Religious Charter Schools

Anybody for Catholic charter schools?

2008-04-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

Flypaper: Ideas that stick from the Education Gadfly team
Posted on April 25, 2008 at 4:48 pm by Eric Osberg

Left unspoken* at yesterday’s White House summit on faith-based schools was whether the idea of religious charter schools has any merit. Of course, this is no surprise. There are enough opponents of charter schools, of vouchers, and of any co-mingling of church and state, that direct funding for overtly religious schools would be a combustible mix. It’s controversial enough that D.C. is converting seven Catholic schools to charter status, stripping them of their “Catholicity,” and besides, yesterday’s conference had plenty else on the agenda. Yet given the success Catholic schools have shown in educating poor and minority students, and the likelihood that that’s because of their Catholicity, it’s an idea that warrants more of an airing. (Two prior Gadfly op-eds provide a bit, at least, here and here.)

I was reminded of this yesterday when I met Lawrence Weinberg, author of Religious Charter Schools: Legalities and Practicalities (2007), a book I’m now curious to read. Checker and Mike have argued that the Zelman decision paved the way for religious charters, at least insofar as the U.S. Constitution is concerned, but (at the risk of mischaracterizing his work) Weinberg replies that the legal landscape is a little more complicated than that (both because of state-level issues, like Blaine amendments prohibiting state funding of religious schools, and because Zelman is not the only relevant Supreme Court case). Of course, practically speaking, charter schools have to be approved by authorizers, most of which are districts or universities who would surely be unwilling to test these waters. Still, I can’t help but think that it’s a matter of when, not if, someone is bold enough to really advance this idea.

*Update: Sportswriters shouldn’t submit their articles before the final buzzer sounds, and apparently bloggers shouldn’t critique a summit without staying for the whole event. An astute reader immediately pointed out that I missed Lawrence Weinberg presenting on this very topic in the day’s final panel. So much for leaving this idea unspoken! Kudos to the summit and those who organized it for raising this interesting idea. I’m sorry for the error, but I’m especially sorry I missed the discussion. I’d be curious to hear from any attendees how the audience reacted.

For the original post

Summit on Inner-City Children and Faith-Based Schools

2008-04-24T19:39:00.000-07:00

Religious charter schools was on the agenda at the White House Summit on Inner-City Children and Faith-Based Schools, when
Dr. Lawrence D. Weinberg, Author, Religious Charter Schools: Legalities and Practicalities, spoke at the Summit.

DR. WEINBERG: Charter schools are public schools that face greater accountability and have greater autonomy than traditional public schools. The school receives a charter to operate from a state-approved entity. It then receives a combination of state, local, and federal funding. Forty states and the District of Columbia have charter school laws which educate over a million students.

The Establishment Clause requirement of separating the church and state applies to charter schools because they are public schools. However, the chartering process offers a faith-based school important opportunities because of the increased flexibility and control enjoyed by charter school operators.

The bottom line distinction -- and I'm going to summarize everything I'm going to say in one sentence. The bottom line distinction is that a faith-based charter school can accommodate its students' and parents' religious beliefs, but it cannot endorse religious beliefs. Because the Establishment Clause draws a line that's far from clear, any list of permissible or nonpermissible activities that faith-based schools might engage in is not going to be perfect. Accordingly, these issues need to be discussed in broad terms.

And it's important to bear in mind that these schools are always examined in their particularities and that everything class every prayer situation, that every class, every prayer situation, every school board is going to be examined in its particulars. And the best example I can give of this is that the Supreme Court has held that a creche in the public sphere in one situation is unconstitutional but in different situation it may be constitutional. So the context and nature of the situation is everything.

For the rest of Dr. Weinberg's speech

A School Called 'Enlightenment'

2008-04-21T13:25:00.000-07:00

EMILY ALPERT
Monday, April 21, 2008
Voice of San Diego

Girls in uniforms and Muslim headscarves circled around fifth-grade teacher Rebecca Kruske in the cement courtyard. She squinted at the ingredients listed on a Doritos bag, then conferred with the girls before sharing. Unlike them, her shoulders were bare in the spring sun.

"Isn't Yellow 5 haram?" she asked, using the Arabic word for "forbidden."

Cross-cultural moments like these have multiplied over the past decade as City Heights schools absorbed thousands of East African students: A non-Muslim teacher asking her Muslim students if a food dye breaks religious dietary laws. And it epitomizes the mission of Iftin, a fledgling charter school where Somali-speaking parents are comfortable, Arabic is offered, and perfecting English is a mission.

***

Iftin isn't the first San Diego charter school to cater primarily to Somali Muslim students. Another effort was MidCity Charter Academy, which closed in 2006. A nearby public school, Carver Elementary, tried to accommodate the displaced children by adding single-gender classes and setting aside time for prayer. Those efforts proved controversial nationwide, spurring outcry that Muslim students were afforded special treatment. Eventually, the school ended single-gender classes and shifted its schedule so that children could pray at lunchtime.

Nationwide, charter schools that serve East African refugees and other newcomers have multiplied, said Martha Bigelow, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota. Those schools include Ubah Medical Academy in Minneapolis and the International Community School outside Atlanta. Charters are cropping up because of the unique academic and cultural needs of refugee children, she said. Some have spent years in refugee camps without picking up a pencil or paper.

***

And as Iftin forges a path to success for East African students in the U.S., it juggles questions about how to balance East African values and U.S. norms. Iftin is grappling with how to teach sexuality and human development, for instance. Whether Doritos are haram is just the beginning.

"American values and ours too, they will not contradict each other," said Arrays, the Iftin board member. In fact, Arrays said, Iftin is a fundamentally American enterprise. "America was started by only a few people. They said, 'We don't want other people to rule us.'"

"Now we have to rule," Arrays said, "and face all challenges."

