When in Babylon….
“Jesus Is The Answer To All Your Problems,” read the billboard I passed on westbound I-40 on Sunday somewhere between Greensboro and Statesville, North Carolina. Southern Christians especially have a thing for — what is it Donald Trump calls lying? — thruthful hyperbole. Their extravagant promises, their religious puffery, may be well-intended but oversell the product, don’t you think? The larger and louder the claims, even billboard-sized, the more there is a hint that it’s not just you they are trying to convince, but themselves.
A lot of places across the South claim the title “Buckle of the Bible Belt.” Back when Southern Baptists were the political equivalent of Boss Hogg in those towns, a Bible verse that tripped off many tongues came from the book Donald Trump famously referenced like a “walked into a bar” joke: Two Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.
Be in the world but not of the world. That was then. This is now (Washington Post):
Billions in taxpayer dollars are being used to pay tuition at religious schools throughout the country, as state voucher programs expand dramatically and the line separating public education and religion fades.
School vouchers can be used at almost any private school, but the vast majority of the money is being directed to religious schools, according to a Washington Post examination of the nation’s largest voucher programs.
Vouchers, government money that covers education costs for families outside the public schools, vary by state but offer up to $16,000 per student per year, and in many casesfully cover the cost of tuition at private schools. In some schools, a large share of the student body is benefiting from a voucher, meaning a significant portion of the school’s funding is coming directly from the government.
There was a time when church entanglement with government was a bad thing. It was a threat evangelicals avoided. Tax exemption was their legal separation between church and state. (Enter “Bob Jones University” in the search bar at the left.) Now government is just another of the world’s Seven Mountains to be coopted, and “come out from among them, and be ye separate” another biblical principle to elide. (Enter Seven Mountains mandate” in the search bar at the left.) The relativism charge “principled” conservatives flung at the left for decades was just a leading example of projection. When in Babylon, eh?
In just five states with expansive programs, more than 700,000 students benefited from vouchers this school year.(Those same states had a total of about 935,000 private school students in 2021, the most recent year for which data are available.) An additional 200,000 were subsidized in the rest of the country, according to tracking by EdChoice, a voucher advocacy group. That suggests a substantial share of about 4.7 million students attending private school nationwide are benefiting from vouchers — a number that is expected to grow.
The programs, popular with conservatives, are rapidly growing in GOP-run states, with a total of 28 states plus D.C. operating some sort of voucher system.Eight states created or expanded voucher programs last year, and this year, Alabama, Georgia and Missouri have approved or expanded voucher-type programs. Some recently enacted plans are just starting to take effect or will be phased in over the next few years.
“There are really two Americas,” Matt Taibbi wrote in Griftopia (2011), For the grifter class, government is “a tool for making money,” while “in everybody-else land, the government is something to be avoided.” America’s churches once inhabited everybody-else land. Now they’ve relocated to Griftopia. (Enter “the Big Enchilada” in the search bar at the left.) Where there’s money to be made, principles, biblical and others, are relative.
And while you’re thinking about how school vouchers are defunding our public schools, don’t forget about tax credit scholarships. Not technically vouchers, they are an even stealthier way for churches and private schools to, conservatives once self-righteously condemned, “suck off the governmnent teat.”
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