-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Louisiana state Representative Valarie Hodges, R-Watson, was an enthusiastic support of Governor Bobby Jindal’s school voucher program, until a Muslim school applied for a share of the spoils. Hodges reportedly said: “I actually support funding for teaching the fundamentals of America’s Founding Fathers’ religion, which is Christianity, in public schools or private schools.”
Hodges’ sense of Christian privilege has led her to wishfully imagine that the founding fathers share her religious sentiments.
Hodges goes to say: “I do not support using public funds for teaching Islam anywhere here in Louisiana.” Jefferson’s wall of separation doesn’t look so bad to Christians when it keeps mosque and state apart.
Hodges find herself on the horns of a dilemma. If she uses taxpayers funds to subsidize religious schools, then she’ll be funding Muslim Madrasahs. If she doesn’t fund religious schools, then where are children going to learn that the Loch Ness Monster disproves evolution? That pesky First Amendment keeps getting in the way.
The taxpayer funding of Muslim Madrasahs could spell the end of voucher initiatives. Jindal’s effort to defund the Louisiana public school system has run head long into his supporters’ bigotry. Those opposed to school vouchers should solicit Islamic schools to enter their local voucher programs.
Public education gives everyone the opportunity to receive an education and succeed on their own merits. The defunding of the public education system ensures that only those children whose parents can afford it, will get an education. An education is the great equalizer. It is a right, not a privilege. The privileged position of the few can be jeopardized by a economic system which rewards its participants based on meritocracy. The plutocracy will protect its position.
H/T: Americans United, Steve Benen, Livingston Parish News, HuffPo.
BettyKath, true, you don;t even have to go outside of Christianity to offend a lot of christians with your own denomination.
“I actually support funding for teaching the fundamentals of America’s Founding Fathers’ religion, which is Christianity…”
Which Christianity would that be?
(partial list)
Catholicism: Armenian Catholic Church, Belarusian Greek Catholic Church, Bulgarian Catholic Church, Chaldean Catholic Church, Coptic Catholic Church, Byzantine Church of Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, Ethiopian Catholic Church, Georgian Catholic Church,
Greek Catholic Church, Hungarian Greek Catholic Church, Italo-Albanian Catholic Church – a.k.a. Italo-Greek Catholic Church, Macedonian Catholic Church, Maronite Catholic Church, Melkite Catholic Church, Romanian Catholic Church, Russian Catholic Church. Ruthenian Catholic Church (usually called the “Byzantine Catholic Church” in the United States),
Slovak Greek Catholic Church, Syriac Catholic Church, Syro-Malabar Church, Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Apostolic Catholic Church, American Catholic Church in the United States, Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church, Catholic Charismatic Church of Canada, Celtic Catholic Church, Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, Communion of Christ the Redeemer, Free Catholic Church, Liberal Catholic Church, Mariavite Church, Old Catholic Church, Old Catholic Church of America, Old Catholic Church in Europe, Palmarian Catholic Church, Philippine Independent Church, Polish National Catholic Church, True Catholic Church
Protestantism: Lutheran, Anglican, Reformed Churches, Presbyterian, Congregational, Anabaptist, Brethren, Methodists, Pietists and Holiness Churches, Baptists, Apostolic Churches – Irvingites, Pentecostal, Charismatics, African Initiated Churches, United and uniting churches, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement, Southcottites, Millerites and comparable groups, British-Israelism, Christian Identity, Miscellaneous/Other
“I actually support funding for teaching the fundamentals of America’s Founding Fathers’ religion, which is Christianity…”
Bzzzzzzt! wrong!
Excuse me, Rep. Hodges, but the entire John Adams family was Unitarian, and if I’m not mistaken, Jefferson was a sort of generic Deist.
Where, exactly, in the Constitution does it give the right to an education? I’ve looked, and I can’t quite find it. It’s a privelege, period. And that’s the reality that private schools will have to deal with, be they secular or christian- if you fund one by voucher, you have to fund the rest. So it becomes a choice- either fund the failed public education system, or fund the religous nutjobs. Either way, you’re out of luck. Just hope that your kids can get a decent career, so that they can afford to send their kids to private, secular school. Or maybe make the vouchers only for secular schools? Hmmm. Makes sense to me.
Public schools have failed on a vast scale, and will continue to fail as long as politics are involved in education. Liberals see it as a way to indoctrinate useful idiots, and conservatives do everything they can to avoid having to send their kids to these failed organizations. I can’t blame them. I have a Jr. High for delinquents about a block from my house. Those kids don’t stand a chance. Half of them are too stupid to pour piss out of a boot, the other half are too stoned to bother. That’s our future, a bunch of idiotic punks who will whine and cry when they can’t get a job and then the taxpayers have to provide them with food and shelter and medical care. If you wanted to do a root cause analysis of the failure of american society, there’s the answer, right there.
people
Republicans aren’t bright poeple.
