The Republican who sees ‘Christian nationalism’ seeping into public schools

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Jul 17, 2023 View in browser   By Juan Perez Jr. With help from Mackenzie Wilkes Gentner Drummond | Sue Ogrocki/AP Style CHURCH V. STATE — Oklahoma’s attorney general is preparing to buck some fellow Republicans and challenge the nation’s first public religious charter school. But the rancher and Gulf War combat pilot thinks the public will support his looming constitutional fight. — Gentner Drummond anticipates his move against this year's landmark decision to open a public and taxpayer-funded Catholic school could reach the Supreme Court and test the First Amendment doctrine of church-state separation. It will also put Drummond more deeply at odds with Gov. Kevin Stitt and state education Superintendent Ryan Walters, and may even prompt a legal faceoff with his predecessor as attorney general. — Yet this deep-red-state conservative is taking an unusual tack to describe the cultural root of what he calls a “short-sighted movement” to have the American public pay directly for religious-based school instruction. — “I think its genesis is in Christian nationalism,” Drummond told Weekly Education. “There are believers that are confusing true religion — and religious liberty, and faith in God — with political power. And this Christian nationalism is the movement that is giving oxygen to this attempt to eviscerate the Establishment Clause.” — Drummond made headlines when he scrapped a legal opinion that opened the door to publicly-funded religious charter schools in Oklahoma, then repeatedly stated his office’s opposition to a school approved last month by a state board. He penned opinion pieces in the Tulsa World and The Wall Street Journal that argue the board’s vote will force Oklahoma taxpayers to support schools they might find reprehensible. — “There will be a day in America where Christianity is a plurality, and not a majority. That day may not come in my lifetime, but it will come in the lifetime of my children or grandchildren,” Drummond said. “We need to be careful of the establishment of laws, and rules of law, that will take what we've considered sacred these last 250 years and do away with it.” — So once the state signs a contract to open the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, Drummond says he will head to court. — “One of the fundamental freedoms that we enjoy in America is freedom of religion,” Drummond said. “And to those in the Christian nationalist movement that would say ‘Drummond’s anti-religion,’ I would say just the opposite. I may very well be the last defender of religious liberty in the movement to eviscerate the separation of church and state.” IT’S MONDAY, JULY 17. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. Here’s who won, and lost, and face-planted in the presidential money race last quarter. Reach out with tips to today’s host at jperez@politico.com and also my colleagues Michael Stratford (mstratford@politico.com), Bianca Quilantan (bquilantan@politico.com) and Mackenzie Wilkes (mwilkes@politico.com). And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro.   JOIN 7/26 FOR A TALK ON THE NEW ENERGY ECONOMY: Join POLITICO's lively discussion, "Powering a Clean Energy Economy," on July 26 at 5:15 PM ET. We'll explore the effectiveness of consumer-targeted policies to boost sustainability and create clean energy jobs. How are the Inflation Reduction Act's provisions faring? Which strategies truly sway consumer behavior? How are advances in technology shaking things up? And, what's the future for energy consumption reduction? Hear from featured speaker, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), among other experts. Don't miss this insightful event — register today and be part of the conversation driving America's clean energy future! REGISTER NOW.     Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories. In Congress The House approved a Republican-led resolution that condemned the use of schools as migrant shelters. | AP BACK WITH MORE BITE — Legislation barring K-12 schools and higher education institutions from housing migrants in campus facilities will be taken up by the House Rules Committee today. — The House approved a Republican-led resolution that condemned the use of schools as migrant shelters earlier this summer. — But H.R. 3941, the Schools Not Shelters Act, has more weight. First: It’s enforceableThe House approved a Republican-led resolution that condemned the use of schools as migrant shelters earlier this summer., as opposed to the largely-symbolic resolution that expressed the House’s dim view of using schools as shelters. Second: Today’s legislation would make federal funding for K-12 schools and higher education institutions contingent on not sheltering migrants. — The legislation would mainly affect Title I programs for low-income students, schools that receive special education funding and Pell Grants, according to the chamber’s committee report. — The legislation comes after New York City temporarily used some school gyms as short-term shelters for asylum seekers, which was met with protests from parents. