Vegas says he doesn't have agenda

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Vegas says he doesn't have agenda

By Tara Mclaughlin, The Bakersfield Californian, October 5, 2007

Kern High School District trustee Chad Vegas, 34, said the death of his father, a Bakersfield police officer killed in the line of duty, set him on a path of civil service. Vegas was 6 years old at the time, the same age his son is now.

Now in his third year as a school board member, Vegas is in the spotlight for proposing a controversial policy change at Monday's trustee meeting.

The Californian sat down Wednesday with Vegas to talk about mandating posters with the phrase "In God We Trust" hang in every classroom in the district.

First, a little background. Vegas graduated from Bakersfield High School and focused his college studies on political science. He taught for a few years at several Kern County schools, and studied theology, thinking he might want to be a professor one day.

Eventually, he took a job with Riverlakes Community Church where he spent six years as youth pastor. Then a year ago, he launched his own church.

In 2004, while still at Riverlakes, Vegas ran for the KHSD board saying that the board was unresponsive to parents and unwilling to be aggressive with academic performance.

Vegas said he's proud to see the implementation of freshman retention and learning academies as well as improvements in the English language learner and vocational programs.

Questions and answers have been edited for space and clarity.

Question: Why did Councilwoman Jacquie Sullivan bring this proposal (to hang "In God We Trust" posters in classrooms) to you?

Answer: The group that she's a part of isn't particularly supportive of me. So it was a surprise to me when she asked me to carry this. It's a great sign -- like the Republican Party's beginning to come together.

Q: Are other districts promoting putting the national motto in schools?

A: Laws have been passed in 17 states. So, yeah, it's being done in other places.

Q: Is your proposal meant to draw the attention of legislators who might consider passing a law to put the motto in schools?

A: I don't expect the California Legislature to ever discuss this, no. I would be happy if they discussed anything that was sane at all. I would love to see it, but the Legislature right now is so left that they're never going to go for this. I just want to see it here. If it helped spur this forward in other counties and other states that'd be great.

Q: What's the cost to the district?

A: I don't know yet. I'm looking to find out. I'm also looking to see if I can get a lot of that donated. We spend a lot of money on a lot of things. Putting up our founding documents in my mind wouldn't be all that offensive of an expenditure of public money.

Q: Some people say you have an agenda -- is there more that you'd like to see about religion or about religious history in the classroom?

A: No. California State Standards say that religious history of America needs to be taught in the classroom. There will always be people who point to motives. We live in a political environment where, as the newspaper editorial did to me (Wednesday, Oct. 3), rather than dealing with the substance of an issue they just participate in character assassination.

I haven't put forth a proposal to teach Intelligent Design in the classroom. I bring up something simple like this and everybody says, 'He wants to Christianize the district.' This country is not a wholly owned subsidiary of secular atheists. Just because they want to go nuts every time anybody says the word "God," our students don't have to think they're breaking the law if they mention "God" in the classroom.

Q: Why do you think people are so interested in this issue?

A: Because it's sexy. I'm a pastor and I'm bringing up church and state. People like controversy. It blows me away that when a school board member asks for the law of the land to be posted in a class, that's a controversy.

Q: You have mentioned more than once that the media is blowing this out of proportion, yet you sent a press release.

A: This is the first press release I've ever sent. One of my good political friends told me that I should send a release on everything I do. I had expressed that I was frustrated that when I do things, the media doesn't pick it up. I'm not complaining that the press is covering this. My complaint is the kind of lying that editorial staffs do. They assassinate my character and say I don't care about education. We've been doing multiple things in education that they don't talk about in their editorial.

Q: Do you have any concerns about the new proposal going through?

A: I would be hard pressed to come to the conclusion that a group of men who have been elected and sworn to uphold the Constitution would vote against posting it. If that's the kind of elected officials they are, people need to rethink whether or not those are the kinds of men that they want in office -- the kind of men that don't even support the constitution they're sworn to uphold being taught to the students.

Q: Is posting this document teaching religion?

A: No. It's nonsectarian in the first place. It's an attempt to teach what comes out of the Declaration of Independence. We believe that people have inherent rights not because it's given to them by the will of the majority but because they've been given by God. We're saying there's something higher than the government.

Q: What is your interpretation of separation of church and state?

A: Thomas Jefferson wrote that line in a letter. It has now been forced into this idea that he meant to remove God from the state. That is not what Jefferson believed. He wasn't a Christian but he wrote the Declaration of Independence saying our rights are given by God. He didn't mean to separate God and state. He meant to separate a federal church and state. Advertisement

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