Child-Regifting Job Creator Justin Harris Got $4 Million In Tax Funds For Jesus Pre-School

Hey, we bet you'd like to read a story about sleazy child-regifting monster Justin Harris that isn't about his sleazy child regifting for a change, wouldn't you? Lord knows we have plenty of those already, and the whole sordid mess isn't nearly finished playing itself out. Instead, let's learn a bit more about Justin Harris, the small-government entrepreneur who says that government never created a single job -- no, really, he said that -- and who liked to brag in campaign ads about all the jobs he created at his "Growing God's Kingdom" preschool in West Fork, Arkansas. Turns out he and his wife, Marsha, had a little help creating those jobs!

While we already noted that most of his funding came from state and federal government grants for low-income kids, now we know the price tag to the good people of Arkansas, their Department of Human Services (DHS), and the rest of the United States: Over $4 million in state and federal funds since 2010. Thank goodness all that money was going to a small-government conservative, or it might have been wasted!

[contextly_sidebar id="fXL2JhWxmgfD1psyQQMMfab8bDcoBgkJ"]

According to DHS, Harris has received more than $4,195,651 from public program funds for his Growing God's Kingdom preschool since 2010.

The department's data show the following money has been distributed since 2010:

$547,619 from the USDA for free or reduced lunches for young children

$2.7 million from the Arkansas Better Chance state-funded pre-K

$945,580 from the Child Care Development Fund that helps pay for childcare for qualifying families.

Hey, we thought there was no such thing as a free lunch! But apparently there are $100,000 worth at just one preschool, each and every year! (For the record, we like free school lunches, and we are not the jerk-offs trying to ban them.)

But while that may seem like a lot of money, you have to remember that it was paying for lots of little kids to get a good Christian education, the way Jesus and the Constitution He wrote intended. And after Americans United for Separation of Church and State investigated the pre-school, DHS did tell Harris to knock it off with the in-school prayers, which he said he would, and so he probably did, maybe. 

Also, too, you'll be glad to know that Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin isn't the only Republican coming to Harris's defense.

[contextly_sidebar id="44rb1oFIQ6UaR2NGQuD1VcflEpPzdCh9"]

 Other conservatives have just had it with this unfair witch hunt against a Godly man who didn't do anything wrong except maybe abandon his adopted children with a guy who later raped one, but come on, it's not like he had "rapist" tattooed on his forehead. At least not then. Harris's fellow state Rep David Meeks took to the Face Book to support his pal:

I know this might anger some people, but I don’t throw someone I consider a friend under the bus. Yes, I am speaking of Rep Harris. He is someone I have gotten to know and has built up credibility with me. The tabloid that is doing most of the reporting on this has no credibility with me whatsoever. The experience that I have had with this tabloid is that they are out to destroy Conservatives, Christians and are willing to spin, lie, or make up stuff to do it.”

Yeah, the  Arkansas Times  probably totally made up the state's investigation of the daughter's rape, too, not to mention all the people who spoke to them on the record about what happened. All in the name of making Christian conservatives look bad, the way they do.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson explained at a press conference Wednesday that, golly, what with tax revenue the way it is, there's just no money to really find out what the heck might have happened:

“I don't think anyone at this table knows all the facts. I don't think anyone in this audience knows all the facts. And I can assure you as Governor I do not know all the facts,” said Hutchinson. “So it seems premature to start making judgments when all the facts are not on the table.”

Hutchinson said he would like to have a Solicitor General in his administration with subpoena powers to investigate the matter, but a lack of resources prevent it.

“I would like to have as a management tool for the Governor more investigative capability. Now, I'm not proposing legislation in that regard. This is something I see as a need in the state,” he said.

You know, some things are just a mystery, and there's no way of knowing, unless maybe you spent some money for an investigative job or something like that, and the people of Arkansas are sick and tired of having Big Government take their money and waste it on investigations of every little sex crime that comes along.

Besides, there's that one legislator's daycare business that needs funding. You wouldn't want to take away daycare for the little children, now would you?

[contextly_sidebar id="rI2Xetf9JqdURcbG9nvZOca5laMeTDuA"]

[ ArkansasMatters / UALR Radio via Daily Beast ]