Christian school banned from stock market competition, again!

A Christian school that last year asked members of Congress for an investigation of discrimination by a foundation-sponsored stock market competition for students has been excluded from the competition again this year.

The  school has won the competition twice, in 2014 and 2015.

Canyonville Christian Academy officials say they may have found smoking-gun evidence of discrimination in an online statement from the Capitol Hill Challenge, run by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, stating that priority consideration for registration is given to "public schools."

Last year, when the students from the small Christian high school in Oregon were rejected, they traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with members of Congress and ask them to work to protect their religious rights.

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In the stock market challenge, students begin with a hypothetical equity in the stock market, choose stocks to buy and sell, and tally their results according to what happens on Wall Street.

Last year, SIFMA said it rejected Canyonville to give opportunity to another school "that has not yet had the opportunity to participate."

See what American education has become, in “Crimes of the Educators: How Utopians Are Using Government Schools to Destroy America’s Children.”

The organization declined to respond to a WND request for comment.

School officials said they had been advised by the office of Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., that they should consider filing a Tax-Exempt Organization Complaint, because the sponsoring organization Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association Foundation could be in violation of IRS regulations that prohibit discrimination by 501(c)3 organizations on the basis of religion.

Canyonville spokesman Roger Shaffer told WND that the fact the organization admits it gives preference to "public schools" could be a problem.

"This effectively means that Christian, Muslim, Jewish, etc., and other religious-based schools need not apply.

He noted Barack Obama attended the private Punahou High School in Honolulu, and his daughters, Sasha and Malia, have attended the private Sidwell Friends Academy.

"Last year we speculated that religions bias was a possible motivation," he said. "Now the words on their website openly confirm our suspicions."

Shaffer pointed out that when a Gresham, Oregon, mom-and-pop bakery declined to prepare a cake for a same-sex wedding, it was fined $120,000, destroying the business.

"When SIFMA discriminates against Sasha and Malia's school plus all the Christian school kids in the country – should someone at least shine a light on the problem?"

Shaffer pointed out that the students in the Christian school have been managing a "$14,000 'real money' account with TD Ameritrade that has shown an increase of 41.7 percent since the current school year started."

"Today the class was debating whether they wanted to go to Disneyland or Washington, D.C., with their booty," he said.

He confirmed the school board is considering its options, but no decision has been made.

See what American education has become, in “Crimes of the Educators: How Utopians Are Using Government Schools to Destroy America’s Children.”

When the snub came in 2016, the SIFMA said teams are linked to members of Congress, and all of Oregon's representatives already were allocated.

But school officials said they found that not all members of Congress at the time had been lined up with teams.

Doug Wead, the president of the academy, said at that time the school ultimately decided to send the marketing team to Washington to meet with members of Congress to plead their cause.

The students then met with senators "asking them since their names are being used in the contest to please make sure there is no discrimination against young people based on race, religion, or sexual orientation."

Canyonville student Brian Powell at that time posted a video explaining the situation:

Shaffer, the team's coach, last year told WND he would like SIFMA to explain why "they would want to exclude the dominant team over the past years."

"You're trying to educate kids, promote stock market ideas, among high schools. Why would you throw out the school that has actually excelled at it?"

While the national competition has been conducted only a little over a decade, state competitions have been going on much longer. At that level, Canyonville has virtually controlled the title, winning 26 of the previous 28 state competitions.

SIFMA had praised the school when it won in 2014, noting the students' hypothetical investments started with $100,000 and ended up at $185,888.92.

Then, in 2015, the school was first out of more than 4,300 teams.

See what American education has become, in “Crimes of the Educators: How Utopians Are Using Government Schools to Destroy America’s Children.”