Original article

Inver Grove Heights school on defensive after death threats

2008-04-17T05:36:00.000-07:00

John Croman
KARE 11 News

A charter school in Inver Grove Heights is taking extra security precautions and working with law enforcement agencies in the wake of death threats.

It all began with a series of newspaper columns accusing Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy of using taxpayer money to teach Islamic religion, something the school's director says is just plain false.

"We are fully aware of the obligations that come with that public money," the academy's director Asad Zaman told KARE 11 Wednesday, "And we take care to insure that we operate a non-sectarian program. None of the public money is spent on any religious activities. "

***

Many of those who leveled complaints and threats appear to view the school as part of a larger conspiracy to establish the Muslim religion as the official worldwide religion.

"I can't even control my own parking lot," Zaman laughed, "Let alone the entire world!"

Zaman says he can only hope those who hate him because of some perceived threat will look at the world differently some day.

"All problems can be solved," he said, "We can solve this problem if only people would have reasonable, rational discussions instead of having hateful conversations."

He's heartened by letters of support, including a donation mailed in by a teacher in Hutchinson, Minnesota who wrote simply, "Please use this money to buy more books for your library."

As the children played at recess a police squad car could be seen slowly cruising through the parking lot nearby, part of stepped up patrols.

But, like most kids on a warm, sunny spring day in Minnesota, the youngsters were preoccupied with enjoying the outdoors.

Original article

Furor over Islam taught at US public school

2008-04-17T05:33:00.000-07:00

Agence France-Presse

CHICAGO (AFP) — Police have stepped up patrols of an elementary school in Minnesota after it received threats in the wake of accusations that it was using public funds to teach Islam.

The threats came after a local columnist wrote that the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, a suburban Minneapolis charter school run by an Islamic charity, appeared to be violating a ban on teaching religion in public schools.

Charter schools are public schools run by private organizations with public funds.

While many have been started by religious groups, they are bound to US rules that public schools must accommodate the religious needs of their students but are not allowed to promote religious views or lead prayer services.

The brewing controversy came to head in recent days when a substitute teacher said she saw students "corralled" into involuntary prayer services, and a local television station criticized the school for failing to fly a US flag.

The story got picked up on anti-Muslim websites and the school started getting threatening calls and e-mails, including threats to burn it down and "destroy" its students and leaders.

"These vile and vicious attacks on us have resulted in death threats against my students, myself and my family," Asad Zaman, executive director of the academy, told AFP Wednesday.

Tarek ibn Ziyad is run by the charity Islamic Relief USA and specializes in teaching Arabic language and culture in addition to standard public grade school subjects.

The majority of the students are Muslim and the school offers regular prayer services and after-school Islamic instruction, but officials say they are careful to follow state guidelines.

Zaman scoffs at the idea that the school is secretly Islamic or that students are forced to attend prayer services, noting that it is inspected regularly by the state Department of Education and has hosted a number of reporters and high-profile politicians.

"We do not teach religion. We do not favor any religion," he said in a telephone interview.

"We specialize in dramatic turnarounds. More than 90 percent of our students are in poverty and we outperform schools in the (wealthy) suburbs."

But the columnist who sparked the controversy says that while the reports of threats are "repellant" they should not "distract attraction from the central issue here, and that is, whether this publicly-financed school is skirting or breaking the law that all others must observe when it comes to religious endorsement."

"If this were a bunch of Baptists or Catholics with the kids being led to the rosary on Mondays through Thursday and led to Mass on Fridays there wouldn't be any question that this is crossing the line," said Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten.

Kersten is also concerned that the school, which has a long waiting list and has recently expanded to a second campus, will prevent the assimilation of the area's growing population of new Muslim immigrants.

"If you have a very large immigrant Muslim population being educated at taxpayer expenses in a separate system where Arabic is mandatory and there's an emphasis on the culture of the so-called Eastern world, it seems to me you are setting up a very problematic situation," she told AFP.

The Minnesota Department of Education said it goes to "great lengths" to ensure that charter schools understand they must be "non-sectarian" in nature while also accommodating the religious beliefs of students.

"We take seriously the concerns raised regarding Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy and are conducting an appropriate review," Minnesota Education Commissioner Alice Seagren said in a statement.

Original article

From Catholic to charter schools

2008-04-14T05:27:00.000-07:00

The Washington Times
Editorial

During this week's much-anticipated papal visit, Pope Benedict is slated to deliver an unusual address to Catholic college and university presidents on Catholic education. His words may have unintentional relevance for the District of Columbia's own Catholic-education questions, which are closely linked to the tides and turns of the city's nascent charter schools.

At present, the Archdiocese of Washington faces much criticism for its proposal to convert seven Catholic schools into publicly funded nonreligious charters. Some Catholics question what they view as the archdiocese's abdication of a key, historic role in education, while the D.C. Council and voices from the public-school system ask further questions about the finances. But Mayor Adrian Fenty and Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee seem favorably disposed and should push the plan to completion. It makes good sense for the city and the students, both to bolster the city's charter-school alternatives and to save schools that educate students from mostly minority and lower-to-middle-income backgrounds.

In a city plagued with public-education problems as extensively as Washington is, the loss of these schools would decrease the options of families who already face significant limitations in one of the country's worst-performing public-school systems. At least some of the financing questions reflect hostility toward the expansion of the District's charter schools. But those who characterize the plan as Mayor Fenty's "bailout" of the Catholic Church can at least be shown the numbers to suggest the plan is more like a bargain acquisition. Nationally, Catholic schools outperform their public counterparts and do so on much tighter budgets. These schools will no longer be "Catholic" — religious curricular components, Catholic names and other signs of the church will be stripped away. But they will retain many of the people and characteristics which drew families seeking alternatives to the public schools in the first place. If the schools close, the District will end up educating the students in any event, except — and this is perhaps key to the opposition — the educating will occur inside D.C. public schools, which the education establishment controls firmly.