There is a public school system everywhere. If you choose not to use it and send your children elsewhere it should be at your own expense not the taxpayers. Every dollar that is being spent on vouchers, charter schools, and religious schools, etc. should be spent on improving the public system and facilities we have.
Teacher re-certification should be required at reasonable intervals.
If a teacher is incapable of doing a job, for whatever the reason, he or she should be placed on probation and supervised for a year and if they still do not perform up to the required level, they should be fired like any one in the private sector. There is no “Tenure” in other jobs.
Merit pay doesn’t work because your “Merit” is often determined by people who may or may not like you personally. I know from experience, I have been there.
If you are good at what you do, you get to keep your job. If some of the deadwood were dumped, there would be more money available to pay highers salaries to the best teachers, and our children would benefit.
Tax payer dollars should not be used to fund college for those who cannot work as I did while I went to school. My parents were not able to help me, except to give me a place to live. I didn’t live on campus obviously. Why should people who work and can or can’t help there own children with college, be taxed to help other children with college.
All High School students should have available, trade schools. FACE IT KIDS , EVERYONE CAN’T BE MANAGERS, some of us are going to have to do the work.
This thing with Rep. Hodges reminds me of this “letter” (see below) about prayer in schools that was making the rounds in liberal circles several years back:
Dear John,
As you know, we’ve been working real hard in our town to get prayer back in the schools. Finally, the school board approved a plan of teacher-led prayer with the children participating at their own option. Children not wishing to participate were to be allowed to stand out in the hallway during the prayer time. We hoped someone would sue us so we could go all the way to the Supreme Court and get that old devil-inspired ruling reversed.
Naturally, we were all excited by the school board’s action. As you know, our own little Billy (not so little, any more, though) is now in the second grade. Of course, Margaret and I explained to him no matter what the other kids did, he was going to stay in the classroom and participate.
After the first day of school, I asked him, “How did the prayer time go?
“Fine.”
“Did many kids go out into the hallway?”
“Two.”
“Excellent. How did you like your teacher’s prayer?”
“It was different, Dad. Real different from the way you pray.”
“Oh? Like how?”
“She said, ‘Hail, Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners…'”
The next day I talked with the principal. I politely explained I wasn’t prejudiced against Catholics but I would appreciate Billy being transferred to a non-Catholic teacher. The principal said it would be done right away. At supper that evening I asked Billy to say the blessings. He slipped out of his chair, sat cross-legged on the floor, closed his eyes, raised his hands palms up and began to hum. You’d better believe I was at the principal’s office at eight o’clock the next morning!
“Look,” I said. “I don’t really know much about these Transcendental Meditationists, but I would feel a lot more comfortable if you could move Billy to a room where the teacher practices an older, more established religion.'”
That afternoon I met Billy as soon as he walked in the door after school.
“I don’t think you’re going to like Mrs. Nakasone’s prayer, either, Dad.”
“Out with it.”
“She kept calling God ‘O Great Buddha…'”
The following morning I was waiting for the principal in the school parking lot.
“Look, I don’t want my son praying to the Eternal Spirit of whatever or to Buddha. I want him to have a teacher that prays in Jesus’ name!”
“What about Bertha Smith?”
“Excellent.”
I could hardly wait to hear about Mrs. Smith’s prayer. I was standing on the front steps of the school when the final bell rang.
“Well?” I asked Billy as we walked towards the car.
“Okay.”
“Okay what?”
“Mrs. Smith asked God to bless us and ended her prayer in Jesus’ name, amen — just like you.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Now we’re getting someplace.”
“She even taught us a verse of scripture about prayer,” said Billy.
I beamed. “Wonderful. What was the verse?”
“Let’s see…” he mused for a moment. ” ‘And behold, they began to pray; and they did pray unto Jesus, calling him their Lord and their God.'”
We had reached the car. “Fantastic,” I said, reaching for the door handle. Then I paused. I couldn’t place the scripture.
“Billy, did Mrs. Smith say what book that verse was from?”
“Third Nephi, chapter 19, verse 18.”
“Third what?”
“Nephi,” he said, “It’s in the Book of Mormon.”
The school board doesn’t meet for a month. I’ve given Billy very definite instructions that at prayer time each day he’s to go out into the hallway. I plan to be at that board meeting. If they don’t do something about this situation, I’ll sue. I’ll take it all the way to the Supreme Court if I have to. I don’t need the schools or anybody else teaching my son about religion. We can take care of that ourselves at home and at church, thank you very much.
Give my love to Sandi and the boys.
Your friend,
Jack
Dear John,
As you know, we’ve been working real hard in our town to get prayer back in the schools. Finally, the school board approved a plan of teacher-led prayer with the children participating at their own option. Children not wishing to participate were to be allowed to stand out in the hallway during the prayer time. We hoped someone would sue us so we could go all the way to the Supreme Court and get that old devil-inspired ruling reversed.
Naturally, we were all excited by the school board’s action. As you know, our own little Billy (not so little, any more, though) is now in the second grade. Of course, Margaret and I explained to him no matter what the other kids did, he was going to stay in the classroom and participate.
