Voucher Deception in Florida

[teacher gal]

From Americans United for Separation of Church and State:

May 15th 2008
These initiatives never use the word “voucher.”
Florida’s upcoming vote on private school vouchers and other forms of aid to religion is starting to attract national attention – and early signs are that this is going to be a hard-fought battle.

The Washington Post ran a story on the fight today. Although several Florida newspapers have covered the issue in depth, this is the first piece I’m aware of that puts it in national context.

If you’re joining us late, here’s what’s going on: Florida, like about 37 other states, has a provision in its state constitution barring the diversion of tax funds for religious schools and institutions. The state also has a provision mandating a high-quality free public school system.

Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, used an obscure state tax commission to engineer two initiatives onto the November ballot that would rewrite those provisions and legalize school vouchers and other forms of aid to religion in the state.

Every poll I’ve seen on vouchers shows that they are unpopular. Thus, these initiatives never use the word “voucher.” Instead, voucher proponents are arguing that unless this provision is removed, the state won’t be able to work with religious groups to help those in need.

Patricia Levesque, the tax commission member (and Bob Jones University graduate) who promoted the ballot initiatives on Bush’s behalf, told The Post that the current constitution threatens the state’s ability to work with religious groups to provide social programs like substance-abuse education, prisoner reentry and foster care.

“e’re going to have hundreds of millions of dollars of programs that the state will have to take over because we won’t have faith-based providers participating anymore,” Levesque said.

These are scare tactics, pure and simple. Voucher opponents point out that the state has worked with religious groups on secular social service projects for years with no problems. Levesque, who served as Bush’s education policy chief and now runs two pro-voucher groups for Bush, is trying to slip a massive voucher plan past the voters by disguising it as a benign “faith-based” program.

Voucher supporters don’t have a very good track record when it comes to rewriting state constitutions. Voters have repeatedly rejected voucher referenda at the polls, usually by sweeping margins. But the voucher gang has learned from past defeats and is getting a lot more devious, promoting language that never mentions the “v-word” and portraying themselves as defenders of religion.

To make matters worse, they’ve packaged one of the initiatives with a school funding requirement designed to mislead voters into thinking public school classrooms will get more money if the proposal passes. What a scam!

If the Bush crew gets away with this in Florida, you can bet they’ll move on to other states and eviscerate church-state language there.

The voucher boosters have signaled they intend to play hardball in Florida. They won’t hesitate to use deception. Our challenge is to make sure Sunshine State residents have the facts and understand all that is at stake.

By Rob Boston

[blondeatlast]

1. K&R. Vouchers and the shameful NCLB are specifically designed to destroy

public education--long a principal way of making this country strong.

If we are ever to make this nation a world leader again, it must start with public education.

Please, DU, don't let this thread die--this issue is so very crucial.

[teacher gal]

2. Thank you so much for your support! n/t

[Mika]

3. Is there a link for this?

Thanks. :hi:

[teacher gal]

4. Here it is

Go here: http://blog.au.org/

You'll see it on the right hand side of the page under "Recent Posts"

[msongs]

5. sneaky xtians trying to get welfare for their private schools that cannot support themselves nt

[bean fidhleir]

20. Not just Xians - ultra-ortho Jews, too

See Faye Kellerman's (she's a Jew) Stone Kiss.

Religious fanatics of all stripes believe that whatever benefits them is ipso facto correct.

[teacher gal]

6. kick nt

[madfloridian]

7. Jeb's buddies still in control...trying to destroy public schools.

and privatize the schools.

Never forget that Florida is on the cutting edge of privatizing everything they can get their hands on.

Recommending.

[teacher gal]

8. all for the children of course n/t

[TWiley]

9. Absolutely Insidious

We have fundamentalist christian schools popping up like fleas from a dirty floor here in Michigan. The standards expected from a "charter school" are much different than they are for a public school. Church school teachers do not have to be accredited by any body, and the last I knew of it, their children do not have to be tested under the "no child left behind act"

I am unfortunate enough to work with the parents of some of these students. The comment "Children must be taught WHAT to think" and not "How to think" is their stated mantra. These nutso's even stocked up on grain, water, gasoline, and batteries for the 1/1/00 non-event. Two of them had a heated discussion about whether new bodies will be issued to those "raptured" up from the grave, if their rotted corpse will go flying through the air, or if some kind of invisible gas will go piping up to the great beyond.

Annoyed, I asked, how can either of you speak so authoritatively about something as stupid and unlikely to happen as this? Needless to say, there was HELL to pay. With dividends of course.

Last weeks debate was about if Christians can be possessed by the Devil or not. Sheesh. I can only imagine what their school curriculum is like. Fairy tales 101, Rationalizations for success 102, and Combining single out-of-context sentences from various books by different authors to prove your point 103.

I do not want one single cent of my tax dollars to fund religion in any way. They evolve like viruses that mutate to defeat any legislative penicillin that happens to come along. Only, they call it Intelligent Design.

Kick and Recommend.

edit, the latest debate was if home schooled children should also get vouchers.

[teacher gal]

12. I am a Christian

who firmly believes in the separation of church and state. May I add one very imperfect Christian! But I am not in the least surprised that so many are turned off by these groups. IMHO Christ himself would be appalled at what is being advanced in his name. The politicization of the Christian faith is harmful not only to democracy, but it serves to discredit Christ himself. What he actually taught is being absolutely corrupted.

