Waste Of The Week: Taxpayer Funds To Benefit Rev. William Barber | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This post, by Brian Balfour, was originally published in the Waste of the Week section of Civitas's online edition.

    A Goldsboro-based organization headed by the Rev. William Barber this year received nearly $350,000 of your tax dollars. Yes, that William Barber — the ringleader of highly partisan political protests against the General Assembly the past few years.

    The protests were dubbed "Money Mondays" by the Civitas Institute after research exposed the fact that organizing groups received more than $100 million in direct state grants in recent years.

    Many of those groups have had their taxpayer funds cut off by the legislature, but Barber's group, "Rebuilding Broken Places Community Development Corporation (RBPCDC)" was awarded a $338,000 grant from the Department of Public Instruction this year.

    The grant was part of a program entitled "21st Century Community Learning Center Program", for which Barber's group was awarded funds for its newly created after-school program: Project Y.E.S.S. (Youth Empowered for Success and Service).

    The Y.E.S.S. program promises attendees several activities, ranging from homework assistance to film making to "character development."

    RBPCDC openly promotes its status as a "faith based community development corporation" which "operates on the basis of its Christian faith."

    This is especially curious in light of challenges from some of Barber's followers who slam North Carolina's recent school voucher program because it supposedly allows "private schools that have a clear religious agenda" to receive tax dollars for educational purposes. Will these people also express their concern about Barber's "faith based" organization receiving tax dollars for an educational program?

    Efforts by private non-profits to supplement and enhance the education of low-income students are laudable. But these organizations should be funded by voluntary, private support. Moreover, why would the legislature want to send tax dollars to benefit a radical extremist?

    Because it sends tax dollars to an organization headed by a man with a clear political agenda for a program that should by privately funded, taxpayer support for William Barber's Rebuilding Broken Places Community Development Corporation is this week's Waste of the Week.