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Jeff Bryant: Trump and DeVos Want Vouchers to Promote Religious Fundamentalism

By dianeravitch
March 2, 2017 //
78

This is an alarming post. Read at your own peril.

Trump gave a shout out to the glories of vouchers when he spoke to Congress. DeVos, a religious zealot, smiled with gratification as her 30-year crusade to transfer public funds to religious schools now appears near accomplishment.

Trump pointed to a young woman who had achieved success because of receiving a voucher funded by a tax credit in Florida. Her accomplishments are considerable.

But what kind of school did she attend?

“Over the past three years, Merriweather has had the opportunity to tell her story in numerous media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, the Tampa Bay Times, and The 74 (a pro school choice media site funded by charter school and voucher advocates such as the Walton Family Foundation and the Dick & Betsy DeVos Foundation). She’s also been the subject of pro school choice profiles in politically conservative news outlets. And after Merriweather was highlighted at the Trump’s speech, she was interviewed by Fox News.

“None of this is to take away from the sincerity of Merriweather’s writing or the validity of her lived experience. But it needs to be noted that few public school students have had such prominent venues to repeatedly tell their success stories.

“Further, the school Merriweather attended through the school choice program Trump champions is no ordinary school.

“Religious Fundamentalism At Taxpayer Expense

“The private school Merriweather attended and graduated from is the Esprit De Corps Center for Learning in Jacksonville which she has described in testimony she gave last year to a U.S. House Committee as “a church based school, a church that I actually attended.”

“According to the Esprit de Corps website, the “vision for the school was birthed from the mind of God in the heart of Dr. Jeannette C. Holmes-Vann, the Pastor and Founder of Hope Chapel Ministries, Inc.” The education philosophy guiding the school is based on “a return to a traditional educational model founded on Christian principles and values. In accordance with this vision, each component of the school was purposefully selected and designed.”

“A significant “component” of the Esprit de Corps school is its adherence to a fundamentalist Christian curriculum. Its official listing in a Jacksonville directory of private schools describes its education program as a “spiritual emphasis and Biblical [sic] view, which permeates the A-Beka curriculum.”

“A Beka is one of the most widely used K-12 curriculum series for home schooling and private Christian schools,” Rachel Tabachnick explains to me in an email. “This includes many private schools receiving public dollars through voucher and tax-credit programs.”

“Tabachnick has collected textbooks used by voucher and corporate tax-credit schools for over ten years, including curriculum from A Beka Book and Bob Jones University Press.

“In an investigative article for Alternet in 2011, Tabachnick writes, “Throughout the K-12 curriculum, A Beka consistently presents the Bible as literal history and science. This includes teaching young earth creationism and demeaning other religions and other Christian faiths including Roman Catholicism.”

“An A Beka history text she reviews teaches that “socialist propaganda” exaggerated the Great Depression “so that Franklin Delano Roosevelt could pass New Deal legislation” and that the Vietnam War “divided the country into the ‘hawks who supported the fight against Communism, and doves, who were soft on Communism.’”

“Tabachnick quotes a fourth-grade A Beka text that celebrates President Ronald Reagan’s presidency under a banner of “A Return to Patriotism and Family Values.” In describing President Bill Clinton’s administration, an A Beka high school history text calls First Lady Hilary Clinton’s effort to overhaul health care as a “plan for socialized medicine” and describes Vice President Al Gore as “known for his radical environmentalism.”

“Christ Is History, Africans Are Inferior

“In her emails to me, Tabachnick shares excerpts from a newer edition of A Beka’s textbook on “History and Civil Government” that teaches, “The first advent of Jesus Christ to earth – His incarnation, birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension – is the focal point of history. History began with God and His act of Creation. I climaxed with Gods’ act of redemption.” (emphasis original)

“In the current edition of A Beka’s 10th grade history text “World History and Cultures in Christian Perspective” Tabachnick shares with me, “modern liberalism” is described as “the desire to be free from absolute standards and morals, especially the Scriptures.”

“From this text, high school students like Denisha Merriweather learn, “The beginning of the 20th century witnessed a cultural breakdown that threatened to destroy the very roots of Western civilization. The cause of this of this dissolution was the idea or philosophy known as liberalism.” (emphasis original)

“The curriculum used by Esprit de Corps also taught Merriweather and her African American classmates about the innate inferiority of the African continent and its people.

