Saturday, December 29, 2007

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.

Monday, December 24, 2007

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

Thursday, December 6, 2007

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.


Link to the original article

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

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.