Jeb Bush And His Cronies Have Big Plans for Govt.-Funded Religious Schools in Florida

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Jeb Bush And His Cronies Have Big Plans for Govt.-Funded Religious Schools in Florida

By Joseph L. Conn, Church & State Magazine. Posted June 21, 2008.

Religious school scheme backed by the former Fla. governor has provoked a church-state showdown with national ramifications.



Dade County, Fla., is home to almost 200 religious schools.

According to the Florida Department of Education’s data from the 2006-2007 school year, an array of denominations and faith perspectives is represented. Forty-five schools are affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, but many other spiritual traditions answered the state roll call.

All Angels Academy is Episcopalian, Christ Fellowship Academy is Baptist, Clara Mohammed School of Miami is Islamic, Greater Miami Hebrew Academy is Jewish, World Mission of Jesus Christ Christian is non-denominational, New Testament Church of Transfiguration School is Pentecostal and Glory of God Christian School is affiliated with the Assemblies of God.

Some are well-established and fully accredited with a qualified teaching staff and a tradition of educational excellence. Others are small, poorly equipped and devoted to religious indoctrination, not academic accomplishment.

If former Gov. Jeb Bush and his allies have their way, however, all of these schools – and private academies like them around the state – will soon be eligible for massive new streams of public funding, courtesy of the state’s taxpayers.

Bush has engineered onto the November ballot two initiatives that would eliminate the state constitution’s strict church-state separation provisions, mandate funding of religion and water down language requiring a quality public school system.

For advocates of church-state separation and strong public schools, it’s a political showdown with breath-taking possible consequences. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/rights/88949/

[Flying Dream Blues]

1. Recommended...please read. This is the most blatant evil scheme to ruin

public schools I've ever seen, not to mention completely shredding the idea of separation between church and state. Here are the main amendments which will be on the ballot in November:


"Amendment 7 would strike current constitutional language that forbids the use of any public funds “directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.” In place of those words, Article I, Section 3 would assert, “An individual or entity may not be barred from participating in any public program because of religion.”

Amendment 9 would eviscerate the constitution’s strong language requiring, as a “paramount duty of the state,” the provision of a “uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools.” The amendment revises Article IX, Section 1 to state that “this duty shall be fulfilled, at a minimum and not exclusively” through public schools." <snip>


The Bradenton Herald gave this editorial statement:

“Though voucher proponents cast their zeal in the shining light of a better education for all students,” the newspaper said, “this is just a way for rich people to subsidize their children’s private schooling. Would right-wing Republicans ever push for vouchers if they truly benefited the poor? No. This is a cynical attempt to undermine public education and further divide the classes.”

I hope there is a HUGE democratic turnout!!

[crickets]

2. Jeb is almost as bad as his brother -nt

[Lochloosa]

3. Jeb is worse than his brother

He's the smart one and the religious one.

[Lochloosa]

4. What is facinating about this story is it's the first I've heard about it.

And I live in Florida and pay attention. They are keeping these very quiet.

[seafan]

5. Getting the word out to all Floridians is paramount. Jeb Bush is undermining our Constitution.

Jeb Bush may be out of office and out of sight, but he continues to tear apart Florida's Constitutional foundation like a bloody jackal.



Jeb Bush's attempt to obliterate FL's church-state separation in November has national ramifications, June 3, 2008


Voucher deception on ballot for November, 2008 (Jeb Bush's devious plans again), May 20, 2008


Florida teachers union to file lawsuit against Jeb Bush's stealth school voucher amendments, May 18, 2008


Jeb Bush allies put pro-voucher plans on ballot (guts constitutional separation of church/state), April 25, 2008


Floridians, this is an emergency action call to help preserve our Constitution., March 21, 2008


Jeb Bush machine still pushing religious school vouchers via Rubio operatives, December 17, 2007


FL House quietly trying to resurrect Jeb's school vouchers in spite of unconstitutionality ruling., May 2, 2007


Gov. Jeb Bush determined to force school vouchers into FL Constitution, March 30, 2006


Governor (Jeb Bush) preparing plan to save vouchers (defying FL Supreme Court), November 17, 2005





Please help spread the word.


NO to Amendments 5, 7 and 9.

[Lochloosa]

8. Thanks for the info....and a kick

[madfloridian]

6. Thanks for posting. Seafan and I have tried to call attention to it.

Me:

Amendments 7 and 9 on Florida November ballots are blatant attempts to mislead.

Seafan:

Jeb Bush's attempt to obliterate FL's church-state separation in November has national ramifications

This needs so much attention.

Kicking and recommending.

[seasat]

7. What they don't tell you is that the accredit schools probably won't take vouchers.

My wife teaches at private Catholic High School. It is an excellent school with state certified teachers that pays them almost as much as public school but with a slightly better benefits package. However, they didn't accept vouchers (under the short time they were available) and very likely will not accept them if Jebbie's laws are passed. The reason is that their tuition is double the amount provided by vouchers.

To get the same state certified teachers and accreditation, a private school has to charge more than what we spend per student in public school. The private schools that will accept the vouchers (and have in the past) will likely be small religious schools with poorly paid unqualified staff. The way they've been able to get away with this is that there is no oversight of the progress of the students in the voucher schools.

The voucher students do have to take the FCAT but they've barred those scores from release. They made up a story about how there were so few voucher students that revealing the FCAT scores would violate their privacy. Bullcrap, they could release an average of those scores and no one would know who the students were. It seems obvious to me that they would be shouting these scores from the high heavens if they showed any improvement. A recent comprehensive study of the longest running voucher program in the country showed that there was not improvement among the students participating over their peers in public school.

The actual reason they support vouchers so much is that they want to kill off public education. There are no other logical reasons for it. It's so that the poor will be segregated into low performing unregulated private schools with unqualified poorly paid teachers. The wealthy, like Jebbie, can attend elite private schools with 8 to 1 student to teacher ratios but eventually with a voucher subsidy.