Brazoria County Year in Review

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

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

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.


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Catholic charters a good idea

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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Educating Muslims in an East African US charter high school

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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?

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

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

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.