"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
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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.
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- 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.