Florida Shows Why Public Funds Should Not Go to Religious Schools

Roughly 38 states have constitutional provisions that bar the use of public, taxpayer funds to support religious schools.  As Florida's voucher system is demonstrating, such bans are appropriate and that taxpayer funds should not support religious and private schools that actively discriminate against different portions of the public. As noted in a prior post, Christofascists now have cases before the U.S. Supreme Court where they want such bans abolished in order for their discriminatory schools take money from the public trough while openly discriminating against whoever they deem"other" or "sinners."  The Orlando Sentinel looks at Florida's voucher system and the bigotry the public is being forced to finance.  It is instructive to keep in mind that in the South, many "christian academies" began to avoid integration and that the bigoted mindset continues to this day. Here are article highlights:

Once again, Orlando Sentinel reporters peered behind the curtains of Florida’s unchecked voucher-school system to see how $1 billion worth of public money is being used. And once again, what they found was ugly.

Their reporting uncovered more than 80 schools with blatant discrimination policies that deny admission to gay children, expel or discipline students who reveal they’re gay and sometimes refuse to educate children of LGBT parents.

These schools want public money. But they don’t want to serve all of the public.

One school told a mother — a firefighter married to U.S. Air Force veteran — that her children were unfit to be educated there simply because the couple was two women.
The two women served their country and community. But the school — which received $371,000 in state scholarship money last year — told the family to get an education elsewhere.

In their “Schools without Rules” series, reporters found voucher schools forging safety reports, using factually incorrect curriculum and hiring unqualified teachers — some who hadn’t even finished high school.

Yes, high school dropouts teaching school … underwritten with public money.

They found voucher schools that stiffed teachers out of paychecks and some that shut down in the middle of the school year, stranding students.

Berate public schools all you want. There will never be a day when you take your child to a public school only to find it’s gone out of business.

The reporters found administrators accused of fraud, teachers accused of abuse, loads of problems — all of it swept under the rug by politicians who demonize public schools while promoting “school choice.”

These reporters wanted to see what was happening in Florida’s billion-dollar voucher-school system for a simple reason: No one else will.

In six months, our reporters visited more voucher schools in Central Florida — to see what kids were learning and how they were being treated — than the Florida Department of Education visited in the entire state in a year.

Some voucher schools do great jobs. And many welcome all children, regardless of race, faith or sexual orientation. This includes some Christian and faith-based schools that not only welcome LGBT students but teach students that discrimination against anyone is wrong.

But others discriminate — not only against LGBT students, but also students with even mild disabilities.

If these kids were denied admission because they were black, it would be illegal — and politicians would be outraged.

But Florida green-lights discrimination against LGBT citizens. In hiring. In housing. And yes, in schooling.

The politicians also say people of faith should be free to discriminate if that’s part of their belief system. People used to make similar arguments for racial discrimination. In defending a 1965 ban on interracial marriage, a Virginia judge declared in 1965 that God “did not intend for the races to mix.”

Discrimination was wrong then. It is wrong now. It’s especially wrong when underwritten with tax dollars.

[S]ix months of investigating by reporters Annie Martin and Leslie Postal revealed, is that many more schools have explicit discrimination policies. And they should welcome more accountability and standards in general, to make sure children are actually being educated at these publicly funded schools — just as Florida already demands of traditional schools.

Many lawmakers are fine with the status quo and publicly funded discrimination. If you’re not, speak up.