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.

Link to the original article.

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.