There is just so much wrong with that picture. Looks like the school is getting its charter revoked, but it will remain open while they appeal the decision.
This truly is weaving a tangled web.
From the
Americans United Wall of Separation.According to the northeast Pennsylvania newspaper, a congregation in the community has been shamelessly profiting from its relationship with a charter school located at the church facility. Reported the Record, “More than $4 million in public money flowed to Shawnee Tabernacle Church by way of the Pocono Mountain Charter School over the past five years, according to documents made public Thursday.
Change seems to be brewing. The Record says the Pocono Mountain School District’s board of directors has voted unanimously to revoke the school’s charter. After 16 hearings and 2,000 pages of testimony, the seven directors concluded that church and state had become inappropriately entangled at the charter school.
Let’s hope that wise decision stands.
This incident is just the latest in a long string of church-state abuses involving “public” charter schools. A fundamentalist charter school in Idaho wants to use the Bible as a primary textbook, a charter school in Minnesota is in court because of its alleged promotion of Islam and a Hebrew language charter school in Florida dropped a textbook after complaints that it was infused with religion. In many states, financially strapped Catholic schools are converting to publicly funded charters while remaining on church property and keeping many of the same staff and students.
This kind of thing is going on all over the country, and those in control of the DOE are not doing anything about it. Local districts are even having to fight their own states in some cases to maintain control of schools.
Here is more about the Pocono school from a Northwest Pennysylvania newspaper.
Taxpayers paid $4M to church for schoolMore than $4 million in public money flowed to Shawnee Tabernacle Church by way of the Pocono Mountain Charter School over the past five years, according to documents made public Thursday.
.."Pocono Mountain School District's board of directors voted 7-0 Wednesday night to revoke the school's charter, and cited this outlay of public money — among others — as evidence that church and state had become inappropriately entangled at the charter school.
.."He added that penalizing a church for renting space to a public school would be tantamount to curtailing a church's right to engage in legal activity.
There's a difference he does not seem to understand when it is public money paying the rent to the church.
The school board called its decision to revoke the charter on the basis of entanglement of church and state an "inescapable conclusion" that it reached after 16 hearings that produced 2,000 pages of testimony.
There is a lot of this blending of public money and religion going on now in the charter movement. In Indiana
two Catholic schools convert to charters. They get one million of taxpayer money right away.
They will still be run by the diocese.
The Archdiocese of Indianapolis has announced that it will convert two Catholic schools into publicly funded charter schools – but will continue to run them itself through a corporation it controls. The decision to retain control of the schools – absent religious trappings – is a first (The Washington and Miami archdioceses have both turned schools over to other charter-school operators.).
In Florida, from the same link, 7 Catholic schools and 1 evangelical have been allowed by the state to become charters to save them from financial disaster.
Because the parishes are leasing their former school buildings to the charter schools, they are deriving income from the properties. The amount ranges between $150,000 and $350,000 this first year, “depending on the size, capacity and condition of the facilities,” according to Fernando Zulueta, president of Academica, a company that provides management and support services for most of the charter schools opening on archdiocesan properties.
Profit for the churches both from the taxpayers and from real estate transactions.
There is another interesting comment from the very first link.
The bottom line: as we look for ways to improve public schools, we must not be distracted by simplistic “solutions” that really aren’t solutions at all. Charter schools may be part of the answer, but they are not a panacea for all of our ills — a cartoonish Hollywood documentary notwithstanding. I was disappointed to see that the students featured in “Waiting for Superman” were recent guests of the president at the White House. I understand that the Obama administration likes charter schools, but that’s no reason to assist in promotion of an anti-public-school propaganda film.
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