The question of whether the archdiocese's finances necessitate the move is of interest to Catholics who have posed worries about the future of Catholic education in the District. But the city must presume that Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl means what he says when he reports that a 5-year, $50 million operating deficit will require the schools' closure absent this plan. The city must convert these Catholic schools into charters.

Original editorial

Kersten's Arabic-school source: more to the story

2008-04-14T05:24:00.000-07:00

Kersten's Arabic-school source: more to the story
David Brauer
MinnPost.com

Conservative Strib columnist Katherine Kersten kicked up a storm last week in her campaign against an Inver Grove Heights Arabic charter school, Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA). Kersten claims the public school engages in questionable Muslim religious practices. The school hasn't allowed her to visit, but Kersten found an eyewitness: a substitute teacher who confirmed many of the allegations. State officials have since said they will increase inspections and will contact federal officials about the school's sponsors.

One data point Kersten omitted: the substitute, Amanda Getz, is a Republican political and education activist. As Getz wrote two years ago, the self-described conservative has a special interest in "education reform and work to improve our country's public schools."

Does that obliterate Getz's credibility? No; it might even enhance it in some eyes. But Getz was not some naïf walking into a charter school; it's unlikely the politically active conservative teacher was ignorant of Kersten's longstanding anti-TIZA campaign when she accepted the assignment. Getz's affiliations may have colored her views, and Strib readers deserved to know about it.

The original article

Paul Rolly: Bus keeps non-LDS student waiting

2008-04-11T13:09:00.000-07:00

By Paul Rolly
The Salt Lake Tribune

Annie Yeager is part of a group of parents in northern Utah County who pool their money to rent a bus owned by the charter Paradigm High School in Sandy to shuttle their children to and from school.
But on Fridays, when Paradigm lets out at 11 a.m., Yeager's daughter Rebecca must wait for three hours to take the bus home because it is busy shuffling the LDS students to seminary classes.
Not only does this policy single her daughter out as "non-LDS," says Yeager, but leaves her daughter in limbo for three hours.
State school officials have other concerns. School Board attorney Carol Lear says a charter school that uses public money and provides a resource to aid religious instruction raises "serious constitutional issues."
And while the bus is insured by the state Office of Risk Management, director Roger Livingston recently wrote to Schools Superintendent Patti Harrington to tell her that Risk Management will not cover school buses rented to private parties. Once a private entity takes
control of the bus, Livingston said, the state loses its governmental immunity protection, which puts caps on liability claims.
Paradigm director Celia Johnson said the charter school by law is not responsible for transporting students to and from school. The school contracts with the parents for rent of the bus to transport their children. It also contracts with a group of parents to transport their children to an LDS seminary building for "released time."
But Yeager points out the school's policy manual says parents may opt to rent the bus for transportation to seminary "if the time does not conflict with previously planned school bus activities."
Yeager says the contract with the northern Utah County parents constitutes a "previously planned bus activity.
She has filed a complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Click here for the original article.

Wednesday: Wall of silence broken at state's Muslim public school

2008-04-10T18:01:00.000-07:00

Wednesday: Wall of silence broken at state's Muslim public school
Katherine Kersten
Star Tribune
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN

Recently, I wrote about Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA), a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove Heights. Charter schools are public schools and by law must not endorse or promote religion.

Evidence suggests, however, that TIZA is an Islamic school, funded by Minnesota taxpayers.

TIZA has many characteristics that suggest a religious school. It shares the headquarters building of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, whose mission is "establishing Islam in Minnesota." The building also houses a mosque. TIZA's executive director, Asad Zaman, is a Muslim imam, or religious leader, and its sponsor is an organization called Islamic Relief.

Students pray daily, the cafeteria serves halal food - permissible under Islamic law -- and "Islamic Studies" is offered at the end of the school day.

Click here for the whole original article.

Charter school's religious activities focus of state investigation

2008-04-10T13:08:00.000-07:00

Tim Nelson, Minnesota Public Radio
April 10, 2008

State education officials say they're investigating claims that a publicly-funded Inver Grove Heights charter school is offering religious instruction to students in violation of the law.

St. Paul, Minn. — Tarik ibn Zayad Academy is one of only a handful of public schools in Minnesota that focuses on Middle Eastern culture.

More than 300 students attend the school. Girls wear headscarves and the school shares a site with a mosque and the Muslim American Society of Minnesota.

Now, a Bloomington woman who taught at the school last month says she believes the school is offering religious instruction to its students.

***

The Minnesota Department of Education said Tuesday it was conducting a review of Getz's allegations.

***

The substitute teacher may indeed have seen students praying, he said. But the students had been released early from school for religious instruction, as occasionally happens in other public schools, he said.

Zaman noted that the substitute teacher didn't speak Arabic, and he said she may have misinterpreted any number of cultural practices as religious instruction.

"This is part of the problem with relying on the word of someone who has been in the school all of six hours," Zaman said.

His school has become the subject of a series of threatening communications after the substitute teacher's allegations were made public in the newspaper on Wednesday, Zaman said.

The threats had prompted him to invite Inver Grove Heights police to Tarik ibn Zayad Academy to assess the security of his school, he said.

Click here for the original article.

A different kind of Jewish education

2008-04-06T11:36:00.000-07:00

Guest Column: A different kind of Jewish education
By SARAH KASS
The Jerusalem Post

When charter public schools began in the US more than a decade ago, proponents were divided as to whether their purpose was efficiency (bang for the buck) or innovation (raising the bar). As American Jewish philanthropists explore investing in this sector - in light of the successful launch of the Ben Gamla Charter School in Florida - they would do well to identify their purpose, and to clarify the Jewish future they aim to propel.

he Jewish community has long worried about the rising cost of Jewish education in the United States, where unlike most other countries with Jewish citizens, there is no public support for religious schools. High tuition costs - upward of $25,000 per child per year in New York City, beginning in kindergarten - ensure that, beyond the Orthodox world, where secular school is out of the question, a Jewish education is largely a privilege for the rich. Moreover, as leaders of these ever-financially-strapped Jewish day schools spend so much of their time raising money, they find themselves devoting precious little attention to how they are raising the kids. And so, concerned philanthropists have wondered how to relieve the financial burden on Jewish day schools so that Jewish education in America might be more accessible and more educational.