“The textbooks teach the narrative that the people of African nations descended from Noah’s son Ham and that Ham’s descendant Nimrod led the rebellion against God by building the Tower of Babel,” Tabachnick tells me. This Biblically supported lesson is often referred to as “the curse of Ham,” which has historically been a primary justification for slavery among Southern Christians, according to numerous sources.

“In the A Beka text “History and Civil Government,” Adam and Eve are referred to as “the parents of humanity” and racial variations in human kind are described as the result of “recessive traits” due to “(1) a rapidly changing environment, (2) a small population, (3) and extensive inbreeding.”

“Current A Beka texts also falsely claim that only ten percent of the population of Africa is literate and that literacy rates may drop further because of communists shutting down mission schools,” Tabachnick tells me.”

Read the entire article. Ask yourself whether religious fundamentalism provides the kind of education that our nation’s children need to prepare for a complex world.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Education Reform, Religion, Separation of church and state, Trump, Vouchers

Texas: Pastors Leading the Fight Against Vouchers!

By dianeravitch
February 21, 2017 //
18

There is a wonderful organization in Texas called Pastors for Texas Children, led by the indefatigable Pastor Charles Foster Johnson of Fort Worth.

Their members span the state, and they have worked with public schools and parents to oppose vouchers, which would destroy many communities and defund their community’s public schools.

Pastor Johnson recently sent out this letter:

Pastors for Texas Children is a three-year-old organization that mobilizes the faith community for public education assistance and advocacy. Our website is http://www.pastorsfortexaschildren.com

Our goal is to connect every single local congregation to every single public school in wrap-around care and school improvement assistance – especially high-need schools in poor neighborhoods. We do this always under the authority of the local superintendent and principal – and always scrupulously adhering to the principles of religious liberty and church/state separation.

We believe fully in the First Amendment prohibition against any religious instruction in our public schools. But we also believe that faith communities should be 100% behind public education as a core institution of democratic society and the common good.

In addition to this local school assistance, we also advocate for good and just public education policy in state government. We favor full funding for our schools, particularly universal Pre-K instruction, and we oppose any privatization of our public schools, especially vouchers. We have become a significant voice in preventing a voucher bill from passing in Texas.

We presently have 2000 partners in our organization representing 1000 congregations, and are rapidly expanding. Our movement has spread to Oklahoma where Pastors for Oklahoma Kids has just been established. We are holding conversations with ministers in several other states, and hope to spread our mission nationwide.

If you are interested in helping us do this– or connecting us to your minister and or congregation– please do not hesitate to call the Rev. Charles Foster Johnson, executive director, at 210-378-1066 or email him at charlie@charlesfosterjohnson.com

We at the Network for Public Education have offered our full assistance to Pastor Johnson and his group. Our Texas members have generated hundreds of letters to their legislators. We are delighted to see that this movement to strengthen separation of church and state has spread to Oklahoma. We hope that faith leaders in communities across the nation reach out of Pastor Johnson and learn how to create an effective organization in their own state. A group like this could do a world of good in the South and the Midwest, especially in communities where the public school is the hub of the community and where competition will defund the public schools.

I can’t think of anything more effective than having faith leaders insisting on separation of church and state. Thoughtful faith leaders know that they should retain their autonomy and that federal and state money will in time erode their religious freedom. If churches need federal or state money to survive, they don’t have a strong base of support among their members, and they will pay a steep price for public aid.

Categories Religion, Separation of church and state, Texas

ALERT! GOP Congress Launches First Effort to Undermine Public SCHOOLS!

By dianeravitch
February 21, 2017 //
53

Republicans in The House of Representatives have proposed legislation that would require states to adopt vouchers or lose their federal funding. This is an outrage! This is step one of the Trump-DeVos agenda to force vouchers and charters on states that do not want them. This is a blatant misuse of federal power to coerce states to go along with religious zealots like DeVos.

The legislation, HR 610, has been filed. Let your Representative in Congress know that you oppose this egregious federal overreach. Support The Network for Public Education as we rally supporters of public schools to repel this obnoxious legislation.

The language of the legislation and the steps you can take to oppose it are included here.

If you do not want your tax dollars to fund evangelical religious schools, madrassas, or yeshivas, get active.

If you believe in public schools with certified teachers who teach modern science and history, not religious fervor, get active.

