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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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