***

INSTEAD OF private Jewish day schools, how about public Jewish charter schools? And given the tiny matter of America's first amendment, which precludes public financing of religious education, the new pitch is for public Hebraic charter schools. Rather than fitting form to function, this plan fits function to form, remanding Jewish education to the flushest box, the one supported by Uncle Sam. The purpose would appear to be bang for the buck: better to get more Jewish kids a Jewish-style education on the cheap than to figure out how to pay for the best Jewish education.

While the 180-day six-hours/day school year of a public charter education is free to the parent-consumers, success is extremely expensive for the educator-producers. Opening a charter public school is no cheaper than opening a private day school. There is precious little public funding for start-up costs. There is no public money for facilities. Taxpayers do not provide computers or furniture. There are no free science labs or gymnasia, playgrounds or parking lots. There is no public money for curriculum development, personnel recruitment, professional development, policy creation or the building of operating systems.

***

PERHAPS HEBRAIC charter schools could prepare the next generation to practice and promote the principles of a Mosaic politics, embodied in the Jewish people's founding civic institutions such as brit mila, Shabbat and shmita, nourished by the topology of a land rich in promise but poor in natural resources, where rain is a gift and not an assumption, and designed to prevent individual and collective regress into the abuse (and allure) of Egyptian strongman rule.

Perhaps, 60 years into modern statehood in the ancient Jewish homeland, Jewish education, even in the Diaspora, could once again be civic education, focusing on the Jewish meaning of power, plenty and the future - the core concerns of any sovereign nation governing in its own land or sojourning beyond its borders. Hebraic charter schools might indeed reboot Diaspora Judaism and enable future Jewish leaders to propel a nation which can truly be or l'goyim, a light unto the nations.

Click here for a link to the original article.

Charter schools give students unique options

2008-04-04T12:07:00.000-07:00

Dynamic programs engage and challenge Rhinelander students
By Ana Davis - Special to The Daily News
The Daily News

Rhinelander’s three charter schools, Northwoods Community Elementary School, Northwoods Community Secondary School and Rhinelander Environmental Stewardship Academy, are all working hard to offer local students excellent learning environments and expanded educational opportunities as part of wider effort by the school district’s strategic planning committee to enhance the area by improving its schools.

***

The charter schools are also reaching out to include those students who are home-schooled for religious reasons or because they have previously struggled to succeed.

“NCES also offers a K-5 virtual program for students that have previously been home-schooled,” Jacobi said. “Teachers work closely with families to provide an individualized program that meets the needs of the child, and virtual students are invited to school for guidance, library, music, art, physical education, projects, field trips, and other school activities.”

***

Click here for a link to the original article.

From Catholic Schools to Charters: What's Left?

2008-04-02T11:22:00.000-07:00

From Catholic Schools to Charters: What's Left?
Marc Fisher
The Washington Post

The bottom line is clear, says Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl: The Catholic Church can no longer afford to run a full complement of inner-city parochial schools serving a population that is, by an overwhelming majority, non-Catholic.

So, facing a deficit of about $50 million over the next five years, the church is moving to convert at least seven D.C. elementary schools into secular, taxpayer-funded charter schools.

"We simply don't have the resources to keep all those schools open," Wuerl said in an interview with Washington Post reporters and editors the other day. "We have exhausted the resources available to us."

But as the parochial schools move through the charter approval process, the question is what would those schools be if they emerge as publicly-supported, non-religious institutions? Catholic schools, even when they are educating a population that is 76 percent non-Catholic and almost entirely black and Hispanic, as in the Archdiocese's D.C. schools, "provide a faith-based formation," Wuerl says. "These schools give kids a self-confidence, a hope."

Take away the religious foundation and what remains? You'd have "the same teachers, the same kids, the same environment," the archbishop says. "There will still be a level of value formation."

***

But the bottom line is the bottom line, and he figures charters are the best the church can do right now: "If the alternative is a failing public school, then isn't the charter school the better" choice, he asks.

Perhaps so, but any institution that chooses to save money by chipping away at its appeal to the next generation is buying a big box of trouble. In the end, the church is following its members, naturally focusing its educational work on places where there are more Catholics. Sadly, that entails pulling back on a grand urban tradition of educating inner city children, regardless of their denomination.

Click here for the original article.

Blaine On Trial

2008-04-01T11:24:00.000-07:00

Blaine On Trial
Gerald J. Russello
National Catholic Register
April 6-12, 2008 Issue

Ever hear of the Blaine amendment? It’s sort of obscure, but it remains one of the last remnants of bigotry in the statute books. Some court cases are finally beginning to tackle this shameful legacy.

***

In 1998, New York enacted a charter school law, which enables the state to provide funding for private or independent schools. These schools are usually in areas where the public schools are failing, and would give poorer families a chance at shaping their children’s education.

New Horizons Church Ministry is a Baptist congregation in New York City’s Harlem, and applied for a charter school license under the law.

But the law establishing the charter school program provides — following New York’s Blaine amendment — that support should be refused to any school “wholly or in part under the control of direction of any religions denomination, or in which any denominational tenet or doctrine would be taught.”

New Horizons was refused funding by the state because it proposed to establish a school in keeping with its religious principles.

Late last year, the pastor of New Horizons sued the state seeking a court to declare the prohibition of funding religious schools in the charter school law and New York’s Blaine amendment as a whole unconstitutional under the federal Constitution.

