Thursday, November 25, 2010

Church-charter school partnerships a growing trend in education - McClatchy Network - Kentucky.com

Church-charter school partnerships a growing trend in education - McClatchy Network - Kentucky.com

Church-charter school partnerships a growing trend in education

- The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS -- Students at Duncanville's Advantage Academy follow biblical principles, talk openly about faith and receive guidance from a gregarious former pastor who still preaches when he speaks.

But his congregation is a swath of low-income students. And his sermon is an educator's mantra about the opportunities of charter schools.

Advantage's state-funded campuses showcase the latest breed of charter schools, born from faith-based principles and taxpayer funds. More than 20 percent of Texas' charter schools have some kind of religious ties. That's the case for six of the seven approved this year.

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Church-charter partnerships are springing up across the country as private institutions lose funding and nontraditional education models grow in popularity. Their emergence prompts questions about the role religious groups should play in the development of publicly funded schools.

"The church-state line is beginning to blur," said Bruce Cooper, a professor at Fordham University's Graduate School of Education, who has studied religious charter schools. "We may be coming to a midpoint between the best of what is private and the best of what is public."

Critics fear the fuzzy division means



Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/11/25/1540278/church-charter-school-partnerships.html#ixzz16JX38Umx