The December 8, 2003 issue of People magazine has a story about former NBA star Kevin Johnson. (Side note - my brush with fame was meeting Kevin Johnson right after he was traded to Phoenix when he came into the restaurant I worked in.)
Kevin Johnson was concerned with the failing Sacramento High School in California. People says the high school was "plagued by plummeting test scores, student apathy and a deteriorating campus." Only 20% of students could read at grade level. His solution was to raise $7 million through his foundation St. Hope and convert the campus into a charter school.
Who could be against a philanthropist wanting to spend millions to educate inner city kids? Public educators. Johnson's biggest opponent was The Sacramento City Teachers Association. A major reason was their objection to the school being run by St. Hope - a faith based organization.
Some people claim that religion leads to ignorance. It turns out Secularism led to ignorance at Sacramento High and "educators" would rather see kids condemned to a life without education than see them learn to read and perhaps hear about faith in the process.
