Why does the Department of Education have a Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Center?

[madfloridian]

Has this department always had a faith-based initiative? Or is it something new. I have made no secret that I am distressed at the direction our country is going as we turn to more testing and more charter schools.

I just read this, and I don't see a need for a faith-based initiative person in the Department of Education which in my mind should be a department that functions more secularly.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan appoints director of the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Center

Colorado Senate President Peter Groff was appointed Friday to a post in the U.S. Department of Education.

Groff, who has made education a hallmark of his Senate leadership, will serve as director of the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Center in the office of Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

Groff will “help empower faith-based and community groups, enlisting them in support of the department’s mission to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence for all Americans,” the Education Department said in a statement.

Empower faith based and community groups to ensure equal access to education? I thought everyone in this country had equal access to education...public education. Not religion based education. I thought that access already existed.

I am not happy that President Obama is basically expanding the faith-based initiatives that were begun by President Bush. I think government has to rise above the factions of faith and religion, and I think there should be a wall between government and religion.

I did a search on this topic, and I can find nothing. Why would there be a department within the education department to "empower faith based and community groups to ensure equal access to education?"

They already have that access, so I wondering what is going on here.

[msongs]

1. Obama is a big believer in the bible and HIS religion so you should be too maybe nt

[kaygore]

33. I am a big believer in mine too, but I also knoe the Constitution

and why those who framed the Constitution separated church and state. Obama knows his Constitution os this stinks of politics!

[krabigirl]

52. why?

[Zhade]

56. What is with the pro-autocracy bullshit? He and you, should be bigger believers in the CONSTITUTION.

NT!

[DURHAM D]

2. I'm gonna throw up. n/t

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[pleah]

4. You just can't get away from this crap.

In the high school down here the religious nuts harass everyone. There are at LEAST twelve churches within a 3 mile radius from my house. Give me a frigging break.

[MountainLaurel]

5. All of the federal agencies got one under Bush n/t

[madfloridian]

7. So it began under Bush?

I did not know that.

The article makes it sound like the people of faith do not have equal access to public education.

Thanks for the answer, I guess. :)

[robinlynne]

11. And Obama proclaimed before the election that he would maintain and even GROW the faith-based office...

[PurityOfEssence]

44. That doesn't make it good or constitutional or healthy or anything of the sort

Yes, he advertised his proclivity for theocracy quite openly during the campaign and he used religion for leverage whenever convenient. It's still a bad idea, and it's still unconstitutional.

How is it unconstitutional? Congress has to appropriate funds for these initiatives and these employees, and passing legislation authorizing those payments flies in the face of Article One of the Bill of Rights. Quibbling about what constitutes "establishment of religion" can go on and on, but to endorse religions by paying members of certain faiths to perform governmental functions SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE OF THEIR FAITH, whether they refrain from proselytizing while doing so or not, seems pretty damned far over the line. Giving money to these organizations does too.

Just because he was clear about it doesn't make it any more acceptable than if he said he was going to take all of your possessions when he became president.

[robinlynne]

46. I am not FOR it. jsut explaining to the unknowing Duer that yes it started under BUSH, ad Obama cont

inues it. has nada to do with Clinton at all.

[ProSense]

13. It started under Clinton n/t

[progressoid]

15. Wrong - Bush started it.

Obama just changed the name.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/ObamaAnnouncesWhiteHouseOfficeofFaith-basedandNeighborhoodPartnerships/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Office_of_Faith-Based_and_Neighborhood_Partnerships

[ProSense]

18. You can say whatever you want, doesn't change the facts:

Memorandum on Additional Guidelines for Charter Schools - Bill Clinton, President of the United States - Transcript

May 4, 2000

Memorandum for the Secretary of Education Subject: Additional Guidelines for Charter Schools

My Administration has taken landmark steps to help State and localities improve educational opportunities for students by providing much needed resources to reduce class size, improve teacher quality, and expand summer school and after-school programs. Last year, for the first time ever, the Federal Government provided funds to States and localities specifically to intervene and assist low-performing schools. This year, our School Improvement Fund will provide $134 million to States and localities to help them turn around low-performing schools. In addition, through the 1994 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and Goals 2000, States have developed standards and accountability systems to identify schools that are low performing. Already, we are seeing results from this focus on standards-based reform and greater investment, including a rise in test scores among our most disadvantaged students. Nonetheless, much work remains to be done. In too many communities, predominately low-incom e communities, there is still a shortage of high-quality educational opportunities available to students.

