De Blasio’s Prekindergarten Expansion Collides With Church-State Divide

[hrmjustin]

By SHARON OTTERMANAUG

The biblical story of Noah’s Ark will be taught, without mention of who told Noah to build it. Challah, the Jewish bread eaten on the Sabbath, will be baked, but no blessings said over it. Some crucifixes will be removed, but others left hanging.

These are the kinds of church-state gymnastics that New York City and some religious schools are performing as Mayor Bill de Blasio expands government-funded prekindergarten. Because of inadequate public school capacity, the de Blasio administration has been urging religious schools and community organizations to consider hosting the added programs.

But the push is raising fresh questions for civil libertarians concerned about church-state issues, and for the schools themselves, which want to help the city and qualify for its roughly $10,000-per-student tuition payments while preserving some of the faith-based elements that attract their main clientele.

The concerns crystallized in a one-page document the city issued in May to religious schools weighing whether to host full-day prekindergarten classes. Rather than state simply, as other municipalities have, that all religious instruction is prohibited, the city’s guidelines say that religious texts may be taught if they are “presented objectively as part of a secular program of instruction.” Learning about one’s culture is permitted, city officials say, but religious instruction is not.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/05/nyregion/de-blasios-pre-k-push-bumps-up-against-church-state-divide.html?_r=0

[enlightenment]

1. That one line says it all:

. . . and for the schools themselves, which want to help the city and qualify for its roughly $10,000-per-student tuition payments while preserving some of the faith-based elements that attract their main clientele.

You take money from the government, you take the faith-based elements out of the mix. Full stop.

[hrmjustin]

2. Well it is a bit complicated.

Yes the classrooms used in the building should not have religious stuff in it but the whole building is a different manner.

This is an interesting dilemma because it seems clear cut but it is not in the end. The fact is both sides really need the other so reasonable solutions need to be found.

[enlightenment]

3. I realize the city needs extra

classrooms - but unless the schools can guarantee, and prove on an on-going basis, that the funds provided for the students are not being used for anything BUT those students and that those students are not being exposed to religious instruction, it's a slippery slope of state sponsorship.
There is no reason a pre-kindergartener needs to learn anything from the Bible or any other religious text unless there is a desire to start early religious training.

I'm also wondering why it costs so much per student. $10000 seems excessive, especially for pre-kindergarten.

[hrmjustin]

4. The money I can't speak to except it likely includes salary, rent, and supplies money.

Yes it is a lot.

It is a slippery slope and these children should not have religious instruction at all unless their parents pay for it and in a separate class.

The religious symbols around thd buikding will just have to be tolersted.

[enlightenment]

5. Since it is going ahead,

I guess we'll just have to see how it works out.

[hrmjustin]

6. Yes but pressure to make it better must continued to be applied.

But yes time will tell.