After the first day of school, I asked him, “How did the prayer time go?
“Fine.”
“Did many kids go out into the hallway?”
“Two.”
“Excellent. How did you like your teacher’s prayer?”
“It was different, Dad. Real different from the way you pray.”
“Oh? Like how?”
“She said, ‘Hail, Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners…'”
The next day I talked with the principal. I politely explained I wasn’t prejudiced against Catholics but I would appreciate Billy being transferred to a non-Catholic teacher. The principal said it would be done right away. At supper that evening I asked Billy to say the blessings. He slipped out of his chair, sat cross-legged on the floor, closed his eyes, raised his hands palms up and began to hum. You’d better believe I was at the principal’s office at eight o’clock the next morning!
“Look,” I said. “I don’t really know much about these Transcendental Meditationists, but I would feel a lot more comfortable if you could move Billy to a room where the teacher practices an older, more established religion.'”
That afternoon I met Billy as soon as he walked in the door after school.
“I don’t think you’re going to like Mrs. Nakasone’s prayer, either, Dad.”
“Out with it.”
“She kept calling God ‘O Great Buddha…'”
The following morning I was waiting for the principal in the school parking lot.
“Look, I don’t want my son praying to the Eternal Spirit of whatever or to Buddha. I want him to have a teacher that prays in Jesus’ name!”
“What about Bertha Smith?”
“Excellent.”
I could hardly wait to hear about Mrs. Smith’s prayer. I was standing on the front steps of the school when the final bell rang.
“Well?” I asked Billy as we walked towards the car.
“Okay.”
“Okay what?”
“Mrs. Smith asked God to bless us and ended her prayer in Jesus’ name, amen — just like you.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Now we’re getting someplace.”
“She even taught us a verse of scripture about prayer,” said Billy.
I beamed. “Wonderful. What was the verse?”
“Let’s see…” he mused for a moment. ” ‘And behold, they began to pray; and they did pray unto Jesus, calling him their Lord and their God.'”
We had reached the car. “Fantastic,” I said, reaching for the door handle. Then I paused. I couldn’t place the scripture.
“Billy, did Mrs. Smith say what book that verse was from?”
“Third Nephi, chapter 19, verse 18.”
“Third what?”
“Nephi,” he said, “It’s in the Book of Mormon.”
The school board doesn’t meet for a month. I’ve given Billy very definite instructions that at prayer time each day he’s to go out into the hallway. I plan to be at that board meeting. If they don’t do something about this situation, I’ll sue. I’ll take it all the way to the Supreme Court if I have to. I don’t need the schools or anybody else teaching my son about religion. We can take care of that ourselves at home and at church, thank you very much.
Give my love to Sandi and the boys.
Your friend,
Jack
all religions are wrong and blasphemous and will doom all followers to hell, except mine. please send donations to…
All these powers people like to give government always sound good, until the other guy is in power or a disfavored minority gets some of the goodies – then its all “I didn’t think this completely through”.
“I actually support funding for teaching the fundamentals of America’s Founding Fathers’ religion, which is Christianity, in public schools or private schools.”
Apparently, she never read John Adams’ writings.
Like many I have walked Bourbon or some street there pre deluge. It was tawdry in 1961, definitely for real for those not drunk or enraptured. So did Disneyland buy it or not?
Is there a master plan? Who knows what’s happening?
The school situation says one thing. The governor confirms.
SwM’s daughter has one view.
SwM launchs one in the preview view. Whatever that was. “Utopia for the NN-th time?”
Excellent movie after old models???; kids with perfect diction and soft dialects, nature’s grandeur, fireworks, soulful scenes. It might be great—but the spices offered here were all too familiar. Let’s see if SwM does like GeneH did on me for my dissing ol’ dry gulch Clint. Wahoooo!
Glad it did not cost much. The only good thing I saw about it.
Grouch is back. No, I will NOT kiss you, so go away.
I will let you say whatever you want—-as long as you agree with me.
Which amendment is that?
Swarthmore Mom,
I hope you’ll let us know what you think. There is some controversy that the right thinks it supports their political philosophy – bootstraps, endless vacations, and I’d rather stay on this roof sort of thing. Sounds crazy for a Sundance winner.
You are welcome, Malisha. The entire cast is made up of locals and the movie was very low budget. Some are saying it is the best movie of the year.
Thanks, Swarthmore Mom.
Let’s just get rid of all religions and make the world a better place.
First it was the Christian schools, then the Muslim schools, next thing you know the Hindus will get vouchers. Can I get a voucher and keep my kid home away from all those schools and educate him myself? With a voucher I could buy books, video cameras, computer, and do field trips. I dont need public schools with their low esteem, religious schools with their human hogma, or a private school that preaches hauty tauty. I need a voucher for DogRus.
leejcarroll,
That would be a travesty for Rep. Hodges!
Saddest part is they keep electing these people who have no concept of the constitution. And what will she do if a Yeshiva wants in on the voucher program. Muslims, jews, and heathens. O my!