The case is now making its way through the court system, and is one of a number of challenges to state-level Blaine amendments.

The New Horizons case should be of considerable interest to all those interested in religious education, but specifically in Catholic education. While the development of parochial schools developed independently of public schools, there is no reason why Blaine amendments should block Catholic schools from accepting funds pursuant to a state charter school program.

Indeed, in poorer neighborhoods, the need for such schools is greater than ever, and eliminating Blaine amendments would enable religious schools of all types to have a chance to succeed and help their communities. And Catholics should have a particular desire to see these legal remnants of anti-Catholic discrimination erased from the statute books.

In other words, it is time for the bigoted heritage of the Blaine amendments to pass into history.

Click here for the original article.

Rhode Island Charter School operated by a Christian Brother

2008-02-23T11:30:00.000-08:00

Note: This article is about Steve Aveson, a one time Baltimore Journalist. It mentions a Providence, RI charter school run by a Christian Brother.

Whatever happened to... Steve Aveson?
The Baltimore Sun
Jacques Kelly
February 23, 2008

When WJZ-TV's Evening Magazine went off the air at the end of 1990, its popular co-host, Steve Aveson, went on to gain a national audience.

He moved to New York and spent four years at ABC News as a Good Morning America and 20/20 correspondent. He also was an anchor for ABC News programs, including World News This Morning, Good Morning America Sunday and Discovery News, a science program. He also had a stint with the broadcast division of The Christian Science Monitor and then returned to a metro market as an anchor at Fox 25 in Boston.

***

In his free time, he mentors at-risk boys in a Providence charter school run by a Christian Brother. He also works with the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Rhode Island and the Juvenile Diabetes Association.

Follow this link to the original article.

Notre Dame Catholic School closing

2008-02-21T12:32:00.000-08:00

By Nancy Pasternack
The Appeal-Democrat
Marysville, CA

When teachers at Notre Dame Catholic School received the bad news last week, they gave their students an extra-long recess outdoors, and cried.

Then they pulled themselves together and threw the Valentine's Day party the children were expecting.

After more than 150 years of offering catechism instruction along with reading, writing and arithmetic, Notre Dame Catholic School in Marysville will graduate its last eighth-grade class this year.

***

Broughton and an advisory board made up of parents and students already have begun the process of trying to create a new public charter school within the Marysville Joint Unified School District.

Hopefully, Broughton said, "we'll be able to continue the school, but without the religious instruction."

The group will model the charter school on one in Paradise that has a similar history and population, Broughton said.

Eisermann, Kemmerly and the school's other teachers say they support the charter school idea, and that they will teach at the new school, if it comes to fruition.

Follow this link for the full original article.

Ross County Christian Academy is growing

2008-02-11T13:03:00.000-08:00

Ross County Christian Academy is growing
Officials still hoping for permanent home
By JONA ISON
Gazette Staff Writer

Ross County Christian Academy is gearing up for a second year of operation and hopes to expand services.

Although the academy still hopes to have a permanent home of its own one day, Brookside Church on Egypt Pike has agreed to allow the academy to operate there again for the 2008-09 school year, said Mike MacCarter, co-director of the academy.

***

The school serves students in kindergarten through sixth grade, but if enrollment warrants it, the academy will expand to include seventh grade in 2008-09. Also, an interest survey has been distributed to the academy's endorsing churches to determine if there enough families interested in preschool to create a preschool program at the academy.

Beginning next school year, MacCarter said the academy hopes it will be approved as a state charter school.

"They have some regulations with curriculum, which we're doing most of those already," MacCarter said.

Follow this link for the complete original article.

Catholic school closings: Parents race

2008-01-25T08:03:00.000-08:00

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

On Tuesday morning, Carolyn Hanna toured Archangel School in Irondequoit, where she plans to send her three children if Bishop Matthew Clark follows through with closing St. John of Rochester School in Perinton.

In addition to pictures of Martin Luther King, Amelia Earhart and Anne Frank, students at the school had decorated the walls with colorful renditions of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Elizabeth Seton.

Inclusion of such religious heroes matters to Hanna, whose children attend one of 13 Catholic schools in Monroe County that are slated to close in June.

Since the decision was announced Friday, hundreds of parents have met to devise strategies to persuade the bishop to save their schools. Catholic schools not affiliated with the diocese, such as Archangel, have been flooded with requests for enrollment information.

Some Catholic school supporters have called for the Rochester Roman Catholic Diocese to follow a national trend of converting doomed schools to "values-based" charter schools.

Follow this link to the original article.

Brazoria County Year in Review

2007-12-29T21:56:00.000-08:00

April 27, 2007: Columbia Christian School announces it will close May 31, but longtime students can take classes in the same buildings as a public charter school, West Columbia Charter School, is set to open in its place.

Link to the original article.

A ghost of 19th-century bigotry haunts New York City

2007-12-24T06:53:00.000-08:00

By GEORGE F. WILL
The Washington Post

HARLEM (or maybe not) — Asked whether his brownstone residence is in Harlem, the Rev. Michel Faulkner says, well, that depends. "When something bad happens, the neighborhood is called Harlem. When something good happens, it is the Upper West Side." Faulkner is trying to make something good happen, but is opposed by a U.S. speaker of the House who died 114 years ago but whose mischief goes marching on.

Faulkner, 50, is an African-American who played defensive line for Virginia Tech and, briefly, the New York Jets. Recoiling from what he calls "the social and community chaos" he saw growing up in Washington's Anacostia section, and that he blamed on Lyndon Johnson's Great Society welfarism, Faulkner served as vice president for urban ministry at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. He left that sedate environment to minister to the down-and-out around Times Square, before its sinfulness had been scrubbed away.

