The Network for Public Education released a new report today that should concern everyone who cares about public schools and the use of public resources. The report shows that a growing segment of the charter industry is controlled by Christian nationalists, who indoctrinate their students, using taxpayer dollars.
Contact: Carol Burris
cburris@networkforpubliceducation.org
(646) 678-4477
NEW REPORT DOCUMENTS HOW FAR-RIGHT CHARTER SCHOOLS ARE FUELING THE CULTURE WARS
Right-wing Republicans involved in the creation and governance of charter schools
American taxpayers across the country are funding the recent explosion of growth in far-right, Christian nationalist charter schools, including those affiliated with Hillsdale College, according to a new report, A Sharp Right Turn: A New Breed of Charter Schools Delivers the Conservative Agenda, released by the Network for Public Education (NPE) today.
NPE identified hundreds of charter schools, predominantly in red states, that use the classical brand or other conservative clues in marketing to attract white Christian families. From featured religious music videos to statements that claim they offer a faith-friendly environment, these charter schools are opening at an accelerated rate, with at least 66 schools in the pipeline to open by 2024. While some of these schools, such as the Roger Bacon Academies, are long-standing, nearly half of the schools we identified opened after the inauguration of Donald Trump–representing a 90% increase.
The report exposes how right-wing Republican politicians, including Congressman Byron Donalds of Florida and failed Colorado gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl, have embroiled themselves in creating and governing these schools, with some benefiting financially. In fact, NPE found that right-wing charters are nearly twice as likely to be run by for-profit management companies than the entire charter sector.
According to NPE Executive Director Carol Burris, who co-authored the report with journalist Karen Francisco, “Sectarian extremists and the radical right are capitalizing on tragically loose controls and oversight in the charter school sector to create schools that seek to turn back the clock on civil rights and education progress. These schools teach their own brand of CRT–Christian Right Theory–capitalizing on and fueling the culture wars. As a taxpayer, I am appalled that my tax dollars are seeding such schools.”
Since 2006, the U.S. Department of Education’s Charter School Programs (CSP) has funneled more than one hundred million dollars to begin or expand right-wing charter schools.
NPE President and education historian Diane Ravitch commented, “Few doubt that the religious right has decided to stake its claim on the next generation of hearts and minds with its unrelenting push for vouchers and book and curricular bans. This report exposes the lesser-known third part of the strategy—the proliferation of right-wing charter schools. It should be a wake-up call to those with progressive ideals who have embraced charter schools. A movement you support is now taking a sharp turn right to destroy the values you cherish.”
To learn more about the rapid growth of right-wing charter schools and their connections with right-wing politicians and the religious right, you can read the full report here.
The Network for Public Education is a national advocacy group whose mission is to preserve, promote, improve, and strengthen public schools for current and future generations of students.
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
Using public money to pay for religious schools violates The Constitution and the separation of church and state. Our Constitution allows for right of all individuals to freely practice their religious beliefs. Using public funds to pay for religious education violates the rights of those of us that do not believe that unaccountable public money should be spent in pursuit of religious goals, and it is a dangerous precedent.
Many of those in the extreme Christian right have allied themselves with white supremacists. We must not allow tax dollars to line the pockets of those that hold such beliefs. Religious institutions are already tax exempt. They do not pay into the tax dollars they intend to use. Such a reckless use of public funds would attract Christian grifters from all over the country to feed on public dollars at the expense of communities and local public schools. Some of these Christian schools will likely be led by anarchists that may want to end our secular governance and turn our nation into a right wing theocracy. We must not allow this to happen as it is a matter of national security as well. Radical extremism is a threat to democracy. Public money should be used by public schools that are accountable to the people, state and federal government.
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Those of us old enough remember Timothy McVeigh, a veteran who became radicalized, although not from a religious group. He was responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people in 1968. What he did share with many of the right wing, Christian extremists of today, was a hatred of the federal government and belief in conspiracy theories. With the advent of new technology, misinformation and conspiracy theories abound. We must not allow our tax dollars to fund domestic terrorism under the guise of religious freedom.
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Wow!
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The derivation of the name, Roger Bacon Academies, would be interesting to know. The school’s site doesn’t identify a religion. The name Roger Bacon is most often associated with the Catholic friar by that name. A Catholic school in a Cincinnati suburb is named Roger Bacon and its a name often used in Catholic organizations.
Interesting story from the Ft. Worth diocese- ( Btw- in April, one of the locations Gov. Abbott visited to promote school choice was Nolan Catholic h.s. in the diocese.) The story involves charges by a bishop about a nun who allegedly violated chastity vows with a priest, her possible eviction from the order, etc. We can read about the punishments for her that she describes but, we don’t learn about the punishments, if any, received by the priest.
The nun says the incident didn’t happen and wants the name of the priest identified.
Given the history of the Church, which story to believe?
Women who knowingly join anti-woman organizations, what can you say?
Taxpayers forced to pay for those organizations- a colossal tragedy.
