figure has dropped to 66% as SLPS has remained steady at about 80% Black enrollment. The least diverse public schools in the city are Soulard School and Gateway Science Academy, both charter schools where less than one in five students is Black.”
I live close to the Smiley campus of the Gateway Science Academy. In pre-pandemic days when students attended class in person and played on the playground, one saw a sea of white faces playing on the playground.
The racial percentages of the Smiley campus of the Gateway Science Academy are not necessarily representative of the large number of Gulen schools in the United States. My imperfect memory of pieces I’ve read in Diane’s blog and blog posts by Sharon Higgins, is that there are roughly as many Gulen schools in the U.S. as there are KIPP schools.
After reading your comment, I reviewed some info about St. Louis. Apparently, the situation for the city’s public education has become uncommon when contrasted with other cities. At least one of the Gulen-linked schools is possibly like a magnet school with high enrollment demand and a lottery for admission (and, there are women on the board without Turkish surnames). There were references in the articles to student expulsions for behavior and that those kids’ return to public schools.
The city is experiencing Black families leaving for the suburbs and young white people without kids are increasingly moving in.
The articles I read didn’t speak to gentrification that has displaced Black people in other urban areas. Is it playing a role?
In 2020, the Subcommittee for the Promotion of and Defense of Marriage and the Committee on Catholic Education issued through the U.S. Catholic Bishops a letter of support for legislation sponsored by GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler and GOP Rep. Greg Steube of Fla.
Daily Kos posted an article about Steube at Daily Kos (2-25-2021). Stuebe was one of the 44 who signed the resolution honoring Rush Limbaugh.
Linda I wonder how many Catholic priests abhor Rush Limbaugh. Hmmmm….CBK
I wasn’t sure where to put this, but this Washington Post 202 article could be subtitled:
*What the Stupid UNELECTED Rich Do with Their Money: (my emphases)
“Major Trump backer Rebekah Mercer orchestrates Parler’s second act,” by Rachel Lerman:
“[Mercer] is working to revive the site. It came back online last week with her new handpicked CEO, former tea party patriots leader, Mark Meckler, at the helm. It’s the latest in a long line of maneuvers by the Mercer family to create an alternative media industry that pushes a version of the news that fits with their right-wing, populist political agenda — while keeping a low profile themselves …
“Observers of the Mercer family say her interest in Parler coincides with the family’s efforts to erect an alternative media system that aligns with their political views. ‘She wants to influence the public narrative,’ said Mobashra Tazamal, a senior research fellow at the Bridge Initiative at Georgetown University, who has studied the Mercers for years. ‘She doesn’t just give money, she is involved in every entity she invests in.’” CBK