





Romney Mocks Global Warming, Bush Pushes $$ for Schools that Mock Global Warming and Mormonism Rachel Tabachnick print page Fri Aug 31, 2012 at 11:42:40 AM EST These are the perils of tearing down the wall of separation of church and state, and Mitt Romney, of all people, should know better. Before Clint Eastwood stole the show at the GOP convention by arguing with an invisible President Obama (an empty chair), Jeb Bush touted private school choice in Florida. The state has the largest corporate tax credit program in the nation, part of a privatization of public education agenda now supported by Romney. Later in the evening Romney delighted the GOP convention audience by mocking the concept of rising seas, something that could have come right out of the pages of the textbooks used in many of the now publicly-funded private schools using curricula from A Beka Book, Bob Jones University Press, and Accelerated Christian Education. Read the rest of the article to find out what mocking global warming has to do with mocking Mormonism, and why Romney should resist pandering to this worldview.

The bad news for Romney is that these popular curricula series consistently mock global warming and attack Mormonism as a "false religion" - two concepts that won't easily be disconnected. They are foundational tenets of a totalist Biblical worldview taught in these schools in Florida - and other states - that are already receiving public funding or anxiously awaiting the dollars that will come their way as the pro-privatization juggernaut continues. Romney should consider the America he would help to create, as millions of American children are indoctrinated in religious bigotry and disrespect funded with public dollars. At right is a page from Science: Order & Reality published by A Beka Book. These texts consistently mock global warming including with cartoons. This page states, "The global warming issue portrayed by the environmentalist movement is actually an exaggeration of the greenhouse effect which, as you recall, is a natural process that God provided to maintain a balance in the temperature of the earth's atmosphere." The text continues, "According to records kept over the past 100 years, however, there has been no significant change in the world's overall temperature - there has been no global warming." [Bolding is in the original text.] The text continues, A high school level A Beka history text introduces Mormonism under the heading "The Rise of Cults," stating, Among the cults that sprang up in the 1800s were Mormonism (1830), the Jehovah's Witnesses (1863), and Christian Science (1877). It's Not Just Louisiana! The current issue of The Public Eye includes my article The Right's "School Choice" Scheme, with a section dedicated to Florida's corporate tax credit program, the largest in the nation. As explained in this article, the program allows businesses to receive 100% credit for money "donated for scholarships" to send students to private schools. The funds of the corporate tax credit program are funneled through a nonprofit founded by John Kirtley, vice chair of the Betsy DeVos-led American Federation for Children. Currently in Florida and Pennsylvania, the state with the second largest corporate tax credit program, voters are being told by pro-privatization advocates that corporate tax credit programs do not cost the taxpayer anything. Pennsylvania gives a 90% credit against taxes for the amount a corporation commits over two years. This is like saying it would cost states nothing if families were allowed to donate to their favorite charity and credited 90 - 100% of the amount against their state tax bill. According to accounting firms, this largesse is costing the participating corporations in Pennsylvania little or nothing out of their own pockets. As noted in The Public Eye article, Floridians will be voting in November to change a clause in their state constitution that prevents public funding of religious schools. Although this is essentially what is happening through the corporate tax credit program, the vote in November could allow a state voucher program that would take the money directly from public school funding. Well over 80% of the students funded through Florida's corporate tax credit program attend religious schools, with many of those using Protestant fundamentalist curricula. Some of the promotional media for the program has openly touted the use of A Beka curriculum at participating schools. A past promotional webpage featured 13 schools, nine of which advertise use of A Beka curricula. Below is a short video also included in a previous article on Louisiana, and showing examples of what can be found in A Beka Book and Bob Jones University Press texts. Note at about 5:02 in the video, an A Beka History textbook is shown that describes Mormonism as a "false religious movement." The following excerpt is from my 2011 article titled "Vouchers/Tax Credits Funding Creationism, Revisionist History, Hostility Toward Other Religions." Note that a few details have changed since 2011. For instance, all of the "scholarship" money from the corporate tax credit program is now being funneled through the nonprofit founded by John Kirtley. Florida's Corporate Tax Credit Program - Do They Know What They Are Funding? According to the 2010-2011 yearbook of the Alliance for School Choice (the 501(c)(3) under the DeVos-led American Federation for Children umbrella), Florida has the largest "school choice" program in the country, followed by Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Ohio. Over 54,000 tuition recipients are enrolled in private schools in Florida, with the majority of these students in a corporate tax credit program that allows businesses to divert their taxes, dollar for dollar, up to 75% of taxes owed to the state. Florida currently has a voucher program limited to special needs students, since the state's Supreme Court struck down a more expansive program in 2006. The Florida House and Senate have approved a ballot initiative for the 2012 election to try to remove the "no aid" clause in the state's constitution that would open the door to Gov. Rick Scott's vouchers-for-all scheme. Florida's corporate tax credit program disbursed the full amount allowed last year - $140 million dollars for tuition to students in 1,092 schools and has a cap of $175 million for 2011. These funds are handed over to private non-profits for distribution, with the vast majority since 2002 disbursed through Step Up for Students, also a recipient of funding from the DeVos family foundations. This is one of several names used by the Florida School Choice Fund, Inc. a 501(c)(3) headed by John Kirtley, a venture capitalist who is also vice chairman of the Betsy DeVos-led American Federation for Children and a director of the James Madison Institute, one of many right-wing think tanks that promote privatization of public education. (The institute's founding vice chairman, J. Stanley Marshall, has signed a proclamation calling for the end of public education.) As of February 2011, 83.8% of the students in the Florida tax credit program were attending religious schools, approximately the same rate as Milwaukee's voucher program. However, unlike Milwaukee, hundreds of the Florida schools fall into the category of right-wing evangelical or fundamentalist, with many using A Beka, Bob Jones, or ACE curriculum.