<...>

Faith-based and community-based organizations play an important role in feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, and educating our children in communities around this Nation. Already many faith- and community-based organizations partner with government at the Federal, State, and local level to help our Nation's families. Under my Administration, faith-based organizations have also become eligible to receive Federal funds in an array of social programs on the same basis as other community-based organizations, consistent with the constitutional line between church and state. For example, States can use their welfare reform funds to contract with faith-based organizations on the same basis as other nongovernment providers to provide services such as job preparation, mentoring, childcare, and other services to help families moving from welfare to work. The 1998 Human Services reauthorization similarly allows faith-based organizations to provide services under the Community Services Block Grant to reduce poverty, revitalize low-income communities, and help low-income families become self-sufficient.

[madfloridian]

19. Thanks for the link and quotes.

I am very worried about all this faith stuff being mixed with government.

[progressoid]

20. That's a charter school issue (also a fuck up)

I won't deny the Clinton Admin pandering to the religious but I think the OP is referring to Faith Based Initiatives program.

[ProSense]

22. No, it's not.

It's all agencies.

[Hannah Bell]

28. Fact is, Bush instituted the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. 2001.

"Over time, various civil rights laws were passed that contained similar prohibitions against discrimination and employment based on race, religion, color, national origin or sex. None of these Executive Orders affected the religious exemption set forth in Title VII, but they drew the separation between Church and State so that federal taxpayer money was not used to fund religious activity and discrimination based on religion was not permitted while using taxpayer dollars.

In the 1990s, then-Senator John Ashcroft created the concept known as ‘Charitable Choice’ during the drafting of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. The concept altered existing law to permit taxpayer-financed social service funding of houses of worship in a few welfare programs.

This approach represented a radical change. In the past, government sometimes contracted with organizations such as Catholic Charities or United Jewish Communities to provide services, but safeguards were kept in place to protect the integrity of the groups and the interests of taxpayers.

Houses of worship did not contract directly with the government; rather, religious institutions created separate entities (usually 501(c)(3)s) to handle public funds and did not incorporate religion into the publicly funded program.

Further, Johnson’s Executive Order had maintained safeguards against employment discrimination in these programs receiving taxpayer dollars.

President Clinton signed these Charitable Choice provisions into law but issued signing statements indicating that his Administration would not “permit governmental funding of religious organizations that do not or cannot separate their religious activities from activities” because such funding would violate the Constitution.

In short, the Clinton Administration interpreted the provisions as being constrained by the constitutional mandates that prohibit the direct funding of houses of worship and government-funded employment discrimination.

No federal money went to organizations that were pervasively sectarian, no money went to any organization with the Title VII exemption, and therefore no one could exercise discrimination using these funds while Clinton was President.

Under the Bush Administration, Charitable Choice was vastly expanded through a series of Executive Orders.

In 2001, Executive Orders 13198 and 13199 created and set out organizational guidelines for a White House Office of Community and Faith-Based Initiatives. Executive Orders 13280 (2002), 13342 (2004), and 13397 (2006) mandated that the departments of Justice, Education, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, Commerce, Veteran Affairs, and Homeland Security, the Agency for International Development and the Small Business Administration all establish a Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

In 2002, the most controversial Executive Order was issued – Executive Order 13279 – which made it easier for churches and other faith-based organizations to receive federal money by letting them circumvent certain anti-discrimination laws. Under the umbrella of the Faith-Based Initiative, the Bush administration began allowing discrimination with federal money for the first time since the 1960s.

