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<title>SACE School Choice RSS Feed</title><link>http://www.saceschools.org/index.html</link><description>SACE School Choice News Discussions</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><language>en</language><dc:creator>SACE</dc:creator><dc:rights>Copyright 2009-2019&#x2c; Craig S. Engelhardt</dc:rights><dc:date>2018-09-28T13:33:29-05:00</dc:date><admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.realmacsoftware.com/" />
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<lastBuildDate>Wed, 26 Sep 2018 17:36:07 -0500</lastBuildDate><item><title>Working with the State</title><dc:creator>SACE</dc:creator><category>State Regulations</category><dc:date>2018-09-28T13:33:29-05:00</dc:date><link>http://www.saceschools.org/Christian-Education-Discussion-Topics/Christian-School-Choice-Blog/files/working-with-the-state.html#unique-entry-id-3</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.saceschools.org/Christian-Education-Discussion-Topics/Christian-School-Choice-Blog/files/working-with-the-state.html#unique-entry-id-3</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Whisner[1] that the state could not require such detailed accreditation standards of private religious schools as to interfere with their mission.&nbsp; &nbsp;   Liberal democracy favors &ldquo;treating adults as self-governing persons entitled to choose and pursue their own conceptions of the good life,&rdquo;[2] and the educational expression of this high regard for individual adults allows communities broad discretion regarding the formation of meaningful schools.&nbsp;   Thus, from a liberal democratic viewpoint, regulation that polices the extremes is more suitable than regulation that narrowly attempts to control religious school programs.[  3]&nbsp; Through&nbsp;an accreditation process, regulations would ensure that schools had basic academic programs in place, did not teach the superiority of particular races, the alignment of church and state, or the unqualified submission to any human authority.&nbsp; 

...However, I go further than basing my concern for minimal regulation on religious interests or liberal consistency; I base the merit of minimal regulation on the public&rsquo;s educational interests.&nbsp;   Elsewhere, I have argued the religious schools are valuable to the state, but this value is in proportion to the vitality of the faith and community within each school.&nbsp;   The more narrowly one defines the public&rsquo;s interests, the more it will require religious schools to look like common schools with a corresponding loss of religious identity.&nbsp;   For example, if state regulations broadly act against religious concerns, such as requiring the equal hiring/admission of employees/students apart from the faith concerns of schools, religious schools will be undermined and provide little benefit to the state or their students.


...To the degree that religious schools are perceived to compromise their views, they lose their position of familial and community trust and thus, their deep influence.&nbsp;   Hence, the state must only regulate religious schools lightly if these schools are to remain the vitally nurturing sources that I described them to be.&nbsp;   Thus, if my arguments regarding the public value of religious schooling move the state toward religious school choice, they must also move the state to regulate with a minimum of intrusion and offense.&nbsp;&nbsp;

...[4] Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, 19, Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The Churching of America, 1776-2005: Winners and Losers in our Religious Economy, Rev. ed. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Choice and State Law</title><dc:creator>SACE</dc:creator><category>Church &#x26; State Issues</category><dc:date>2018-09-28T13:21:44-05:00</dc:date><link>http://www.saceschools.org/Christian-Education-Discussion-Topics/Christian-School-Choice-Blog/files/choice-and-state-law.html#unique-entry-id-2</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.saceschools.org/Christian-Education-Discussion-Topics/Christian-School-Choice-Blog/files/choice-and-state-law.html#unique-entry-id-2</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Addressing the last first, perhaps most Americans fall into this category &ndash; a&nbsp;result&nbsp;I believe can be attributed to&nbsp;a philosophic shallowness that has resulted from&nbsp;four generations of secular schooling.


...Contrary to the headline making atheist, these people&nbsp;tend to acknowledge not a hatred for Christianity or religion in general, but a concern that government entities not &ldquo;force&rdquo; a particular view of Truth on others.&nbsp; 

...However, they neglect not only the concerns of conscience of minority religious communities, but they fail to consider the negative effects on faith that a &ldquo;pro-Christian&rdquo; curriculum would have when taught by non-believers.&nbsp;


Though the third group remains aloof from the philosophic discussion, it is&nbsp;important because it effectively removes many concerned people of faith from opposing the &ldquo;secular only&rdquo; public education model.&nbsp;&nbsp;  This group tends to overlook not only the evangelistic opportunities inherent within every religious school, but they fail to see the ways in which a secular education diminishes the intellectual preparation of their children.


...Public employees should not teach our children &ldquo;all that is true&rdquo;, yet since one&rsquo;s religious beliefs speak to every aspect of life, secular education is inadequate if it makes any attempt to be thorough.&nbsp;&nbsp;   School choice is opening the door to&nbsp;redefine the view of public&rsquo;s education, yet charter schools and magnet schools that receive direct government funding are just as bound by First Amendment restrictions to remain secular due to concerns of conscience.&nbsp; ...  A new paradigm must be established in which public education is viewed as a narrow body of concerns (such as basic reading, writing, mathematics, and civics skills) that may be achieved within schools of diverse religious views.


