False piety over real impropriety

Even alone, isolated in my apartment, early in the morning and late at night, I try to maintain a civil tone when I talk to myself about Gov. Kim Reynolds. It ain’t easy. Her idea of what the separation of church and state means is, in funding schools, questionable. I can vouch for that. I think, beyond question, that it is grand larceny providing religious schools money stolen from funds meant to be spent in our historic American and democratic way.

Reynolds poses as a latter-day Thomas Jefferson as she talks, breathlessly, of our tax dollars “following the student,” as if it isn’t also a clear, obvious violation of the separation of church and state. Public money is going to religious institutions teaching their own form of reality. There is no separation. Why does Kim Reynolds peddle this nonsense? Maybe she thinks you’re dumb.

Nationally, about 90% of voucher dollars go to parochial schools. My tax payment can now fund a school that teaches that Jews are the anti-Christ, a concept that feeds anti-Semitism. My few dollars may go where future leaders are taught that abortions should be banned, and contraceptive pills should be illegal. That is a little like a vegetarian sending money, via Kim, to a cannibal community college.

The Governor has had the votes in the legislature to get what she wants, but her justification is specious, an insult to our history. Simply, when it comes to free public education, Kim Reynolds will never be mistaken for a latter day Jefferson and certainly won’t be confused with the Puritan who, in 1644, struggled to create our first public school. Universal public, not private or parochial, education has been our great distinction since. Teachers are paid too little, and too often funds are allocated begrudgingly, but our public school system has struggled successfully to educate millions.

Here’s a quote from the governor defending the indefensible:‘‘It isn't about the money. It's not even about public schools versus private schools," Reynolds said. ‘‘It truly is about giving every student the best opportunity to find their place in the world and a foundation for success in the future.’’

In a far more religious time, our leaders in both parties knew that separating church from state was nowhere more important than in our schools. Today, in Iowa, millions of our tax dollars are disappearing from already underfunded public schools and going on the gravy train to parochial and private schools. Some of our schools have raised their tuition the exact amount a voucher brings, thus saving a family nothing.

Billions in taxpayer dollars are being used to pay tuition at religious schools throughout the country, as state voucher programs expand dramatically. Some vouchers bring as much as $16,000 per pupil.

In the days when I worked local elections, I went to higher educated Republican neighborhoods every time a school issue was on the ballot. Today’s Republican Party has deserted its own history, including here.

Norman Sherman of Coralville has worked extensively in politics, including as Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s press secretary.