Speak up. Speak out. Defend separation of church and state. Defend your community public schools. Stop the raid on the public school funds.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Religion, Separation of church and state, Trump, Vouchers

Betsy DeVos Had an Awfully Difficult First Week on the Job

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2017 //
47

Teachers who teach children with multiple disabilities and children who are homeless may think that they have a tough job, but consider what a very hard time Betsy DeVos had in her first week as Secretary of Education, very likely the first paying job she has ever held. She visited a public middle school in D.C., where protestors harassed her and tried to keep her out. When she eventually entered the school, she said nice things to the staff, but after she left she insulted them as being in a “receive” mode. She gave a few interviews and said she hoped to launch more charter schools, more vouchers, more cybercharters, and presumably shrink the number of public schools as she opens up opportunities for students to go anywhere other than public schools.

In one interview, she told syndicated conservative columnist Cal Thomas that she did not think the protests against her were spontaneous. The implication was that those evil teachers’ unions had plotted against her. The other implication was that parents and teachers would welcome her noble presence in their public school, even though she was unimpressed with what she saw. Someone, she said, was trying to make her life “a living hell.” No matter what the plotters do, she pledged she would not be deterred from her mission of “helping kids in this country,” by enabling them to leave public schools for privatized alternatives.

She suggested to Thomas that it might be a good idea to bring tens of thousands of children to the Capitol to demonstrate for charters and vouchers. She said it had worked in Florida. Of course, this is now a standard part of the privatization script, using children as political pawns to demand more public funding for private choices, thus disabling public schools by diminishing their resources.

She pledged to support alternatives to public schools, without citing a scintilla of evidence that these choices would help kids and without acknowledging that the proliferation of choices harms the great majority of children who don’t choose to leave public schools. Her mindset is purely ideological. She did not offer any suggestions about how to help the vast majority of children who attend public schools. She has one idea, and she is sticking to it: choice. The absence of evidence for that one idea from her home state never comes up. Michigan has tumbled in national rankings as choice has expanded.

When Cal Thomas asked what could be done for children who had an “absent father,” she responded that this problem has to be addressed at the classroom level. “It’s not an easy or a single answer, but again it goes back to having the power to influence those things at the classroom level.” It is not clear what she meant or if she herself knew what she meant. How is the teacher in the classroom prepared to make up for an absent father? Is this what passes for profundity?

Then there was this very interesting exchange, in which Cal Thomas and Betsy DeVos exposed their deepest beliefs:

“Q. Throughout most of the public school system, which began in the late 19th century and flourished in the 20th, education included values, McGuffey Readers and even prayer and Bible reading, until the Supreme Court outlawed both in the ‘60s. Do you see a correlation between the loss of American values, a sense of morality, a concept of the transcendent, right and wrong, objective truth that have been banished in our relativistic age and lack of achievement in some places in our schools?

“A. I think it’s a significant factor. Many of the schools I’ve seen, especially the charters, have a focus on character development and again the whole child development. That’s one of the reasons parents are choosing alternatives like this.”

To begin with, public education got its start in the mid-nineteenth century, not the late nineteenth century.

I am one of the few living Americans who has actually read the entirety of the McGuffey readers. Children today would find them dull, simplistic, and obsolete.

The assumption that public schools lack values because they do not have Bible readings and prayers is nonsense. When I went to public schools in Houston in the 1940s and 1950s, we had daily Bible readings and prayers, but the schools were racially segregated. Few teachers had more than a bachelor’s degree. I would say without question that our public schools today have better quailed teachers today and a stronger value system than they did when we read the Bible and prayed every day. As a Jew in a Christian public school system, I ignored the implicit proselytizing, but from the perspective of the decades, I can say that our schools then did not practice what they preached. We never discussed current social or political issues. Too controversial. We were not well prepared for the real problems of our society.

The values of the dominant religion were imposed on me but I never had any wish to impose mine on anyone else.

Now, as we live in a religiously and culturally diverse society, Thomas and DeVos sound like two antiquarians. They want to turn the clock back 100 years, maybe two hundred years.

There is nothing innovative about DeVos’ ideas. She has lived in a billionaire bubble all her life, surrounded by her like-minded kith and kin of rich white Republican evangelicals. She has nothing to teach our teachers or students. She knows nothing about how to improve public schools. Her beloved charters, vouchers, and cybercharters have not proven to be better than public schools, and in many states, are demonstrably worse than traditional public schools with certified teachers.

