If one were to set out to find the perfect example of religious intolerance on the part of someone who espouses the principles of religious freedom the place to go would be Louisiana Legislative House District 64.
If you thought when David Duke faded into political obscurity, Louisiana had finally rid itself of the international embarrassment of bigotry and religious intolerance, then you sadly underestimated the buffoonery of one Valerie Hodges.
Valerie Hodges is a first-term Republican state representative from Denham Springs. Her biography on the legislature’s web page lists her occupation as an accountant, as vice president of Straightway Ministries in Baton Rouge and co-pastor of Destiny International in Denham Springs.
When Rep. Hodges voted for House Bill 976 which was subsequently signed into law as ACT 2 by Gov. Piyush Jindal, she envisioned widespread approval of vouchers for schools like Faith Academy in Gonzales (approved for 80 vouchers); BeauVer Christian School in DeRidder, the school that was unable to correctly spell “scholarship” on its sign (119 vouchers); Dreamkeepers Academy (4) and Evangel Christian Academy (80) in Caddo Parish; Eternity Christian Academy of Westlake, the school that teaches the existence of the Loch Ness monster as a means of disproving evolution (135 vouchers), Old Bethel Christian Academy in Caldwell Parish (59), Angels Academy (106), Greater Baton Rouge Hope Academy (28), Hosanna Christian Academy (200), Jehovah-Jireh Christian Academy (30), Riverdale Christian Academy (30) and Trinity Christian Academy (25) of East Baton Rouge Parish; Gethsemane Christian Academy (8) and Lafayette Christian Academy (4) of Lafayette Parish; New Living Word School (315) the school with no classrooms, no teachers and no books, of Ruston; Holy Ghost Academy (29), Life of Christ Christian Academy (91), Light City Christian Academy (117) and The Upperroom Bible Church Academy (167) of Orleans Parish; Family Community Christian School in Franklin Parish (54); Claiborne Christian School (28), Northeast Baptist School (40) and Prevailing Faith Christian Academy (26) of Ouachita Parish; Cenla Christian Academy (72) of Rapides Parish; Boutte Christian Academy (85) in St. Charles Parish; Family Worship Christian Academy (66) of St. Landry Parish; Northlake Christian Elementary School (20) and Northside Christian High School (30) and The Upperroom Bible Church Preschool and Academy (3) of St. Tammany Parish; Lighthouse Christian High School (18) of Vermilion Parish; Faith Christian Academy (38), Heritage Academy (10), Victory Christian Academy (8), and Islamic School of Greater New Orleans (38) of Jefferson Parish.
Wait. What?
Islamic School of Grea…sputter, sputter…Islamic?
Hodges, joined by Rep. Kenny Havard (R-Jackson) was quick to disavow Jindal’s voucher program if Islamic schools were to be eligible for taxpayer-funded vouchers.
It’s perfectly okay to shell out money to religious schools to teach that Nessie is real—a modern-day dinosaur that proves that the earth is only 6,000 years old and that evolution is a lot of hooey. But don’t even talk about some missing link.
Religious, after all, means Christian, right?
“I actually support funding for teaching the fundamentals of America’s Founding Fathers’ religion, which is Christianity, in public schools or private schools,” Hodges huffed. “I liked the idea of giving parents the option of sending their children to a public school or a Christian school.”
Snake chunkers okay, Islamics not so okay.
But wait. Did she really say the Founding Fathers’ religion was Christianity?
Yes she did. But while she may take at face value the teaching that mother earth is only 6,000 years old, it seems her American history is no better than her ancient history.
The Founding Fathers were, for the most part, Deists, not Christians.
For the benefit of Rep. Hodges, Deism teaches that the universe was indeed created by God but that He assumes no control over life, exerts no influence on natural events and provides no divine revelation. In short, He left us to our own devices to work things out as best we can.
Also for Rep. Hodges’s erudition, the First Amendment says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….”
It is those few words that prohibit the establishment of a state church-words on which the principle of separation of church and state is based.
No mention of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Hare Krishnas, Moonies, Dianetics, Scientology, or any other specific religion. Just that there shall be no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion—whatever that religion may be.
Rep. Hodges apparently subscribes to the Animal Farm political philosophy (with apologies to George Orwell) that all religions are created equal but some religions are more equal than others.
As evidence of Rep. Hodges’s narrow view of religion as a Bible wrapped in a flag affixed to a bayonet, we have this quote from her: “We need to insure that it (the voucher plan) does not open the door to fund radical Islam schools. There are a thousand Muslim schools that have sprung up recently. I do not support using public funds for teaching Islam anywhere here in Louisiana.”
Wow. A thousand? Really?
We were unable to substantiate quite that many. We did, however, find that one little school in Kenner: the Islamic School of Greater New Orleans that put in its application for 38 vouchers.
But you know what? Its application was withdrawn before HB 976 was even passed.
We’re still looking for the remaining 999.
Whoa! Wait a minute here. Did you notice that 999 is 666 upside down?
But please don’t tell Rep. Hodges.
Wasn’t David Duke from Livingston Parish?
