http://www.alternet.org/print.html?StoryID=11193Bush + Jesus = Unprotected Kids
Maia Szalavitz, The American Prospect
July 17, 2001
http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticl ... icleID=437Why Bush's Alternative Accreditation Scheme Didn't Last
Excerpts:
Part of George W. Bush?s push as Governor to promote "faith-based" providers of social services?like drug treatment, welfare-to-work training and juvenile homes?the alternative accreditation arrangement, along with other Texas initiatives, apparently serves as one prototype of the programs Bush and the Republicans have planned for the nation.
The deregulation of drug treatment facilities has followed a slightly different path. Used to be, drug treatment in the state was a specialized service requiring a license from the Texas Department of Health. Licensees had to have degreed counselors and medical facilities to deal with addiction via pharmaceuticals in order to use the "drug treatment" label. Another program favored by former Governor Bush, Teen Challenge, was lucky enough to have the rules changed to suit its preferences. In 1995, the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse threatened to shut down the program in Texas because it hired counselors without social work backgrounds or state licenses, among other transgressions. Governor Bush kept the shutdown from happening, though, and convened a task force to find a way to accommodate such programs. "Teen Challenge should view itself as a pioneer in how Texas approaches faith-based programs," Bush said to the conservative World Magazine. "I?ll call together people, ask them to make recommendations.? But Teen Challenge is going to exist? and licensing standards have to be different from what they are today."
http://members.iglou.com/bandit/lastword/lw040427/U.S. District Judge Charles Shaw ruled this month that a right-wing concentration camp near Patterson, MO, broke no laws when it falsely imprisoned a teenager and forced him to perform hard labor with no compensation.
Uh, how?!?!
How is it possible that false imprisonment and slavery in its purest form can be ruled legal?
Mountain Park Baptist Boarding Academy - which is more of a gulag than a ministry or school - was faced with a host of grievances in the civil suit. With the dismissal of the slavery issue, the only claim that hadn't yet been ruled on was one involving an employee allegedly shoving an inmate against a sink.
Taxpayers lose, she believes, "because they are forced to financially support religious activity, and they get virtually no accountability for how the money is spent," she said. "Churches lose, because the government strings that come with government funds threaten their independence. Poor people lose because they may be compelled to practice a faith not their own in order to receive services, and because Bush has exempted many of these programs from basic health and safety practices."