We live in a big, ever-changing world, and it is far too late to go back to 1920 or 1820, no matter how devoutly DeVos would like to restore the suprenpmacy of whites and evangelical Christians. They too must learn to live and let live.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Equity, Privatization, Research, Segregation, Separation of church and state, Virtual Charter Schools, Vouchers

Capitol & Main: How Betsy DeVos Crushes Moderate Republicans Who Get in Her Way

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2017 //
11

Danny Feingold writes in Capitol & Main about Betsy DeVos’ hardline education ideology and the ruthless way she uses her family money to smash those who don’t go along with her wishes.

How Betsy DeVos Ignored and Targeted Michigan Republicans to Advance Her Hardline Education Ideology

DeVos wants choice. She loves vouchers but thus far has been able to impose them in Michigan because the state constitution prohibits spending public money for religious schools.

So charters are her favorite route to a free market of schooling in Michigan. When s bipartisan coalition tried to pass a bill to impose accountability on charters, the DeVos money machine went into high gear to block it.

Contrary to what DeVos told the Senate HELP Committee, she believes in accountability for public schools but not for charter schools. She certainly opposes accountability for religious schools that accept vouchers.

She doesn’t believe in separation of church and state, nor does she think that public schools have a greater claim on public dollars than for-profit charters or backwoods one-room schools run by uneducated preachers without certified teachers.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if DeVos gets her way, sends federal funds to church schools, and a future Secretary of Education and Congress declares that all schools receiving federal funds are subject to the same tests, the same mandates, and the same regulations as public schools?

Religious leaders will regret that they mingled church and state.

Some religious leaders recognize the importance of separating church and state and are fighting against privatization, such as Pastors for Texas Children and Pastors for Oklahoma Kids. May their movement spread across the land.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Michigan, Religion, Republicans, School Choice, Separation of church and state, Vouchers

Great News from Oklahoma! Pastors Are Organizing to Support Kids and Public Schools!

By dianeravitch
February 3, 2017 //
13

As the forces of reaction gather for an assault on public education in Oklahoma, pastors across the state have joined in an organization called Pastors for Oklahoma Kids. They have an alliance with the dynamic Pastors for Texas Children, which anticipates growing its membership in other states. They believe in public schools and in the historic separation of church and state.

Here is an excerpt from their organizing statement:

Oklahoma Pastors band together to advocate for kids

Oklahoma City, OK: With a new legislative session looming and multiple bills being introduced which threaten the free education of every child, a group of pastors gathered in Oklahoma City recently to form a new grassroots organization: Pastors for Oklahoma Kids.

Pastors for Oklahoma Kids plans to work with other like minded organizations as they form a broad coalition of clergy from across the state of Oklahoma that advocate for local schools, principals, teachers, staff and schoolchildren by supporting our free, public education system, promoting social justice for all children, and advancing legislation that enriches Oklahoma children, families, and communities.

Pastors for Oklahoma Kids has identified three main core values:

WE ARE FOR OKLAHOMA KIDS: 93% of Oklahoma Kids attend Public School. We want to re-shape conversation about Public Education in Oklahoma. We do not believe our schools are failing – that’s a cop out. Therefore we will challenge all who demean, belittle and undermine public education. We believe education is a moral good and obligation of the state to every child.

WE ARE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS: We will advocate for adequately funded schools and paying teachers and school staff the wages they deserve. Because of this we are opposed to ESAs/Vouchers or any other name that inevitably leads to the privatization of Public Schools. We further believe in the wall of separation of church and state and that no public money should be used for religious schools.

WE ARE FOR TEACHERS: We refute the notion that schools are failing. We have failed if we resort to punishing good and godly teachers and administrators by demonizing their calling. We will send a clear message – we are WITH you. You do not stand alone. We join a growing network of clergy in other states advocating for public education, including our neighbors in Pastors for Texas Children.

For more information on Pastors for Oklahoma Kids or to read their Declaration on Public Education please visit: http://www.pastorsforoklahomakids.com

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Categories Oklahoma, Separation of church and state, Supporting public schools

Say No to Trump’s Vouchers

By dianeravitch
February 1, 2017 //
23

The best way to stop Trump’s plan to privatize public schools is to say no to vouchers, writes Frank Adamson of Stanford University.

 

“Vouchers violate the American ideal of democracy because they transfer educational decisions from the public domain (through school boards and elections) to private management companies and organizations. This has already occurred in charter schools run by private charter management organizations that refuse public input into teaching and curriculum decisions. Furthermore, these organizations often prioritize profits over learning, using public tax dollars to hire inexperienced, cheaper teachers and pocketing the difference. By permitting entirely private schools, vouchers would further decrease public accountability and create a wall between the public and the education sector, thereby diminishing democracy and the role of education as a public good.

