Thursday, April 30, 2009

Other Bloggers On Faith In Teaching

Lindsay Beyerstein and Matthew Lawrence have questions about the nonprofit Faith In Teaching. Florida Sen. Ronda Storms sponsored an amendment to create the I Believe licence plate. A sample plate would feature an image of Jesus. Lindsay and I have researched FIT have questions if it is a legitimate nonprofit.

Lawrence:


Money from the other plate would go to Faith In Teaching, which purports to support faith-based education but which actually may not even be real, since their website is down and their official mailing address is the office of a workers’ comp lawyer.


Lindsay has concerns about the lack of oversight on how organization's, such as FIT, are awarded plates.


I'm less concerned about the religious imagery than I am about the fact that the state is creating revenue streams with minimal oversight for obscure non-profits. It's not inherently evil, but it's troubling. Basically, what seems to have happened in this case is that a clique of politically well-connected Republicans managed to get their state senator to introduce legislation adding their ad hoc non-profit to the program. The group, FIT, seems to exist only as a clearinghouse for the money. FIT says it will divide the money among faith-based groups, but it hasn't offered any details on which ones, or what kind of programs.

There's nothing inherently illegal or immoral about creating a non-profit to take advantage of the program as long as the money actually goes to legitimate charities. Still it is a golden opportunity for political patronage and a back door way of subsidizing religious activities. In this case the state is acting as a pass-through and the non-profit covers the costs of developing and marketing the plates, so public money isn't going to religious education--but they are getting a valuable assist. What qualifies these people to divvy up the money to other charities?


Carla A. Mallen and Catherine L. Wellen are the president and vice-president of FIT. Their husbands are David Mallen and Robert Wellen. All have given campaign contributions to Vern Buchanan. David Mallen has worked as a lobbyist.

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