He ran for the legislature in Baton Rouge in the mid-’70s and lost. He was elected to the legislature from Jefferson Parish in 1983. When he ran for governor in 1991, he was succeeded in the legislature by David Vitter, if memory serves correctly.
You may be thinking of Bill Wilkinson.
[…] blogger in Louisiana calls out State Rep. Valerie Hodges for expressing shock about the possibility that voucher funds might go to Islamic […]
Why does this guy use “Piyush” instead of “Bobby?” Seems a little racist.
Because Piyush is his name. By his own admission, he adopted “Bobby” from a character on The Brady Bunch. If you think a governor named for a Brady Bunch character carries more dignity, that certainly is your right. But at the end of the day (as our governor is fond of saying) his name is still Piyush.
This Guy.
James, what is interesting is that you think that the use of a person’s ACTUAL, legal name is somehow racist. The Governor was named “Piyush Jindal” at birth. That is his legal name. There is no “Bobby” anywhere in there; it is not legally any part of his name. If you were to request information on the Governor’s paycheck, you would see that each and every time he is paid, he is paid as “Piyush Jindal.” If he wants to call himself “Bobby” because it plays better with the uninformed rubes of this state, that is his business. But it doesn’t change his legal name and “this guy” is correct to use his legal, official name. By the way, he could legally change his name to Bobby at any time he wants.
Our country’s forefathers believed in religious freedom. Islam is bad for education but schools with no teachers and which provide most education via DVD are OK, as long as they are born again.
Hodges’ ignorance is unfortunate. Stupid people exist everywhere. However, that there are enough of them in one place to agree to allow the state to transfer MY tax dollars to religious schools in order to underwrite the dissemination of ignorant claptrap to unsuspecting school children, thus creating yet another generation of backward ignoramuses, is appalling, bordering on the tragic. I can’t leave this state soon enough. Much like our governor, I’ll take my education, my technical skills, and my retirement cash, and leave Louisiana to the backwoods snake handlers who have apparently taken over the state power structure.
Right on!! Well spoken, well written, you obviously need to be somewhere else!
Valerie Hodges is just one example of someone voting for bills because Bobby is Republican. Like many, I thought our REPRESENTatives were supposed to vote according to what the people wanted, not our governor. I once believed in the three branches of government. Of course, I once lived in LALA land where I also believed there was a chance that people would vote for things based on what was best, not because of political affiliation.
I contacted Mrs. Hodges when she originally voted for both education bills. She assured me that Livingston Parish would not be hurt by the vouchers since we have such good public schools and that our schools did not have to accept voucher students. Did she not realize this would mean our schools would be losing funds to those wanting to set up shop…uh schools…to get their hands on this money? She later changed her mind about vouchers when the Livingston Parish News ran an article comparing her vote to other representatives in the parish.
Well at least I did get a great laugh in the paper today. The editorial cartoon by Fred Mulhearn is spot-on. Maybe he’s been reading LouisianaVoice…or if we’re lucky, maybe more people are connecting the dots seeing that our governor is no Bobby Brady.
“Snake chunkers okay, Islamics not so okay“…
So this tomaswell clown doesn’t can’t see the difference between the camel felching followers of the pedophile prophet and modern day christianity…
Since this tomaswell clown has no credible substance to back up this fairy tale he resorts to slanderous statements instead: “It’s perfectly okay to shell out money to religious schools to teach that Nessie is real—a modern-day dinosaur that proves that the earth is only 6,000 years old and that evolution is a lot of hooey. But don’t even talk about some missing link“…
So what is this tomaswell clown’s point?
Why is wasting time and effort to slam people attempting to change the direction of where the state’s public school system is heading?
After all does this tomaswell clown want more of this?
Almost half of Louisiana schools get failing grades
So as far as I can tell this tomaswell clown is a typical liberal wanting to spend someone else’s money on his stupid ideas…
So, Juandos, explain in detail precisely how transferring taxpayer money and children to for-profit or not-for-profit religious schools strengthens the public school system.
Gee, Juandos, thanks for helping to educate me. I had to go to the Urban Dictionary.
Gotta love Livingston Parish.
The parental choice talking points Rep. Valerie Hodges parrots miss the fact that parents have choices. Livingston population and schools are the result of parents choosing white flight from EBR . Her Duh? factor is the choice to segregate children in private, parochial and home schools should not be paid for by the state.
Who told you that half of LA schools are failing? Jindal and Super Ed. White have skewed statistics, even lied, to sell the reform scam to an unsuspecting public. Spinning and “muddying the water” are GOP-speak for deceipt. But the legislators voting for Jindal’s agenda knew what they were doing. They received over a half million dollars to help. Legislation passed off as reform was written by ALEC, a radical right wing lobbying organization, masquerading as a 501(c)3 which has produced at least 1000 tailor made bills by their own accounting. The bills are introduced verbatim in LA and other GOP controlled states for the corporations which will profit from the laws.
To reduce revenue available for public schools, in Jindal’s first year his minions gave a $5000 state tax deduction/ incentive per household for parents who chose not to use public schools. That incentive has now increased to $5000 per child in each household. And Jindal’s newest scam is to bleed additional revenue by rebating tuition spent in the 2011-2012 school year to parents, and to kickback revenue to corporations and individuals who contribute “scholarship” funds for private schools. BTW, they get the deduction and the kickback.
