The first national conference of Pastors for Children was a spiritual and emotional shot in the arm for the organizers of its nine state chapters.
“It is inspiring to know the fight we’re facing in North Carolina is happening nationwide and I’m not standing alone against the forces that want to destroy public education,” said Suzanne Parker Miller, a Raleigh-based Moravian minister and executive director of Pastors for North Carolina Children.
The May 6-7 gathering in Orlando, Fla., included workshops and speakers offering historical and political context to pervasive efforts to privatize education with vouchers, charter schools, education savings accounts and other programs that undermine universal public education.
“It’s helpful to know we’ve seen this before in our country and that it has been overcome before,” Miller said. “It’s just another confirmation that Pastors for Children is fighting for the common good, which is what will prevail if we persevere and have courage.”
Charles Foster Johnson
Charles Foster Johnson, executive director of both Pastors for Children and its Texas chapter, said the inaugural event was intended to provide faith-inspired organizing strategies and much-needed encouragement for those fighting for public education at the grassroots level.
In addition to Texas, the coalition has groups operating in Alabama, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Mississippi, Oklahoma. Tennessee and Virginia. Those are just a handful of the states facing relentless and well-funded movements bent on transforming U.S. education into a privatized system that benefits wealthy and white Americans and relegates everyone else, at best, into cogs for business and industry.
“We run so hard, we don’t have any money and we are all putting out fires that the political class is starting, so we needed to be together. And we felt we needed to encourage and bolster and empower our Florida and East Coast leaders,” Johnson explained.
Under Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida has been one of the most aggressive privatizers of education through robust voucher and charter-school options. DeSantis’ self-proclaimed “war on woke” has targeted diversity, equity and inclusion programs and the teaching of Critical Race Theory, sociology and LGBTQ identity in public schools and universities.
North Carolina is in the midst of a Republican push to significantly expand the state’s voucher program so more students can receive taxpayer-supported private education.
James Golden, co-director of Pastors for Florida Children (Photo courtesy of Mitch Randall/Good Faith Media)
Indiana’s school voucher program already was one of the largest in the nation when Republicans pushed through legislation in 2023 to expand enrollment by 75% over two years.
In Texas, where previous voucher efforts have failed in the face of bipartisan legislative opposition, public education advocates warned of a major battle after nine anti-voucher House members were defeated in recent primaries.
And all eyes are on Oklahoma, where an online Catholic charter school approved by education officials in 2023 is under review by the state Supreme Court and possibly en route to the nation’s highest court.
But that’s just scratching the surface in an era in which terms like “school choice” and “parental empowerment” are used as cover for ultimately denying education to people of color, the poor and even those with developmental disabilities, Johnson said. “It’s just relentless, and the fight for public education is existential everywhere.”
Rachel Shapard, co-director of Pastors for Florida Children
In fact, the challenge would be too much to handle without a movement of fellow advocates dedicated to the cause, said Rachel Shapard, cofounder of Pastors for Florida Children and regional vice president with Together for Hope Black Belt.
“We could not do what we do without friends and colleagues in this coalition,” she said. “Each one of us has our strengths and it’s only when we come together that we can affect transformation. It gives us a sense that we are not isolated in this struggle — and it’s even more powerful when we’re all in the same space.”
Ramon Batts, founder of Pastors for Indiana Children
Ramon Batts, pastor of a Baptist congregation in Indianapolis, said he founded Pastors for Indiana Children — the coalition’s newest chapter — because he realized a united clergy can motivate even more people to defend public schools.
“Indiana has been the poster child for how to steamroll public education, and the legislature understands if we are divided, we are weaker,” he said. “This isn’t about politics. This is about humanity. This is about what the Spirit tells us about us. So, the No. 1 job is convincing pastors to get involved, because when people learn it comes from us, they know it’s real.”
While up to 60 Pastors for Children leaders and supporters attended the Orlando gathering, Johnson said the goal eventually is to host a much larger gathering for all allies in the fight to save public schools.
“The good news is that a lot of our nation’s pastors are already involved in their schools and they are waking up to the dangers confronting our schools,” he said. “They are standing up and they are speaking up, and more and more you will have people getting involved across the spectrum.”
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