Cooper targets NC campus where pastor made rape comments as ‘no accountability’ school
Gov. Roy Cooper on Wednesday used a Union County church whose pastor said women invite rape through their clothing choices as an example of what happens when private schools receive public funding with little accountability.
Rev. Bobby Leonard of Bible Baptist Tabernacle in Monroe drew online outrage when a video surfaced last month in which he made comments from the pulpit about women wearing shorts in public.
“I said if you dress like that and you get raped and I’m on the jury, he’s gonna go free. You don’t like that, do you? I’m right, though. Because a man’s a man,” he is seen saying in the video originally filmed Aug. 16.
Leonard later apologized Feb. 23 after the video went viral on social media, saying he “unequivocally stand(s) on the biblical position that rape under any circumstances is a heinous crime.”
Cooper posted a video and sent a news release Wednesday critiquing the state’s new universal school voucher plan. In it, he seized on Leonard’s statements because he established the Tabernacle Christian School in 1970, and Leonard’s son, Stephen, currently serves as the school’s head administrator. The school has received over $3.3 million in taxpayer-funded school vouchers over the last five years, according to the most recent state data. It received nearly $1 million just last year.
“I’m not against private schools, but I am against sending taxpayer dollars to private schools with no accountability and extreme social agendas at the expense of public schools,” Cooper said. “North Carolina’s public schools are the choice for 84% of students and families and this scheme to gut them of funding and dismantle public education makes no sense.”
Cooper targets Tabernacle Christian School
Cooper went on to reference the saga at Tabernacle Christian School specifically.
“Over the past several weeks, public reporting has raised serious questions about schools receiving taxpayer money despite extreme social agendas, like defending rape,” Cooper said in a news release that linked to an article by Newsweek about the incident.
The school is a recipient of NC Opportunity Scholarships, which are state-funded vouchers families can use to pay for private school tuition. Only families below a certain household income used to be able to apply for funding. The North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority listed Tabernacle Christian School as one of more than a dozen such schools in Union County eligible to receive state money. Many of them are private Christian schools.
The Charlotte Observer called Tabernacle Christian School for a response to Cooper’s comments and asked if Leonard has any influence over or connection with the school’s curriculum. The person who answered referred to the pastor’s apology on the church’s website and ended the call.
Record school voucher applications
This year is the first in which any family in North Carolina could apply for a private school voucher, regardless of household income. As a result, the state received a total of 72,000 applications – a nearly 500% increase over the 11,617 received in 2023. Demand was so high for the Opportunity Scholarship Program this year that the website for the program crashed moments after applications opened Feb. 1.
There will be a lottery in April to determine who receives an Opportunity Scholarship from the state. Those who do not will be put on a waitlist, due to the record demand.
