We gather around this table this afternoon because we believe. We believe that children are important. We believe that local schools are important. We believe that local schools are the last entity or institution that exists purely for the common good. We also are gathered because we believe that the local school is under attack from outside forces that seek to privatize it for financial gain. I am not willing to say that the people who seek to accomplish the task of privatizing local schools are evil…but I can tell you that the destruction of the only entity in our community that exists for the kids with both the least and the most is flat evil. I can tell you based on my own experiences.
The church did not teach me about the value of diversity. The local school did. The church did not teach me other religious traditions. The local school did. The church did not teach to believe in and fight for the equal rights of all people. The local school did. In my youth, the local school taught me many of the things that I could have never learned from the conservative church I grew up in. The local school often does what the church often cannot…introduce the child to the diversity of a massive world.
In Matthew 25, Jesus states quite clearly that the least of these amongst us are Jesus. Do you think a private school is going to spend the tens of thousands of extra dollars to educate impoverished children with special needs? Do you think that private schools are going to send buses out to the projects to transport children to their schools? Do you think that private schools are going to provide free and reduced lunch? I could go on and on. The local school is the only entity that can protect the children that would fall into the category of the least of these. The local school is the only entity that can protect the Jesuses amongst us.
No one at this table has any problem with private education. The problem that we all have is when you take money from the children who need it the most and put it in the hands of some outsider trying to make a buck off our kids. We are a group of people dedicated to loving our neighbors as our self by providing quality education and opportunities for all of God’s children regardless of their socioeconomic status or anything else. We are Pastors for Texas Children.
Amen.
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