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.