 

“Finally, it is critical to understand that the debate about education vouchers is nested within a larger battle over labor. Vouchers can disenfranchise teacher unions because they disperse teachers across many types of institutions and constrain their capacity to collectively bargain. In Chile, teacher unions were dissolved, teacher salaries decreased by over half, and teaching became deprofessionalized based on non-competitive salaries and working conditions. In the U.S., the push for education privatization comes from foundations of wealthy companies and families, such as the heirs of Walmart, a company notorious for its anti-labor policies and practices.

 

“Trump and DeVos’s proposed voucher system promises to concurrently segregate students by class, ethnicity, and ability level while socially ostracizing individual students based on their ethnicities and identities. This system—driven by underlying agendas of marginalizing labor and generating private profit—will violate three core American principles: the separation of church and state, meritocracy, and democratic participation. In Chile, hundreds of thousands of people have marched in the streets to recapture public education after the vouchers decimated their system; U.S. citizens would do well to protest a national voucher policy before losing public education as a foundation of and for democracy.”

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Democracy, Segregation, Separation of church and state, Trump, Vouchers

Hundreds of Calvin College Students and Alumni Speak Out Against Betsy DeVos

By dianeravitch
January 25, 2017 //
13

Betsy DeVos is a graduate of Calvin College, a small Christian college in Michigan. Hundreds of students and alumni signed a letter opposing her nomination for Secretary of Education.

 

It is a thoughtful letter. I hope she reads it. I hope the U.S. Senate reads it. I visited Calvin College and lectured there about 10 years ago. I was very impressed by the kindness and goodness of those I met. Now I remember why.

 

The letter expressed these concerns, which I share:

 

 

1) While many of us were inspired by our time at Calvin College to make education a professional commitment, Mrs. DeVos was not. She has never worked in any educational institution as an administrator, nor as an educator. If the position of the Secretary of Education requires the individual to have an intimate knowledge of the tools used by educators, which we believe it does, Mrs. DeVos does not qualify.
2) Many of us entered Calvin College directly from Christian high schools and spent our entire elementary and secondary school years in these institutions, as did Mrs. DeVos. While we appreciate the opportunity to thrive and learn that is provided by these educational systems, we recognize that the vast majority of K–12 students are educated in the public school system. Because of this, we believe that any individual who is nominated to be Secretary of Education should have a strong commitment to public education, which Mrs. DeVos does not.
3) We believe that Mrs. DeVos’s commitment to education is limited to her advocacy of and financial contributions to religious and charter schools. Having the financial resources to promote one’s ideological point of view and endorse elected officials who share that ideology is not equivalent to the preparation that comes from being an educator or educational administrator.
4) Finally, in the first day of her confirmation hearing, Mrs. DeVos indicated a lack of support for federal policies regarding educational systems that receive public funding. This is especially concerning given that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Title IX, which ensure that all students’ educational experiences are free of discrimination that impedes learning, are not of value to Mrs. DeVos.

 

Our undergraduate education prepared us to be engaged and informed citizens who support public servants who seek to serve effectively and competently. This is precisely why we oppose the nomination of our fellow alumna, Betsy DeVos, for the position of United States Secretary of Education.

 

 

 

 

Categories Betsy DeVos, Privatization, Religion, School Choice, Separation of church and state

Betsy DeVos: A Radical Destroying The Cornerstone of America

By dianeravitch
January 17, 2017 //
20

Today, the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will consider the nomination of Betsy DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education. DeVos and her family have devoted many millions of dollars to destroying public schools and turning the clock back by more than a century. She wants the government to pay tuition at religious schools, voucher schools, for-profit schools, any alternative to public schools is her goal.

 

American public education is one of the essential institutions of our democratic society. The guarantee to everyone in this country that they could attend a free public school was a hard-fought victory. First, it required persuading the public to tax themselves to pay for schools for the children of the community. Second, it required separating the schools from religious institutions, which had long been the source of education. Third, it meant expanding access to all: to boys and girls, to children of all races and cultures, to children whose first language was not English, and to children with disabilities.

 

None of of these changes came easily.

 

And the struggle to provide good schools is ongoing, since so many states base school funding on property taxes, which privileges those who are already advantaged.