I would really like to carry this discussion further but have lots of papers to grade. I'll be back tonight to see if this thread is still active

[TWiley]

14. BRAVO !

You are perhaps the first Christian I have ever encountered who was brave enough to address the political hijacking of Christianity. In most cases, criticizing the bad behavior of one Christian is automatically turned into an argument against all Christians. This is especially true during discussions on this board. Believers who do this undermine their own faith by including and legitimizing elements that Christ would shun. The seem to become so fearful as to believe they are criticizing Jesus himself.

I was beginning to think that Christ was a war mongering capitalist who hated Muslims, Jews, Homosexuals, Gypsies, Native Americans, and Mexicans. A NRA member, the contemporary Jesus would have a Schwab account, be a slumlord, drive a BMW SUV with a little fish on the back, support military spending, oppose social welfare, golf with the scribes and Pharisees, and condemn single mothers.

Thank you so much for supporting your Faith. It is truly refreshing.

I have long since tossed off the Christian faith for the reasons you express, but I do remain a member of the Interfaith Alliance.

[teacher gal]

15. TWiley

Just wanted to thank you for the kind words! But I don't really deserve them because I haven't been very "faithful to my faith" in recent years. Here is a little piece I posted back in December that might interest you: http://aplacetorespond.blogspot.com/2007/12/warm-christmas-howdy-do-at-churchfor.html

[Irishonly]

16. I Am Another One

There are millions of us around who are just as appalled as anyone else of the hijacking of the government by religious fanatics seeking to destroy the separation of church and state. I have been following what is going on in Florida and I have trouble believing it. What are the kids going to do when they are old enough to enter college.

I enrolled my daughter in religious private school for a little while. She was only in first grade but I couldn't believe the science and social studies curriculum. The brainwashing started early and after a couple of weeks she was enrolled in a non Christian school. BTW, we knew it was our choice to keep her out of the local school district and didn't expect any help in paying for it. After third grade she enrolled in public schools and the education she received was as good or better than any private school and it came without brainwashing.

[teacher gal]

17. Hi

and thank you for contributing to this discussion!

[TWiley]

23. Now this is refreshing.

How lucky can a guy be? This is a truly amazing thread in more ways than one. I have become so used to being bruised and attacked for questioning anything religious that these reponses not only come as a shock, but a great measure of relief as well.

I am stunned that the fundamentalists have not attacked this thread like a duck on a June Bug. What a pleasant suprise !

[teacher gal]

26. Hi there!

I'm home for a quick lunch...giving this a kick and then maybe we can resume the discussion later. Cheers!

[Irishonly]

27. Well, Hi

:hi:

At times it's interesting being one of those durn libruls. I also support equal marriage rights for everyone and a woman's right to choose. I hate how the right wing fundies have almost prostituted religion. They have turned it into something I don't think Jesus would recognize. The nuts act like the founding fathers were born again instead of being opposed to state sponsored religion.:rant:

Edited for spelling

[WillyT]

10. Thank You For That !!! - K & R !!!

:kick:

[flashl]

11. Failure to properly fund public schools is a violation of Florida's constitution. nt

[teacher gal]

18. Am I correct

that Florida teachers are among some of the most poorly paid in the United States?

[flashl]

19. Yes, and there were recent school budget cuts. nt

[kevinbgoode]

13. Not a surprise. . .conservative religion = deception

Dominionists view lying and manipulation as a foundational principle of their "religion."

[teacher gal]

21. Well, those of you that know me

know that I am persistent with these education threads. Here's another kick.

[teacher gal]

22. Last plug

for this thread, then I'm letting it go.

[raccoon]

24. A few years ago, a woman told me there was a conspiracy against the public schools in this country.

At the time, I thought she was a little :tinfoilhat:

I later decided she was right.

[seasat]

25. A recent study has demonstrated that vouchers do not improve students

I posted this back at the first of the month. Until recently there were few studies that compared the attainment of children in private schools under voucher programs versus their peers in public school. However, a recent study looking at one of the longest running voucher programs in Wisconsin found that there was no difference between kids who remained in public school versus those who went to a private school on vouchers.

There is a perception, among the general public, that because a school is private that it somehow provides a better education. I think this perception stems from the fact that there are some very good private schools that the wealthy send their kids to that cost 10s of thousands of dollars to attend. What most don't realize is that, here in Florida, there are few requirements for private schools. They do not have to adhere to state educational standards or hire qualified teachers. Most private schools pay teachers about 2/3 of the salary of public school teachers. The reality is that you get what you pay for with private schools and they usually can't provide the same level of education for the same price as public schools.

The kids attending private schools on vouchers, here in Florida, are required to take the FCAT just like the public school kids. However they won't release the scores of these kids. I hazard a guess that if the results were favorable, we'd see the Jebittes parading them before the press instead of keeping them under wraps due to "privacy" concerns. One of the biggest difference between Florida and the Wisconsin program is that many of the schools accepting vouchers in Wisconsin are Catholic schools. Most of them have certified teachers and adhere to state standards. Here in Florida, they are usually small evangelical Christian schools operating out of the back room of some church. I don't believe, based on what I've seen of their operations, that they could come close to public schools. I would bet that if they did a similar study here in Florida, that they would find that the voucher kids actually perform worse than their public school peers.