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We have been on a slippery slope that started with paying to pave a playground at a Catholic school, and now we are supposed to accept sending unaccountable public dollars off to any group that call itself a religion. Haven’t we learned enough from sending tax dollars to private charter schools? The result is waste, fraud, nepotism, segregation and money laundering, and sending money to religious grifter schools will add to past mistakes and further isolate diverse students. Isolation breeds contempt in many cases.
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You are absolutely correct. Yet, media and influencers still protect one religion- the Catholic Church. In states like Ohio, the overwhelming amount of voucher money goes to Catholic schools.
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It was a Lutheran school! [Trinity Lutheran v Comer.] Just a niggle. Your thesis is correct,
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As was discussed here before, here is more info on the situation in Athens, Ohio;
https://athensindependent.com/proposed-charter-school-with-controversial-connections-could-divert-millions-from-local-schools/
and a follow up;
https://athensindependent.com/controversial-proposed-classical-charter-school-moves-forward/
The majority of the board members of this proposed Hillsdale affiliated charter have ties to this church plant; https://www.brookfieldchurch.com/
As if these charters are not enough, states are being encouraged to adopt a new set of social studies standards called American Birthright Standards that are not endorsed by the NCSS; https://www.socialstudies.org/current-events-response/ncss-statement-american-birthright-civics-alliances-model-k-12-social
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Let them learn,
The narrative about Hillsdale is that it is right wing protestant. In truth, It has right wing Catholics internally and significant association with people like Clarence Thomas.
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Thank You, RT! Public education is based on the principles of democracy. May I add that public schools are accountable to the local community.
In Pennsylvania, every school district has an elected school board, except Philadelphia, the birthplace of our Democracy. Philadelphia’s school board is appointed by the Mayor. Why so? Some of our advocates think that an elected school board would be more responsive to the voices of the community.
How many Charter School boards of trustees are elected by the people of their community?
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This doesn’t surprise me at all, but glad to see it publicized. Glad also to learn that, e.g. “Classical” can be a code-word for a rw Christian charter. [Just as I already know that a private/ voucher school that calls itself “Christian” is most likely a conservative-Christian, Protestant evangelical school.]
It’s no surprise due to what Carol Burris says here: “tragically loose controls and oversight in the charter school sector.”
The only real surprise is that the Catholic Church has chosen to bring the issue blatantly to the fore with their “first religious charter school” [cough, cough] in Oklahoma, setting up a SCOTUS confrontation on whether all this is “Constitutional” or not.
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bethree5 Your note about the moving state of charter schools reminds me of a film I saw (cannot remember the name of it), set in late WWII Germany, where a man was trying to free a now-brainwashed young man from a group of Nazi’s he was living with . . . someone the man had known before the war and cared about. The young man got angry and wouldn’t leave, threatening to expose the man as he left. CBK
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If I pair the 9 paragraphs of the post and your 3 paragraphs, Catholic is mentioned once. So, thanks for making the addition.
Rhetorically, state by state, do Christian or Catholic schools potentially benefit more from tax-funded religious schools?
Which church collective has benefitted most from lobbying in states and at the federal level? Clue- Catholic organizations are the nation’s 3rd largest employer, gratis of the taxpayers.
Which Church successfully argued before SCOTUS for its exemption from civil rights employment law in its schools?
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Freedom from religion
Right in the very First Amendment of our Constitution, our Founding Fathers outlawed religion in American government at any level. Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, primary author of our Declaration of Independence, explained that the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment was written to create “a wall of separation” between our government and any religion. The U.S. Supreme Court holds that the Establishment Clause means that “Neither a state nor the federal government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion or all religions, or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force…a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion.”
Our Founding Fathers also wrote in Article VI of our Constitution that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
In short, our Constitution was written to remove all religion from our government at any level, while also allowing citizens to practice any religion they want. ANY religion.
Our Founding Fathers refused to even include any mention of God in our Constitution.
Why did our Founding Fathers do this?
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and other Founding Fathers and colonists everywhere hated the fact that they had been forced to join the official Christian religion of the British government, the Anglican Church. The penalty for not joining was that the church-controlled British colonial governments would tax their property to the point that would bankrupt them. Our Founding Fathers knew first-hand that a religion-based government led to persecution of anyone who did not share the beliefs of the official government religion. So, they constitutionally banned religion of any kind from every corner of our federal and state governments.
America’s key Founding Fathers — such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin — were NOT CHRISTIANS. They were DEISTS who had been forced to become members of a Christian church. They almost never even used the word “God” but instead used words like “Creator” or “Providence” to refer to what Deists consider to be the Supreme Being.
Thomas Jefferson, whom we honor as the author of our Declaration of Independence, was so greatly angered by the Christian claim that Jesus was God that Benjamin Franklin had to reel him in from publishing a scathing attack on Christianity. So, instead, Jefferson — who admired the social teachings of Jesus — sat down with a New Testament and cut out all references in it to Jesus being God. Then, he published the result as his Bible and it became popular throughout America. The Jefferson non-Christian social Bible also became the official Bible of Congress and for decades was given to each newly-elected member of Congress.
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Thank you for the history.
IMO, readers of the blog would want Diane to reproduce your comment as a post.
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I will
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