For decades, religious organizations have been providing social services, including in some cases with the use of government funds, without the Faith-Based Initiative.

The fundamental differences between the Faith-Based Initiative and the long-standing legal provisions regarding faith-based organizations’ participation are:

(1) allowing proselytization during a secular, government-funded program; and

(2) permitting employment discrimination with federal funds.

Any program that could be federally funded under the Faith-Based Initiative could have been funded before it if the sponsoring organization agreed not to discriminate in employment and not to proselytize.

During the 2008 campaign, President Obama said that he would not allow discrimination with federal money, unlike the Bush Administration. However, on February 5th 2009, when the Obama Administration unveiled its new White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, reversals of Bush’s controversial policies were notably absent. Joshua DuBois, who has been appointed to lead the Office, stated that claims of discrimination will be investigated "on a case-by-case basis.”

n-the-issues" target="_blank">http://www.bobbyscott.house.gov/index.php?option=com_co...

[madfloridian]

45. That is one of the most powerful articles I have seen. Clinton, charter schools and faith-based..

"Faith-based and community-based organizations play an important role in feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, and educating our children in communities around this Nation. Already many faith- and community-based organizations partner with government at the Federal, State, and local level to help our Nation's families. Under my Administration, faith-based organizations have also become eligible to receive Federal funds in an array of social programs on the same basis as other community-based organizations, consistent with the constitutional line between church and state. For example, States can use their welfare reform funds to contract with faith-based organizations on the same basis as other nongovernment providers to provide services such as job preparation, mentoring, childcare, and other services to help families moving from welfare to work. The 1998 Human Services reauthorization similarly allows faith-based organizations to provide services under the Community Services Block Grant to reduce poverty, revitalize low-income communities, and help low-income families become self-sufficient."

It all started with Clinton. The faith-based, the charter schools. Instead of funding public schools, he talked them down.

It will be completed with the Obama administration and Arne Duncan.

It breaks my heart.

[MountainLaurel]

23. Not AFAIK

In the 4 years prior to the Bush selection, I worked as a contractor in a federal office that dealt with social sciences research grants. I can tell you that when I left in June 2000, our agency had no such faith-based division or focus on faith-based grant funding. I'm sure some faith groups applied for funding under the old programs, but they would have been held to the same standards as any other grantee applicant. That was not the case a few years later when I was checking out their Web site looking for an old colleague, when I found that they had created a Task Force For Faith-Based and Community Initiatives specifically to funnel grants to FB organizations.

[Dinger]

6. Yes Another Thing To Add To My List

2012? We'll see.

[nichomachus]

8. It's only a two-minute prayer n/t

[Dinger]

9. Oh Well, Then It's O.K.

:sarcasm:

[Zhade]

57. I think you missed THAT sarcasm.

NT!

[madfloridian]

10. Heh heh

Exactly.

:-)

[Adsos Letter]

14. ...just sprinkle a bit of this incense to the emperor...

...we're not really concerned that you actually believe it...

[leftstreet]

12. K&R

[Pastiche423]

16. Why?

Because, apparently, the government needs more sheep.

[druidity33]

17. that's a DAMNED good question.

The whole thing freaking stinks.

Should i call my Congressman and ask? I tend not to call unless i want him to ADVOCATE, which he rarely does, but i try. I have the luxury of Senator Kerry and he's great but he works on such BIG things, i don't call his office unless it's a vote that's real important.

Maybe a few well placed LTTEs?


:)

[progressoid]

21. They are every where!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5431299

They are in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
http://www.hhs.gov/fbci /

And the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
http://www.hud.gov/offices/fbci /

And the U.S. Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov/about/inits/list/fbci/index.html

And the Department of Labor
http://www.dol.gov/cfbci /

And the Department of Agriculture
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_CJ?na...