...If we define a public school&nbsp;as any school willing to&nbsp;supports the public&rsquo;s educational concerns, and if we provide a path of indirect funding to ensure that&nbsp;religious school personnel&nbsp;are not government employees, then &ldquo;public education&rdquo; can be offered within a variety of philosophic (religious) perspectives.&nbsp;   A&nbsp;light&nbsp;system of regulation and accountability&nbsp;could be implemented to insure public money&nbsp;was&nbsp;not expended negligently in what I call &ldquo;Joint Venture&rdquo; schools.&nbsp; 

...Whereas under separation, no religious symbols could be displayed could be displayed in school; now religious symbols can be displayed as long as the context makes it clear that one is not being advocated by the state.&nbsp; 

...A balanced and informed&nbsp;understanding of both church-state philosophy and First Amendment law supports the&nbsp;redefinition and reconfiguration of public education in a manner that allows parents to choose the philosophy within which their child&rsquo;s &ldquo;public education&rdquo;&nbsp;is enshrouded.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>School Choice is Needed</title><dc:creator>SACE</dc:creator><category>Reasons for School Choice</category><dc:date>2018-09-28T13:06:58-05:00</dc:date><link>http://www.saceschools.org/Christian-Education-Discussion-Topics/Christian-School-Choice-Blog/files/school-choice-is-needed.html#unique-entry-id-1</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.saceschools.org/Christian-Education-Discussion-Topics/Christian-School-Choice-Blog/files/school-choice-is-needed.html#unique-entry-id-1</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Many of the public school academic elite angrily&nbsp;throw&nbsp;their stones believing that religious schools not only breed dangerous social factions, but oppress children by depriving them of moral and intellectual autonomy.&nbsp;


...Perhaps home schoolers wouldn&rsquo;t throw rocks because they don&rsquo;t think school choice effects them&hellip; however,&nbsp;once they realize&nbsp;my plans for school choice include them, they too&nbsp;may throw rocks at SACE to decry government regulations.


...School choice has been supported as a parental right, a religious right, as an opportunity to improve education through competition, and as a social justice issue among those too poor to&nbsp;&rdquo;have a choice.&rdquo;&nbsp; 

...	◦	Though the research of William Jeynes and others supports the academic strength of religious schools, the margin of superiority is so narrow that &ldquo;other public concerns&rdquo; have overridden these academic findings.&nbsp; 

	◦	Arguments for choice based on human/parental/religious rights have been summarily dismissed by the courts due to the undenied right of parents to provide a private education for their children. 

	◦	Other studies support the acceptability of&nbsp;religious schooling in terms of its diversity, the civic strength of students, etc., but these studies do not compel a move to school choice choice because it is assumed that with effort, public schools can become stronger.


...In other words, secular schools, which avoid discussions of primary truth and value and are prohibited from advocating a religious perspective, are inherently ill-equipped to nurture many of the qualities of good citizenship.&nbsp;


I do not argue that secular schools are unconcerned with helping children become good citizens, but rather that religious schools by their very nature have a greater&nbsp;potential to form strong citizens.&nbsp; ...  For example, whereas a secular school can argue for compassion based upon the desire for&nbsp;returned&nbsp;compassion, a religious school can add to this by presenting compassion&nbsp;as a primary concern of their God who loves&nbsp;them and created&nbsp;all people&nbsp;in&nbsp;His image.&nbsp;


The civic rational for school choice is strong because the First Amendment&rsquo;s religion clauses starkly limit public schools in the highly motivational and rational areas of basic human beliefs and values.&nbsp;   It is not hard to maintain a debate regarding the best setting for academic development, but moral formation has always been linked to arenas of religion.&nbsp;


...Thus, I support school choice for many reasons, but I believe the one that&nbsp;people of all faiths&nbsp;and the public can acknowledge is that religious schooling provides the greatest potential to do more than teach job skills.&nbsp;&nbsp;]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Problems w/ Secular Education</title><dc:creator>SACE</dc:creator><category>Problems w/ Secular Ed</category><dc:date>2018-09-26T17:39:21-05:00</dc:date><link>http://www.saceschools.org/Christian-Education-Discussion-Topics/Christian-School-Choice-Blog/files/problems-w-secular-education.html#unique-entry-id-0</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.saceschools.org/Christian-Education-Discussion-Topics/Christian-School-Choice-Blog/files/problems-w-secular-education.html#unique-entry-id-0</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[One&nbsp;regards the church-state issue; the other the belief that secular education&nbsp;&nbsp;can adequately&nbsp;nurture&nbsp;children with the morality and academic skills necessary to become strong and productive citizens.&nbsp;


...Here, I open discussion regarding the success of secular education to nurture morality and other vital social qualities.&nbsp;   After over a century of educational experimentation under modernity&rsquo;s&nbsp;confidence regarding a secular educational paradigm, I argue that growing research finds many weaknesses with secular education and few feared weaknesses associated with religious schooling.


...Religious schools were once feared to promote social division, to breed shallow and dependent thinking, and to stifle individual expressive development.&nbsp;   Though we may each envision the narrowness and control of a few infamous religious schools, over two centuries of practice provides little evidence of the social undesirability of religious schooling.&nbsp;   They are not linked with division, and the children of home and private school religious educations generally reflect a&nbsp;great depth of independent philosophical thinking and acting.


...In spite of the care and commitment of well trained and hard working teachers, secular educational environments hamper educational efforts and undermine social health.&nbsp;


...In brief, by remaining aloof from the foundations of value and truth, secular schools have difficulty:

...However, their efforts are so hampered by the secular paradigm that they evaluate their success only in terms of the amount of&nbsp;academic knowledge and skill they impart.&nbsp;&nbsp;  Distanced from primary discussions of truth and value,&nbsp;secular schools&nbsp;avoid rating&nbsp;themselves in terms that would reflect the &ldquo;human qualities&rdquo; of their graduates.&nbsp;


Though religious schools have their own needed areas of growth, the Church-State&nbsp;concerns attached to the current public school model provide barriers&nbsp;with little flexibility.&nbsp;&nbsp;  The human qualities that&nbsp;remain an educational concern to strengthen society&nbsp;are religious by nature, and they&nbsp;are poorly addressed within&nbsp;secular schools.
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