 

DeVos is ignorant of the history of public education in America and the role of public schools in our society. Her hostility to public schools should disqualify her from consideration for this position.

 

 

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Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Democracy, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, Separation of church and state, Vouchers

Katherine Stewart: Betsy DeVos and God’s Plan for Schools (and America)

By dianeravitch
December 13, 2016 //
21

Katherine Stewart, author of a book about the religious right, wrote a powerful article today in the New York Times about Betsy DeVos’ ties to the fundamentalist strain of Christianity. Her book is titled The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children. This is the time when everyone should read Stewart’s book to learn what DeVos has in store for our children.

 

Begin with the article today:

 

At the rightmost edge of the Christian conservative movement, there are those who dream of turning the United States into a Christian republic subject to “biblical laws.” In the unlikely figure of Donald J. Trump, they hope to have found their greatest champion yet. He wasn’t “our preferred candidate,” the Christian nationalist David Barton said in June, but he could be “God’s candidate.”

 

His first candidate for Education Secretary was Jerry Falwell, Jr., according to Falwell.

 

His second choice was billionaire Betsy DeVos.

 

Betsy DeVos stands at the intersection of two family fortunes that helped to build the Christian right. In 1983, her father, Edgar Prince, who made his money in the auto parts business, contributed to the creation of the Family Research Council, which the Southern Poverty Law Center identifies as extremist because of its anti-L.G.B.T. language.

 

Her father-in-law, Richard DeVos Sr., the co-founder of Amway, a company built on “multilevel marketing” or what critics call pyramid selling, has been funding groups and causes on the economic and religious right since the 1970s.

 

Ms. DeVos is a chip off the old block. At a 2001 gathering of conservative Christian philanthropists, she singled out education reform as a way to “advance God’s kingdom.” In an interview, she and her husband, Richard DeVos Jr., said that school choice would lead to “greater kingdom gain.”

 

And so the family tradition continues, funding the religious right through a network of family foundations — among others, the couple’s own, as well as the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation, on whose board Ms. DeVos has served along with her brother, Erik Prince, founder of the military contractor Blackwater. According to Conservative Transparency, a liberal watchdog that tracks donor funding through tax filings, these organizations have funded conservative groups including: the Alliance Defending Freedom, the legal juggernaut of the religious right; the Colorado-based Christian ministry Focus on the Family; and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
Like other advocates of school voucher programs, Ms. DeVos presents her plans as a way to improve public education and give families more choice. But the family foundations’ money supports a far more expansive effort.

 

The evangelical pastor and broadcaster D. James Kennedy, whose Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church is a beneficiary of DeVos largess, said in a 1986 sermon that children in public education were being “brainwashed in Godless secularism.” More recently, in 2005, he told followers to “exercise godly dominion” over “every aspect and institution of human society,” including the government.

 

Jerry Falwell Sr. outlined the goal in his 1979 book “America Can Be Saved!” He said he hoped to see the day when there wouldn’t be “any public schools — the churches will have taken them over and Christians will be running them….”

 

Mr. Trump’s senior strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, may not appear to be a religious warrior, but he shares the vision of a threatened Christendom.
“I believe the world, and particularly the Judeo-Christian West, is in a crisis,” he said at a conference in 2014. This was “a crisis both of our church, a crisis of our faith, a crisis of the West, a crisis of capitalism.”

 

What is distinctive about the Christian right’s response to this perceived crisis is its apocalyptic conviction that extreme measures are needed. There is nothing conservative about this agenda; it is radical. Gutting public education will be just the beginning.

 

Will the Republican-controlled Senate confirm this religious warrior as Secretary of Education? Very likely, as the DeVos family has been a major donor of the Republican party, and Betsy DeVos was head of the Michigan Republican party. Does the Republican party want to advance the agenda of the Christian right? Does it want to privatize and Christianize public school funding? We will soon enough find out.

 

Meanwhile, here is what you can do to raise your voice: Send an email to your senators urging them to vote against her confirmation.

 

Even more important, call and visit their district offices and the offices of your Congressperson. Experienced Congressional staff advise that personal phone calls matter a lot. Personal visits matter even more. If you can’t show up at your representatives’ offices, call them.

 

Tell them to vote against DeVos. Don’t let Betsy DeVos privatize our schools and shower government funding on religious schools.

 

Defend  public education and the principle of separation of church and state.

 

 

 

 

Categories Betsy DeVos, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization, Religion, Separation of church and state
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