The Step Up For Students reports describe the typical student in the tax credit program as a minority from a one-parent home. Currently 35.6% are African American and 27.5% are Hispanic. The organizations glossy reports tout the improved opportunities of the students provided with tuition grants to private schools.



The Florida tax credit program is voluntarily supported by corporations including AT &T, Burger King, CVS, Lowe's, Marriott, Sysco Food Services, and others, described in the Step Up For Students annual reports as "receiving a high rate of return on their investments." Do these corporation know what they are supporting? The Step Up For Students reports and other pro-privatization propaganda openly report the participating private school's use of the curricula series quoted in this article, without revealing what that means. The Step Up For Students reports also fail to include the fact that some American universities refuse to accept high school credit for courses taught from several textbooks quoted in this article. University of California specifically cited several A Beka and Bob Jones textbooks and, although challenged in court, won the case.

Some of the glowing testimonies in the Step Up for Students annual report include this 2008 description of Bible Truth Ministries Academy. "Students are divided into multi-grade learning groups and taught with the Accelerated Christian Education curriculum, which is self-paced and has allowed some of the students to advance well beyond their grade level." The 2007 annual report features Esprit De Corps Center for Learning in Jacksonville. Next to a photo of smiling African American children, smartly attired in uniforms and berets, the curriculum is touted. "Using an A Beka curriculum designed to challenge students to reach their full potential, the school offers outstanding academic programs that provide its students with the skills and knowledge to become active, productive members of society. [...] EDC has partnered with Step Up For Students since its inception." When the Palm Beach Post conducted its survey in 2003, The Potter's House Christian Academy was one of the major recipients of voucher funding and reported using both the A Beka and Bob Jones curriculum series. The school is affiliated with the politically influential Jacksonville mega-church, The Potter's House Christian Fellowship, led by Bishop Vaughan McLaughlin. In February 2005, an estimated 2200 people attended a rally at the church in support of Step Up For Students, led by Governor Jeb Bush and the state's attorney general at that time, Charlie Crist. This June, The Potter's House will be a host of the Global Day of Prayer, led by an international Charismatic network, which includes Apostle Ed Silvoso, Bishop McLaughin's spiritual mentor. This network teaches that Christians must take control or "dominion" over government and society. (Silvoso is the brother-in-law of evangelist Luis Palau, whose ministry has received at least 3.5 million dollars from the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation.) This tax credit program money could have been used to improve Florida's urban public schools, but that would not serve the purpose of indoctrinating the largely minority recipients of the tuition grants to the right-wing religious worldview found in these textbooks. As Frances Paterson states in her research, Americans absolutely have the right to send their children to schools that use these fundamentalist curricula. But she adds, "The public policy makers can and should ask whether the alternative system of Christian education for which they seek public approval and support is ideologically driven in ways that run contrary to the best interests of a diverse, democratic society."



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