"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." - Matthew 22: 35-39

The Church Speaks to Public Education Justice 
New UCC Resource explores immigration and public schools 
U.S. Department of Education guidelines for federal stimulus money create controversy 
Charter Schools are a centerpiece of the Duncan Department of Education's school reform strategy 
2009 Ecumenical conference, Transforming No Child Left Behind, indicts federal law    
Important Justice and Witness Ministries Resources 
Our Partners 
On the Blogs 
Important Articles, Reports and Studies 
Additional UCC Web Pages

The Church Speaks to Public Education Justice

As we think about whether American society embodies Jesus' teaching that we should love our neighbors as ourselves, we need to be concerned about public schools, the primary institution where we have agreed to nurture and shape God's precious children. Public schools are our largest public institution, serving nearly fifty million children.

In the national conversation about public education, our role in the church is special. We are concerned about our schools as an ethical and public policy matter. How do they embody attitudes about race and poverty, power and privilege, and cultural dominance and marginalization, and how do disparities in public investment reflect these attitudes?

The United Church of Christ has spoken prophetically to name poverty and racism as among the primary causes of injustice in our nation's schools.  General Synod 15 warned: "While children from many areas have comfortable schools with all the educational trimmings, poor and ethnic minority children often face overcrowded and deteriorated facilities, and a lack of enrichment programs or modern technology." General Synod 18 cautioned: "Because the poor and their children are disproportionately people of color, the educational inequities in our public schools reinforce the racial/ethnic injustices of our society." General Synod 23 proclaimed public school support - and advocacy for the same - as one of the "foremost civil rights issues in the twenty-first century." General Synod 25 called all settings of the UCC to do justice and promote the common good by strengthening support for public institutions and providing "opportunity for every child in well-funded, high quality public schools." 

New UCC Resource explores immigration and public schools 

At the beginning of each school year, we publish a timely reflection on concerns in public schools in the United States.  As primary civic institutions, public schools reproduce the strengths and also the injustices in our society.  It is important for us as faithful citizens to reflect on ways we can work to make public schools more equitably serve all children.  This year's 2010 Message on Public Education explores the politically charged issue of immigration as it affects public schools and children who are new to our country, their communities, and their schools. (We hope you will share with us how you used this resource.)

U.S. Department of Education guidelines for federal stimulus money create controversy

The priorities of the Arne Duncan U.S. Department of Education are becoming clear in the regulations and guidelines being proposed to guide distribution of several innovation funds, all part of the federal economic stimulus package, that will be distributed to states and specific school districts through competitive grant selection proceses.  Many people believe that these priorities will also guide the Department's strategy for the upcoming reauthorization of the federal education law, now called No Child Left Behind. Proposals being promoted by Duncan's Department of Education include merit pay for teachers tied to standardized test scores, rapid expansion of the number of charter schools, expansion of private management, school closures along with relocation of the students, and termination of school teaching staffs with replacement by new educators. Check out the comments that hve been posted by the UCC Justice and Witness Ministries and our partners: Comments Submitted to Education Department Demonstrate Public School Priorities of UCC JWM and Our Partners.

Charter Schools are a centerpiece of the Duncan Department of Education's school reform strategy.

• As a Public/Private Mix, Do Charter Schools Serve the Common Good?
• October 26 2009: "They Stole our Public Schools and They Stole our Democracy..."a new Witness for Justice column, explores the meaning of the "public" in public education.  An important question is whether requiring states to remove statutory caps on the authorization of new charter schools, as federal Race to the Top guidelines will demand, will serve democracy.

2009 Ecumenical conference, Transforming No Child Left Behind, indicts federal law 

Read full event report of the March 13, 2009, Transforming No Child Left Behind conference. Speakers collectively proclaimed seven goals for the pending reauthorization of the federal education law:

• recognize that it is immoral to demand equal outcomes on standardized tests without equalizing the resources that create the opportunity to learn;
• address the generational educational debt of poverty and segregation;
• improve vulnerable public schools and turn away from blaming teachers;
• develop the unique gifts of each child, created in the image of God, rather than worshiping standardization;
• test children only in ways that improve instruction, measure real performance, and encourage exploration, imagination, and critical thinking;
• set a visionary and at the same time workable school improvement timeline;
• address economic and social issues outside the school day that impair learning.

Important Justice and Witness Ministries Resources

• Justice and Witness Ministries' annual resource, the 2009 Message on Public Education, lifts up the importance of schools to form each whole child, created in the image of God, in contrast to the test-and-punish philosophy of the federal education law, No Child Left Behind, that has dangerously narrowed the curriculum in schools serving America's poorest children.  A second key article challenges us to evaluate justice in charter schools according to values of access, equity, and public purpose.  If you would like additional printed copies for discussion in your congregation, please contact Jan Resseger (216-736-3711) or ressegerj@ucc.org.
• For additional faith-based resources on justice concerns in the federal education law and links to important resources from others, see our Rethinking No Child Left Behind web page.
• Public Education Justice---Where Do Charter Schools Fit In? This new resource from the National Council of Churches Committee on Public Education and Literacy will help you or your congregation learn about and reflect on the role of charter schools.  Are children in your congregation or your community attending charter schools?  Maybe you have been asked to serve on the board of a charter school.  Perhaps your congregation is considering forming a charter school.  What questions should people of faith be asking to explore the role of charter schools for the common good?
• Supporting Good Public Schools, a December 2008 Witness for Justice column, explores the recent spate of attacks on teachers as a strategy of some trying to get their candidate appointed Secretary of Education.
• Here is our 2008 Message on Public Education.

Our Partners 

• The Forum on Educational Accountability is a an alliance of national organizations growing from signers of the Joint Organizational Statement on the No Child Left Behind Act, a sign-on begun in 2004, now endorsed by 151 national organizations.  The group recently created Empowering Schools and Improving Learning, a comprehensive 2009 blueprint for overhauling the federal education law, currently called No Child Left Behind. Over 80 national organizations have signed on this plan for improving the federal education law when the law comes up for reauthorization.
• The United Church of Christ Justice & Witness Ministries is an active partner with the National Council of Churches Committee on Public Education and Literacy, which has created and posted on its site important resources such as Ten Moral Concerns in the No Child Left Behind Act.
• Sponsored by a growing coalition of organizations including the United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries,  Rethink Learning Now is a national grassroots effort to restore the focus of public education reform to its rightful place—on learning, and on the core conditions that best support it.