Link to the full article

Fighting History In Harlem

2007-12-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

George F. Will
Thursday, December 6, 2007; Page A29
Washington Post

Faulkner, 50, is an African American who played defensive line for Virginia Tech and, briefly, the New York Jets. Recoiling from what he calls "the social and community chaos" that he saw growing up in Anacostia, and that he blamed on Lyndon Johnson's Great Society welfarism, Faulkner served as vice president for urban ministry at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. He left that sedate environment to minister to the down-and-out around Times Square, before its sinfulness had been scrubbed away.

Now he wants to create a charter school -- a public school enjoying considerable autonomy from, among other burdens, teachers unions. It would be affiliated with his New Horizon Church. But New York's constitution has a Blaine Amendment.

Link to the original article

Catholic charters a good idea

2007-12-05T06:19:00.000-08:00

Editorial
By Michael J. Petrilli

The holidays are here just in time, because seven of the District's inner-city Catholic schools are in need of a Christmas miracle. Like their peers nationwide, they face a crippling financial crisis that threatens to bring their heralded work to an end.

Though indisputably a crisis, it's no surprise. The basic problem has been worsening for decades as middle-class families decamped for the suburbs, leaving weakened parishes and disadvantaged children behind, even as education costs rose. To its credit, the Catholic schools continued to serve students in the community, even though, by and large, their parents couldn't afford the modest tuition, nor did they share the faith.

Link to the original article.

Sunday School for Atheists

2007-11-22T17:49:00.000-08:00

Time Magazine

On Sunday mornings, most parents who don't believe in the Christian God, or any god at all, are probably making brunch or cheering at their kids' soccer game, or running errands or, with luck, sleeping in. Without religion, there's no need for church, right?

***

The growing movement of institutions for kids in atheist families also includes Camp Quest, a group of sleep-away summer camps in five states plus Ontario, and the Carl Sagan Academy in Tampa, Fla., the country's first Humanism-influenced public charter school, which opened with 55 kids in the fall of 2005.

7 D.C. Schools Must Ponder Education Without Religion

2007-11-12T20:00:00.000-08:00

Washington Post

At Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian Catholic School in Capitol Hill, students attend Mass once a week and a crucifix hangs in the lobby. Before dismissal time, pre-kindergarten teacher Courtney Pullen lines up her students and leads them in the Lord's Prayer. Pullen said she took a teaching job there because she could pray with the children and talk to them about God.

"It gives us leverage" with students, Pullen said of having religion as an integral part of the curriculum. "They're going to miss being able to pray and talk about religion."

The announcement last week by the Archdiocese of Washington that it plans to convert seven District schools to charter schools has forced teachers, students and parents to begin contemplating something that seems unreal: what a Catholic school education would be without religion.

Link to the original article.

Church Decides To Convert 7 Schools

2007-11-06T20:13:00.000-08:00

Archdiocese Says Elementaries Have Deficit of $4 Million
Washington Post

The Archdiocese of Washington announced yesterday that it planned to convert seven D.C. Catholic schools to charter schools, a decision that angers some parents, students and teachers who worried over the fate of their parochial schools.

The schools are elementary-level, have nearly all-African American student bodies and are located in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods. To become charter schools, they would have to make changes such as ending school prayer and removing religious symbols. But as charter schools, which are independent public schools, they would receive operating funds from the District.

Link to the original article.

Freedom of Speech: Clergy Deserve It, Too

2007-11-01T19:50:00.000-07:00

Fox News
By Mark Joseph

A group called the Gotham Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit last week to repeal the Blaine Amendment, a little-known law passed in 1894 that, according to the group, was aimed at Catholic immigrants seeking to start parochial schools.

A century later, however, the practical result of the law has been that groups like the New Horizon Church in Harlem have been prevented from opening charter schools that reflected the church's beliefs.

Thanks to Gotham, relief for churches that wish to start charter schools may be on the way, but it may be time to take an even more comprehensive look at laws that restrict the rights of all Americans -- including those who are motivated by religious belief -- to participate fully in American public life.

Faulkner's First Stop

2007-10-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

New York Sun Editorial

Quite the important case was filed in federal district court in Manhattan last week. A former New York Jet with a masters degree in education who is also pastor of Harlem's New Horizons
Church, Rev. Michael Faulkner, wants to open up a charter school in Harlem or Washington Heights that would be affiliated with his church but would not have a religious component to the curriculum. However, the New York Charter Schools Act explicitly states that "A Charter shall not be issued to any school that would be wholly or in part under the control or direction of any religious denomination, or in which any denominational tenet or doctrine would be taught."

Mr. Faulkner, with the help of the Gotham Legal Foundation, is suing to have that section of the law changed under the theory that it is in violation of his rights under the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause as well as the Fourteenth Amendment.

Link to the original article.

Arabic school causes stir in NYC

2007-10-25T19:32:00.000-07:00

From The Jerusalem Post

A coalition opposed to a new Arabic-language school in the city has filed a lawsuit against the New York City Department of Education.

Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition is attempting to shut down the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn, which opened this fall under intense scrutiny.

The coalition is taking its case to the New York Supreme Court following a Freedom of Information Law request. It claims the Department of Education failed to provide sufficient information about the charter school's curriculum and text books.

Link to the original article.

Note: The Khalil Gibran International Academy is not a charter school.

3 Catholic Schools Ask Not to Be Changed to Charters

2007-10-24T20:15:00.000-07:00

Washington Post

Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl said yesterday he is considering plans from three D.C. Catholic schools that want to continue operating as parochial schools instead of being converted to charter schools.

Wuerl said he will delay his final recommendation on the Catholic school conversions, which he had intended to make this week, until he has thoroughly reviewed the proposals. St. Francis de Sales in Northeast Washington and St. Gabriel in Northwest Washington were granted extensions on the Oct. 20 deadline and will meet with archdiocese officials this week to flesh out their plans, archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Gibbs said.

Link to the original article.