Millions have poured into Louisiana to “reform” education. The money helped stack BESE and the Jefferson Parish School Board with Jindalite rubber-stampers. Up to $49,000 each in campaign contributions for Jindalmen (and women) was contributed to purchase votes for his radical, destructive, privatizing agenda.
Rep. Hodges Campaign finance reports for 2011 don’t show the huge contributions other Jindal minions have received to destroy public education. But they do show $5000 from the governor, and many thousands from his major henchmen, Kleckley, Schroeder and others who received mega-bucks from ALEC. And she received many thousands from PACs and the corporation Jindal used to privatize health care, the Centene Corporation of St. Louis.
Her confusion about Article 1 and the strong objection the Constitution framers had to a partnership of church and state could be corrected. But, given her and the governor’s agenda, will there be a public educator left to enlighten her? RECALL JINDAL: http://www.recallbobbyjindal.com.
I’m really perturbed that the Islamic School of Greater New Orleans withdrew its application. Why did that happen?
Way to go Alicia Breaux. Keep it up. You’re doing a great job of telling it like it is.Everyone who has any care about our great state should go to http://www.recallbobbyjindal.com
John 2, Jr. or Bible reference? Are you repeating propaganda or quoting the LA Dept. of Ed. (also propaganda) when you say “almost half of LA schools get failing grades”? The LDOE should be the source of accurate stats, but when owned by Jindal and run by his stooge you get bupkis. The following quote is from a member of 2 bodies concerned with public schools, the Coalition for Louisiana Public Education and a school board in a very high performing public school system.
“The State Dept. of Ed. plays games with posting the stats. Some that are there one week are gone the next. Many of our Coalition researchers are reaching the point of utter frustration trying to document what they previously could find. The disappearance of these figures works to the advantage of some people, particularly if they are in charge of the real “failing schools.”
Clue, Juan, the failing schools are the charters. Ten in BR have just failed along with quite a few in New Orleans and Algiers. One of the failed charters in NO was an Islamic school. Another closed prior to the end of the school year leaving students who didn’t graduate. Read about NJ, NY, IN, PA, MI and other states which have years of charters and discover those failures. BTW, Super Ed. White left a number of failed schools in his wake and was shipped off to LA, first NO, now the state. It’s convenient that private and parochial schools refuse to give the tests that are used to grade public schools.
For a number of years “highly qualified” and “certified” teachers have been required by the LDOE. Public educators have spent countless hours attending post graduate university courses, workshops, “In service training” and other educational venues to attain and maintain excellence while no certification has been required for private, parochial, charter or home school teachers.
Teach For America (John White’s “trainer”) receives $1,000,000. annually (plus other funds) from LA, courtesy of Jindal, to recruit and “certify” its teachers in a “streamlined” process. Did you know that TFA teachers don’t even have to have a degree in what they teach?
Enter the corporatist “reformer” Jindal; certification and highly qualified attainment are gone. The 20 year campaign to scapegoat public schools and educators has worked on those without critical thinking skills. Juans like you absorb and regurgitate the talking points without discerning the truth.
One of the most egregious 2012 bills Jindal has already signed into law provides for 8 districts in LA with a minimum of 5 corporate sponsors in each that will “partner” with those seeking to form charters. The law requires absolutely no certified teachers. In fact the word teacher has been replaced with “provider”.
FOLLOW THE MONEY!! Wake up and smell the Piyush! Recall: http://www.recallbobbyjindal.com
Failing schools process(?):
Under “No Child Left Behind,” “disaggregate test scores by tallying those scores according to categories… student on reduced price lunch, student with disabilities, student of ethnic minority, and none of the above, for instance. Include test score for each student in each category, even if that student belongs to two or more categories (don’t check for duplicates) and end up with 5 failing test scores to the one passing score by the WASP student.
School eventually considered “failing” because most of its students with low test scores fall into two or more categoris that each get counted. Now that a school, let’s say its a middle school, is failing, “fail’ all the other schools in that cluster — like its elemntary and high school.
That’s why your schools are failing. The law and implementation of its policies was designed to do just that — destroy public education.
[…] be placed in the “magic of the market.” But what if the market turns out to look like this list of religious schools that the Louisiana choice program is likely to fund. Are Democrats satisfied to have taxpayer money […]
[…] be placed in the “magic of the market.” But what if the market turns out to look like this list of religious schools that the Louisiana choice program is likely to fund. Are Democrats satisfied to have taxpayer money […]
[…] be placed in the “magic of the market.” But what if the market turns out to look like this list of religious schools that the Louisiana choice program is likely to fund. Are Democrats satisfied to have taxpayer money […]
[…] discover that public money would go to Muslim schools in her state, not just to Christian schools. In her own words: “I actually support funding for teaching the fundamentals of America’s Founding […]
[…] discover that public money would go to Muslim schools in her state, not just to Christian schools. In her own words: “I actually support funding for teaching the fundamentals of America’s Founding Fathers’ […]
[…] (Click here for the numbers) […]