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also said the state is considering using dorms on SUNY campuses as additional shelter. — “As government leaders exhaust traditional resources for migrants, public schools and universities have wrongly been seen as a default option to house migrants,” Republicans wrote in the committee report on the legislation. First Look NEW CHILD CARE POLLING — Bipartisan support for affordable child care persists across the country, plus in some conservative and battleground states, according to new polling released today by the First Five Years Fund early education advocacy group. Here are three takeaways from the national results: Voters want more federal money for child care and early learning programs. Even after acknowledging concerns around the federal deficit, 74 percent of voters say they still believe that “increasing funding for child care and early childhood education programs is an important priority and a good use of tax dollars.” Sixty-four percent of potential voters for former President Donald Trump and 87 percent of potential voters for President Joe Biden voters agreed on the issue. Pollsters found broad support for five policy proposals: Providing tax incentives to businesses that provide or help employees find and afford quality early childhood education (82 percent support); providing more funding to Head Start and Early Head Start to support families with the greatest needs (80 percent support); increasing the child and dependent care tax credit (78 percent support); boosting the Child Care and Development Block Grant (78 percent support); increasing the Child Tax Credit (74 percent support). A majority of voters believe resources for child care and early learning programs benefit both families and communities overall. Fifty-five percent of surveyed voters agreed with that idea. — Some federal child care spending would remain flat for fiscal 2024 under a House Republican spending proposal that also includes pitches for steep cuts to significant federal education programs. The bill would keep Child Care and Development Block Grant spending at roughly $8 billion. — Public Opinion Strategies conducted a survey of 1,000 registered voters nationally on behalf of the First Five Years Fund between June 20-29. The results had a “credibility interval” of plus-or-minus 3.53 percentage points. Pollsters also surveyed voters in Alabama, Arizona, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. ANOTHER FUNDING CLIFF — Tens of billions of dollars worth of federal child care rescue funds will begin to expire in the coming months, and one organization says the industry and its low-wage workers are now at risk of being left worse off than before the Covid-19 pandemic. — The National Women’s Law Center released new research that concludes child care workers saw the slowest wage growth compared to other low-paid occupations, such as food and retail, between 2019 and 2022. — According to NWLC calculations based on federal employment and wage data, median real hourly wages for child care workers grew by only 3.1 percent during that time frame — while the wage growth rate for food and beverage serving workers increased by 8.7 percent, retail sales workers by 5.6 percent, and recreation workers by 5.3 percent. — NWLC credits American Rescue Plan funds for much of the modest increase in child care worker wages, and says providers will have to either pull back pay increases or charge higher fees to families once federal dollars run dry. A separate analysis from The Century Foundation earlier this summer estimated that more than 70,000 child care programs will likely close and approximately 3.2 million children could lose their child care spots when federal funds expire. Higher Education STARTING TUESDAY — The Education Department will take the first step in a very long process to pursue the Biden administration’s backup student debt cancellation plan this week. — The department will host a virtual public hearing on student loan relief negotiated rulemaking under the Higher Education Act from 10 a.m.-12 p.m., and 1-4 p.m. ET on Tuesday. The department will also convene a panel to debate and discuss potential options for canceling student debt. — Biden administration officials have acknowledged that their plan B debt relief option under the Higher Education Act will involve far more bureaucratic hoops and regulatory minutiae than the administration’s first plan, which was quickly implemented once Biden announced it last August before it was struck down by the Supreme Court.   JOIN 7/27 FOR A TALK ON WOMEN LEADERS IN THE NEW WORKPLACE: In the wake of the pandemic, U.S. lawmakers saw a unique opportunity to address the current childcare system, which has become increasingly unaffordable for millions of Americans, but the initial proposals went nowhere. With the launch of the Congressional Bipartisan Affordable Childcare Caucus in May, there may be a path to make childcare more affordable in the U.S. Join Women Rule on July 27 to hear from featured speakers Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), and Reshma Saujani, Founder & CEO of Moms First and Founder of Girls Who Code, on ways to reach a bipartisan solution on this timely issue for women in the workplace. REGISTER HERE.     Syllabus — Pressure mounts on colleges to ditch ‘legacy’ admissions factor: The Washington Post — College students struggling with hunger face potential loss of food stamp benefits: The Associated Press — To be or not to be on the shelf? New Florida school book law could restrict even Shakespeare: USA Today — More states try — and fail — to raise teacher salaries: The Wall Street Journal — Nashville police don’t have capacity to staff officers at city elementary schools: The Tennessean   Follow us on Twitter Delece Smith-Barrow @DeleceWrites Michael Stratford @mstratford Bianca Quilantan @biancaquilan Juan Perez Jr. @PerezJr Mackenzie Wilkes @macwilkes   Follow us

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