A Texas pastor is taking the school choice debate to a whole new level, declaring the state’s proposed education savings account legislation sinful. The Dallas Morning News explains:
Teachers and pastors on Monday rallied against the Senate’s school vouchers proposal, even as its author announced the bill will be heard Thursday.
“It is a sin before God,” Charles Foster Johnson led hundreds in chanting, “to make commodities out of our children and to make markets out of our classrooms.”
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and GOP Senate leaders would harm public schools and impermissibly lend government support to religion if their self-styled “school choice” bill becomes law, Johnson warned at a Capitol rally organized by the state affiliate of the American Federal [sic] of Teachers union.
“Generally, the House of Representatives is holding firm,” he said to teachers and school district employees who used the first day of spring break to travel to Austin for a lobby day. In the House, Democrats and rural Republicans traditionally have blocked voucher-like proposals.
“But brothers and sisters, our Senate members need a lot of help from you,” said Johnson, a Fort Worth-based Baptist pastor who heads Pastors for Texas Children. It is a group of about 1,000 pastors, rabbis and imams who work to support public schools.
Does Charles Foster Johnson not believe in human free will? If not – and for his comments above – I take issue with many of the pastor’s theological belief convictions, and I am pretty grateful in this instance for separation of church and state.
Source: Dallas Morning News
IN THIS ISSUE:
- INDIANA: A closed Indiana school finds renewed purpose thanks to that state’s voucher program.
- IOWA: Iowa lawmakers are considering expanding the state’s tax-credit scholarship program.
- DALLAS: Thousands of teachers come out in Texas to protest education savings accounts.
Common Core and Curriculum Watch
- TRACKING TRUMP: CNN is keeping track of how many campaign promises the president has kept, and Common Core is one issue on CNN’s radar.
- SLAVERY: A New Jersey school had students create mock slave auction posters and is forced to apologize for the assignment.
- UNDERCOVER: Project Veritas released a video allegedly showing an attorney bragging about getting a union-protected teacher who forced students to perform sexual acts at knife-point off without a conviction.
- LUNCH: Cafeterias across the country want President Trump to get rid of Michelle Obama’s lunch edicts because they say they waste money on food kids don’t eat.
- FATHER-DAUGHTER: A California school is getting rid of the traditional father-daughter dance because it’s “not inclusive.”
- DeBLASIO: New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio’s school discipline policies have been a disaster, a Manhattan Institute study shows.
- CAMPUS SEXUAL ASSAULT: Several states “ponder turning federal guidance on campus sexual assault into law,” watchdog.org reports.
- HAWAII: A Hawaii teacher is refusing to teach students who are in the country illegally.