| This was copied from the May 2021 edition of the Freethinker Religious Miseducation at Public Expense by Merrill Shapiro, Trustee and Immediate Past President, National Board of Trustees, Americans United for Separation of Church and State |
Our First Coast Freethought Society is an Internal Revenue Service Code Section 501 (c) 3 organization, so this column will not include an endorsement of Florida State Senator Perry E. Thurston, Jr. Since his district if 300 miles south of Jacksonville, it is unlikely any of us will have the opportunity to vote for him, either. But he has done something quite remarkable and as citizens and taxpayers in the State of Florida, it behooves us to pay attention to his actions!
Senator Thurston was reviewing CS/HB 7045: School Choice, a bill that would expand taxpayer funded vouchers for students attending private (and in practice overwhelmingly religious) schools to the tune of nearly $1 billion annually. The bill, touted as helping “poor” families, would redefine “poor” to refer to families of four making less than $100,000 per year!
Senator Thurston decided to add amendment 507624 to CS/HB 7045. Senator Thurston had the audacity, the unmitigated gall, the chutzpah to offer in his amendment the requirement that schools benefiting from this $1 billion scheme “employ or contract with teachers who hold baccalaureate or higher degrees or have at least three years teaching experience in public or private schools.”
This logical, quite reasonable, more than sensible amendment failed and never became part of the bill! Senators from all over the State of Florida made sure that the amendment would never see the light of day!
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/7045/?Tab=Amendments
Most of that $1 billion dollar giveaway you and I are paying for, goes to religious schools whose only criteria for teachers is that they be good Christians or whatever denomination supports the school. The idea of requiring teachers to have a college degree might limit the pool of individuals committed to a religious belief and make it difficult to staff a school as it should be staffed. It should be noted that the Orlando Sentinel reported on a school receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars each year whose Principal was unavailable for an interview with a reporter because that Principal was in a class working to earn his Associate of Arts Degree at Valencia College!
How could so many Florida State Senators oppose requiring teachers to have college degrees or even only three years of experience in lieu of a degree? It’s simply more pandering to the forces of the religious right who clearly have too much influence in Tallahassee.
When someone asks “Where’s the outrage?” I hope you’ll join me in expressing that outrage!
