Thinking through the "public" school vs. parochial school and what constitutes "public" funding. I put it in quotes because there's some muddy water there. What happened here in the last few years of a very progressive administration was that the idea of prayer in publicly funded schools came up for a test. In our context, the hugely politically influential group is the orthodox Jewish community. They are just amazingly focused on what they want and how they want to get it. So they wanted Universal Pre-K because the funding stream is good, and they can use existing staff in their centers. But they want to have prayer and they want to keep their religious symbolism.
When I was both local pastor and bishop, some of our sites were told to take the cross off the front of the building to qualify for Pre-K funding. Which we argued was nuts. So eventually they relented, but added that the crosses had to be taken out of the classrooms. Which those schools did. At the same time, nobody believed we could have prayer in a publicly funded school.
But the rabbis worked through the system and came up with a twice a day five minute recess period, during which as appropriate prayers can be offered. Who would have believed that - but it happened. So we on the Christian/Muslim/Hindu/Buddhist spectrum have gone along for the ride.
On the other hand, our contract with NYC does not allow for discrimination in hiring of any kind. Very thorough. It hasn't been an issue for lo these many years, but the anti-discrimination clauses are imbedded in the contract. To the point, the funding is almost exclusively governmental.
I think about those who take some governmental funding along with tuition or other internal funding. It's the taking of the funding off which the contracts are built. Not sure what that line should be, but if you get a check per student per month, which we do, that would seem to be a pretty clear indicator light.
The charter school movement is a way to get governmental funding, but in NY, at least, that excludes religious instruction and includes hiring practice mandates. Again, the contract inclusions and exclusions are built off the funding. Of course, that's the same in social service agencies.
Dave Benke