And the Department of Veterans Affairs
http://www1.va.gov/fbci /

The Justice Department
http://www.usdoj.gov/fbci /

The Small Business Administration
http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/faithbased/FBCI...

USAID
http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/global_partnerships/fbci/...

Let's not forget Homeland Security!
http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/structure/editorial_0829

[madfloridian]

24. Stunning list! The one from the Dept of Labor upsets me.

http://www.dol.gov/cfbci/

They are partnering with the FB groups, but they are not setting hiring practices for those groups. Can't they hire and fire according to religious belief if they wish.

And we are having to fight for labor rights so hard.

Why is this stuff still going on under the new administration?

[progressoid]

25. This cozy relationship between church and state is definitely troubling.

Supposedly there are restrictions but I doubt the oversight has been all that great.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

26. Why is this stuff still going on under the new administratION?

Because the administratORS have tenure?

[Djinn]

27. K & R

bet you never thought you'd see me do that MF - lately I've noticed the Obama administration has made for some strange bedfellows

When in the US I always get the feeling that many progressives (I'm generally hanging out with union folk) think the religious infiltration of your entire lives is annoying but mostly harmless, or sometimes harmful but impossible to remove.

It's a HUGE problem, it's backward and it should be a complete embarrassment for all Americans.

[madfloridian]

31. You are right. It is not harmless.

In the area of education especially religious groups are taking us backwards in time. Yeh, surprised, but thanks.

Some of these groups want to exert taliban-like control over women as well.

Mixing religion and government is dangerous.

[druidity33]

29. morning kick... nt

[Deja Q]

30. Because faith and community are evil things?

:shrug:

[madfloridian]

32. Sorry you completely missed the point.

I thought it would be clear I don't think government should be pushing religious causes, they should be separate.

[Mithreal]

35. That's a logical fallacy and you know it, DQ. nt

[Mithreal]

34. K&R nt

[puebloknot]

36. This was my biggest concern about voting for Obama. He is too tied to the religious right.

Among his first acts upon achieving the Dem nomination were to visit Rick Warren and Saddleback Church, and appear at a megachurch in Colorado Springs, CO, where incursion into the affairs of the air force academy there has caused major concerns.

Public dollars need to be spent on public, secular education, not on the religious views of *any* religious group.

What is going on here is that the fundies are still exerting their strong influence to bring down anything "socialist," like public education and health care.

[krabigirl]

51. Same here. I noticed it right away about him, and it made me uneasy.

If those fundies get control of public schools, my kids WILL go to a secular, private school. (I'm seriously looking into a French-American school, since my husband is from there anyway.)

[Seldona]

37. I would rather have seen this faith-based stuff closed down.

But at least President Obama allowed secular groups to participate in the funding. Bush was handing this out to the churches only.

Believe me, I know. I watched the grant money dry up for the man who essentially invented accessible distance education and his non-profit, while repubs were pulling up in dump trucks to deliver that same money to their respective churches.

You name the company, we consulted with them on accessibility, worked to get laws passed so the disabled could take the same online courses everyone else could. Saves a university from getting sued.

We used to begin each presentation with a simple task, since we got so much flak for being techies trying to teach professors. We sat each person at a terminal and asked them if they could perform a simple task for us. Start their computers, log in, open up Word and create a document, and save it.

You could hear the collective groans. That is until we mentioned that they needed to be able to understand how to do it with their monitor off and their mouse turned upside-down. Within a minute or two everyone was laughing and attempting to discreetly call us over for help.

Today there are few doing this that I am aware of. I hope non-profits can get back their share of the pie again.

[madfloridian]

40. Interesting post.

I did not realize how entirely this program was embedded in our government. I am wondering if I should finish David Kuo's book Tempting Faith. I bought a copy, but I never finished it. I know he really did not like the way the program was going, but I have a feeling I don't like it for a different reason.

[Seldona]

48. National Science Foundation grants became much harder

to obtain under Bush. At least in my experience.