Educating Muslims in an East African US charter high school

2007-10-15T05:49:00.000-07:00

Letitia Basford, Sarah Hick, & Martha Bigelow
University of Minnesota, USA

Abstract
This article presents a case study of a U.S. charter high school that was created by an East African community seeking a learning environment for immigrant adolescents committed to an Islamic lifestyle. It describes how such schools are a reaction to concerns from Muslim immigrant parents and community leaders that youth are experiencing rapid assimilation at school and are replacing their ethnic and religious identity with an other-imposed racialized identity. Through an analysis of teacher interviews, this article explores how the school accommodates Muslim immigrant youth while tenuously adhering to the Establishment Clause of the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting government sponsored religion. It also uncovers some of the challenges presented by having a teaching staff with a range of teaching philosophies, background experiences and cultures. This study reveals the problematic differences between the cultural and educational norms and expectations of the white teachers and the East African leadership.

The full report can be downloaded from the National Center for the Study of the Privatization of Education. (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

Religious school may go public

2007-10-14T20:31:00.000-07:00

Strapped Escuela de Guadalupe explores conversion to public charter
The Denver Post

Leaders of a small Catholic dual-language school in northwest Denver say that if their finances do not improve quickly, they will seek to become a public charter school.
If Escuela de Guadalupe seeks to become a charter school, Denver will find itself at the vanguard of a national debate over whether faith-based schools can or should become public.
In recent years, dioceses in other cities have discussed converting their schools to charters, ultimately deciding against it.

Link to the original article.

TIME AGAIN FOR SOME NEW BOOKS

2007-09-16T21:05:00.000-07:00

Bill Tammeus writes about matters of religion and ethics.

Religious Charter Schools: Legalities and Practicalities, by Lawrence D. Weinberg. Already various disputes about public charter schools with religious themes have broken out in various places in the country. This book will help administrators, teachers, parents and students understand the constitutional limits.

Link to the original article.

Board: Charter school can teach Hebrew

2007-09-11T21:55:00.000-07:00

USA Today

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A charter school may resume teaching in Hebrew, three weeks after the lessons were halted over concerns the Jewish faith was seeping into public classrooms, the school board voted Tuesday.

Broward County board members said close monitoring of the country's first Hebrew-language charter school is still necessary, but that its administrators had cleared up major concerns.

Link to the original article.

8 D.C. Catholic Schools Eyed for Charters

2007-09-08T20:20:00.000-07:00

Turning Over Operation to Secular Entity Proposed to Avert Closure
Washington Post

Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl is proposing to convert eight of the District's 28 Catholic schools into secular charter schools, saying the archdiocese can no longer afford to keep them open.

Wuerl said his recommendation to strip the schools of their core religious identity and turn them over to a nonsectarian entity to be run as charter schools is the only way to avoid closing them and would continue the education of thousands of low-income city children without interruption.

Link to the original article.

Culturally Specific Charter Schools Spark Debate

2007-09-02T21:12:00.000-07:00

US Charter Schools

Charter schools focused on Muslim culture and Arabic language, as well as Jewish language and culture, have worked hard to ensure their curricula are free from religious doctrine. But some, particularly those in the Jewish community who have a long history advocating for the separation of church and state, think such schools could face constitutional challenges. These culturally specific schools have company, including a German-culture charter school in Alaska and Hmong, Chinese, and Dakota Native American culture charter schools in Minnesota. While a charter school by law cannot endorse one religion, the courts have granted schools latitude in accommodating religion. "Charter schools offer parents an opportunity to create schools that meet their needs and religious needs are some of the most profound and important needs that people have," says Lawrence Weinberg, author of "Religious Charter Schools."
Source: Wall Street Journal, (09/02/2007)

Link to the original article.

Chartering a New Course

2007-08-31T21:14:00.000-07:00

HOUSES OF WORSHIP
By NATHANIEL POPPER
Wall Street Journal

When the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy opened four years ago in suburban Minneapolis, the school was a bold experiment and its survival was in question. There was the scramble to attract students that any charter school faces, but Tarek ibn Ziyad had the additional worry of a constitutional challenge, given the school's sponsorship by a nonprofit called Islamic Relief and the curriculum's emphasis on Muslim culture and the Arabic language.

***

If the schools face some backlash -- particularly in the Jewish community, which has always been an ardent defender of church-state separation -- precedent suggests that they would likely stand on firm legal ground in court. "Religious Charter Schools," a book that had a timely publication date earlier this summer, argues that while a publicly funded school cannot endorse one religion, the courts have granted schools a wide latitude in accommodating religion.

The book's author, Lawrence Weinberg, says that for many religious parents the most important part of a religious school is what it does not teach, and charter schools are allowed the privilege of excluding Harry Potter books if they offend Christian sensibilities. On the other side of the coin, public schools have always been able to range widely over the culture and history (as opposed to the theology) of any religion.

"Charter schools offer parents an opportunity to create schools that meet their needs," said Mr. Weinberg, "and religious needs are some of the most profound and important needs that people have."

Link to the original article.

Are Charter Schools the New Way to Accommodate Religion in Schools?

2007-08-31T21:09:00.000-07:00

Blog From the Capital

The number of charter schools with a religious angle is set to greatly expand if current experiments like Florida's Ben Gamla school are successful, according to today's Wall Street Journal opinion by Nathanial Popper suggests that such publicly-funded schools will be an "explosive new trend."

Link to the original article.

Universal Faith

2007-08-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

New York Times Magazine

Another school year, another round of controversy about religion in public education. This fall, two new yet already divisive publicly financed schools are set to open: the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn and the Ben Gamla Charter School in Hollywood, Fla. Both describe themselves as nonsectarian institutions that emphasize a particular language — Arabic and Hebrew, respectively — and both have been criticized on the assumption that they will be organized around the distinctive cultures (and thus religions) associated with those languages. Meanwhile, at the University of Michigan at Dearborn, a small firestorm has erupted over plans to install foot baths in school washrooms to help Muslim students perform the ablutions required for daily prayer.

