Jeb Bush and public financing of religion in Florida

Jeb Bush is like a bad penny. He served two terms as governor and screwed things up in a manner typical of a Bush, but he keeps coming back! He's been hiding in the shadows manipulating things behind the scenes by using cronies he put in place before he left Tallahassee and which Governor Crist has not had the good sense to give the boot. But now, as they say, his chickens have come home to roost and they're making a mess!

We've written before about the desire of the religious right to get public money for their various misadventures in Florida and how old Jeb was their money pot constantly promoting faith-based organizations and operations, including schools.

Jeb has, in 2008, been instrumental in getting two nasty initiatives on Florida's November ballot "that would eliminate the state constitution's strict church-state separation provisions, mandate funding of religion and water down language requiring a quality public school system."

Maybe Jeb is just another extra-ardent convert. He turned Roman Catholic after he wed his Roman Catholic wife. The Roman Catholic Church is noted for its belief that the nation or state in which they operate should provide them special privileges including exemption from taxes and government funding of their operations. Perhaps Jeb has adopted that view.

We should note, though, that his brother Georgie is some other kind of Christian and he thinks along the same lines as Jeb: faith-based "initiatives" are wonderful. Maybe they're both trying to get in good with God?

Actually, many of the fundamentalist Christian groups have taken a page from the Roman Catholic playbook and are working with the Romans to get public money for their schools and other religious enterprises.


Florida has a no-aid provision in its constitution, and rightfully so. It says that public funds cannot be used to support religion! That's pretty easy to understand and it fits nicely into the plans of our founding Fathers who fought the establishment of religion tooth and nail as many of them had experienced what life was like under the thumb of a religion established and supported by the government.

The Bushes, though, don't like it. George recently "urged states to delete the [no aid] provisions from their constitutions." That's actually an unusual step for George. If he doesn't like something in the Constitution, he normally just ignores it and dares Congress to do anything about it.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State warn that "If the state provisions are removed, [we can] expect an avalanche of funding proposals that will benefit religious schools and other ministries, and state regulation is likely to be weak of non-existent.

"That's been the case in Florida. In 2003, Sami Al-Arian, a founder of Tampa's Islamic Academy of Florida, was indicted on charges that he was the North American leader of the Palestinian Jihan, a terrorist group. Yet, according to the Palm Beach Post, more than 50 percent of the school's revenue came from a state-subsidized scholarship-funding organization. ...

"In 2004, the newspaper reported that 55 percent of Bush's 'Opportunity Scholarships' [vouchers] were going to private schools with no accreditation. ...

"Still, [Jeb] Bush bitterly fought demands for accountability. His spokesperson said only parents with vouchers should be involved in the decisions about which schools to select.

"The Bush constitutional revisions are so sweeping that a wide variety of religious ministries will be eligible for state aid, not just religious schools."


Lest you think the above is endemic to Florida or Florida's problem, note that "If Florida adopts the Bush brothers' approach, major political campaigns to do the same in other states are certain."

Actually, I think you can take it to the bank that these religious right shysters are already about their dirty work in a number of states.