Non-profit organizations that were headed by Ph.D.s, and had been around for decades, suddenly found themselves out in the cold. We tried hanging on teaching courses online, and I was about to start a module on accessible blogging, but the money dried up.

Of course Bill Clinton did a lot in this regard, whatever one thinks about him otherwise. We are still light years from where we were even 15 years ago. Online education certainly has proliferated.

[Telly Savalas]

38. "Everyone has equal access to education...public education"?

You're suggesting that the public education in impoverished inner cities is equal to the public education in affluent suburbs?

[madfloridian]

39. You are saying that has something to do with religion and faith-based?

That is no more what I said than what you said.

I have never seen anything like the way people at DU now love their faith-based initiatives.

:shrug:

[Bluenorthwest]

41. thanks for posting this

[radhika]

42. Apropos the Hiring & Discrimination Part

I remember being dismayed when he decided to keep that Bush-founded department. (Yes, it was Bush who started it. I was a board member at an AIDS non-profit at the time, and we debated if that could possibly help patients in primarily poor and minority neighborhoods where services were few and the churches played a prominent role. Some FBOs were loving and great - others? Not so much, like those abstinence only clods. )

As yet, I have heard NO CLEAR statement to guarantee that these organizations must be non-discriminatory. That not only means religion, but sexual orientation and political values. Statements were made that 'we need to make sure there is no discrimination' but it was not pinned down if churches could hide behind their dogma to defeat civil liberties.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0702/p25s10-uspo.html

[madfloridian]

43. Just found this...there has been no clear statement.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/28/AR2009032801623.html

"ON THE campaign trail, candidate Barack Obama pledged to keep government funds from faith-based groups that hire only those who share the same beliefs. President Obama has now set up the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, a continuation of President George W. Bush's initiative, and has kept in place Bush-era provisions that allow faith-based groups to discriminate in hiring. The White House has said that hiring decisions will be reviewed case by case; in the meantime, Mr. Obama has created a commission to study and report back on how the faith-based initiative should be structured over the long term.

Critics of church-state entanglements are understandably furious that Mr. Obama appears to have backed away from his campaign promise. To be sure, the president is acting within a confused regulatory context: While faith-based social-service groups that accept direct government funding are prohibited from using government dollars to proselytize to recipients of its charity, there is no such bright line when it comes to hiring.

Religious organizations that take no government money are exempt by law from federal rules that bar discrimination on the basis of religion. Those that accept government aid face a mishmash of rules that accompany different funding streams. Some of them expressly protect the right to hire only those of the same faith; others expressly prohibit this practice; yet others are silent on the matter. Although the Bush Justice Department concluded in 2007 that the government risks violating existing law if it denies funds to faith-based groups that hire only religious adherents, no court has definitively weighed in on the matter."

Sounds like our tax money will be going to hire folks based on religious views.

[defendandprotect]

47. k i c k

[tooeyeten]

49. it's Florida?

Why would there be a department within the education department to "empower faith based and community groups to ensure equal access to education?"

Didn't they give us George W. Bush in 2001?

[mmonk]

50. Votes trump separation of Church and state with politicians.

Remember "bi-partisanship" and "moderate".

[earth mom]

53. Some Constitutional "scholar" Obama is. NOT!

:puke:

The founding fathers must must be rolling over in their graves at this bullshit.

[LWolf]

54. Too late to recommend this, but I'll give it a kick.

Another mark against Duncan, imo.

As if he needed any more.

:kick:

[Zhade]

55. Uh, yeah - since when was it legal to support religion with tax money?

This fucking country...

[defendandprotect]

58. Churches want and need government acknowledgment . . .

and money --

That's another reason why they need to get back into the schools --

If Obama is continuing these programs, he's wrong -- and for someone who teaches

the Constitution he is dead wrong!

[valerief]

59. Rich people benefit from a religiofied general public. They can

always "Jesus" up their reasons for screwing the American taxpayers.