National Council of Churches rejects Education Deform

[Hannah Bell]

I write today to share a pastoral letter adopted on May 18 by the 69 member Governing Board of the National Council of Churches, and sent yesterday to the President and Congress. The National Council of Churches is a community of 36 Christian communions with a combined membership of 45 million persons in more than 100,000 congregations across the U.S. The members of the NCC’s Governing Board are listed at the end of the letter.

The pastoral letter speaks particularly to issues in Race to the Top:

* the role of public education, “publicly funded, universally available, and accountable to the public”;

* democratic operation of public schools as the best way to ensure that families can secure the services to which their children have a right;

* concerns about particular punishments for schools that cannot quickly raise achievement including: charterization; breaking up large high schools and co-locating smaller schools together in big buildings; firing teachers and principals under the “turnaround model”; needs of ELL and special needs children when charters do not provide services; and the danger of expecting all parents and children to be active choosers;

* danger of discussing what ought to be a human endeavor of caring in the language of business (“As people of faith we do not view our children as products to be tested and managed but instead as unique human beings, created in the image of God, to be nurtured and educated.”);

* the tragedy that springs from trashing public school teachers… “an ugly and unfortunate development in federal policy.”

http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2010/10/in-mailbox_29.html

[Angry Dragon]

1. k&r

[Starry Messenger]

2. k & r

[QC]

3. KICK! n/t