Link to the original article.

Hebrew Charter School Spurs Dispute in Florida

2007-08-24T21:17:00.000-07:00

New York Times

HOLLYWOOD, Fla., Aug. 23 — The new public school at 2620 Hollywood Boulevard stands out despite its plain gray facade. Called the Ben Gamla Charter School, it is run by an Orthodox rabbi, serves kosher lunches and concentrates on teaching Hebrew.

About 400 students started classes at Ben Gamla this week amid caustic debate over whether a public school can teach Hebrew without touching Judaism and the unconstitutional side of the church-state divide. The conflict intensified Wednesday, when the Broward County School Board ordered Ben Gamla to suspend Hebrew lessons because its curriculum — the third proposed by the school — referred to a Web site that mentioned religion.

Link to the original article.

Fla. charter school stops Hebrew classes

2007-08-23T21:59:00.000-07:00

USA Today

MIAMI — A charter school has been ordered to temporarily suspend Hebrew classes while officials try to determine whether teachers are advocating the Jewish faith.

Broward Schools Superintendent James Notter sent a letter to officials at the Ben Gamla Charter School in Hollywood on Wednesday advising them to halt Hebrew classes until the school board could further examine the curriculum.

Link to the original article.

Fla. Charter School Fuels Church-State Debate

2007-08-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

The Jewish Daily Forward

America’s first Hebrew-English charter school is scheduled to open this month — following widespread public debate over its curriculum.

The Ben Gamla Charter School in Hollywood, Fla., will welcome approximately 430 students, from kindergarten through eighth grade, on August 20. Children at the bilingual school will spend two hours each day learning Hebrew, with words and concepts taught in the context of Jewish culture and history. They will not, however, receive religious instruction.

Link to the original article.

ACLU STATEMENT ON CARVER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL'S MUSLIM PRAYERS

2007-08-01T22:04:00.000-07:00

Weighing the Fundamental and Competing Constitutional Principles
The following statement can be attributed to Kevin Keenan, Executive Director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties.

A controversy has been mounting at Carver Elementary in San Diego about the role of religion and prayer in public schools � and particularly Islamic prayers. (situation) The situation at Carver raises serious concerns�and not just about what the school is doing. Some people are using the Carver controversy as an excuse to promote their own religious agenda in public schools while others are fanning the flames of prejudice by making wildly inaccurate claims about what is actually going on.

Parents�not governments and not public schools�should decide what religious training children receive. Individuals�not the government�should choose how they exercise the callings of their conscience on matters of belief. That is what our Constitution requires, and it is what is right and best for both religion and government in this country.

Link to the original article.

Muslim prayers in school debated

2007-07-02T22:08:00.000-07:00

S.D. elementary at center of dispute
San Diego Union-Tribune

A San Diego public school has become part of a national debate over religion in schools ever since a substitute teacher publicly condemned an Arabic language program that gives Muslim students time for prayer during school hours.

Carver Elementary in Oak Park added Arabic to its curriculum in September when it suddenly absorbed more than 100 students from a defunct charter school that had served mostly Somali Muslims.

Link to the original article.

Are Religious Public/Charter Schools Possible? Or Even Desirable?

2007-06-19T21:11:00.000-07:00

Charter School Policy Institute

There’s an interesting editorial in Education Week this week about the legalities and practicalities of starting religious charter schools. One of the authors, Lawrence D. Weinberg, has a book on the subject coming out in September. Food for thought.

Link to the original article.

Greek Charter School Raises Scores - and Some Hackles

2007-06-18T22:11:00.000-07:00

The New York Sun

At a Park Slope elementary school on Brooklyn's Fifth Avenue, popular book bag themes include Mickey Mouse and Dora the Explorer. "Norbit" is a favorite film. The preferred morning greeting on a recent Thursday: Kalimera.

At the Hellenic Classical Charter School, Modern Greek — in which kalimera means "good morning" — is a required part of the curriculum. As one of the 11 culturally themed charter schools to open in the city since 2002, so are Greek history, Greek traditions, and even Greek dance.

Link to the original article.

What About Religious Charter Schools?

2007-06-18T21:04:00.000-07:00

Education Week
COMMENTARY
Lawrence D. Weinberg & Bruce S. Cooper

Charter schools are gaining in popularity, with approximately 4,000 now open, enrolling some 1.1 million U.S. children with more participating every year. Since the charter school movement began in 1991 in Minnesota, these schools have filled a need in American society, giving individuals, communities, and local associations a chance to create their own schools—with tax dollars paying the basic costs.

A major, unresolved question remains, however: What about opening and funding religious charter schools? How would localities handle the many complexities of funding charter schools that have a religious, social, and cultural mission? History offers some perspective.

Link to the original article.

Critics: Hallandale charter school oversteps church-state line

2007-06-17T21:33:00.000-07:00

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

The Ben Gamla Charter School will open this fall at the Hallandale Jewish Center. The principal is a rabbi. The Hebrew/English curriculum will be based, in part, on Jewish tradition.

Depending on who you ask, the Ben Gamla school will either be a secular bilingual charter school or a taxpayer-funded religious school that violates the U.S. Constitution's separation of church and state.

Link to the original article.

Arabic program offered at school

2007-04-12T21:59:00.000-07:00

District wants to provide options
San Diego Union-Tribune

SAN DIEGO – Carver Elementary School in San Diego has long been a microcosm of the world's diversity, serving immigrants from Vietnam, Cambodia, Egypt and Somalia, among other places.

Now it hosts the San Diego Unified School District's only Arabic language program – one that is being scrutinized in the wake of a substitute teacher's complaint that it is a form of “religious indoctrination.”

Link to the original article.