NC Policy Watch reports that Myrtle Grove Christian School will not admit students who are gay or who come from gay families. The school is now eligible to receive public funding under North Carolina’s new voucher program.

Categories North Carolina, Vouchers

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Joe Nathan says:

November 20, 2013 at 5:07 pm

Very unfortunate that such a school would be allowed to receive public funds.

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- Duane Swacker says:
  
  November 20, 2013 at 6:54 pm
  
  Not unfortunate, Joe, a constitutional atrocity! Outrageous, absurd, insane, stupid, f….ing wrong!
  
  Let’s call a spade a spade.
  
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- Robert D. Shepherd says:
  
  November 20, 2013 at 9:12 pm
  
  Agreed, Joe! Terrible.
  
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- Janna says:
  
  November 20, 2013 at 9:44 pm
  
  It is awful. For a full overview NC policy watch had 3 parts to their series on vouchers in NC. http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/?s=vouchers
  
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Janna says:

November 20, 2013 at 5:09 pm

Now you are in my home town. . . This story is hitting a lot of people hard since the school has never been vocal about their views on homosexuality previously. Parents are now considering pulling their children out and teachers and reconsidering teaching there. But the vouchers have caused an interesting phenomena here in NC. The law says you have to have been enrolled in public schools during Spring 2014 in order to qualify for the private school vouchers that begin Fall 2014. So a lot of families put their children in public schools for this year in anticipation of the vouchers that go into effect next year. It will be interesting to see the enrollment shifts. The scary part is private school know all about these rules and explained them to the parents. The public schools are not as up on these changes since there were so many other issues that blindsided them this year. http://pefnc.org/who-qualifies/

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- Ms. Cartwheel Librarian says:
  
  November 20, 2013 at 8:29 pm
  
  The whole scenario that you describe is very scary. It will be interesting to see how this is received by the public when the larger press grabs hold of it in the state. This is one more step down for North Carolina. The hits just keep on coming.
  
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  - Janna says:
    
    November 20, 2013 at 9:46 pm
    
    The real scary part is that with the cut in teachers, no pay raises, new CC and tests and merit pay and getting rid of tenure and other issues- this one is not even always a top priority.
    
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- artseagal says:
  
  November 20, 2013 at 11:16 pm
  
  It is outrageous. Can’t this be challenged in court? Teachers in that school should protest loudly and clearly and send a positive message to the students by teaching about tolerance! If I were a teacher there I think I would head to a library and take out every literary book I could get my hands on that addresses tolerance and read each and every day with discussion to follow. This is truly shameful. It is bad enough this is happening. Even worse that “voucher” money which is tatamount to public funds should be given to such a “school”.
  
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  - Meri says:
    
    November 21, 2013 at 9:56 pm
    
    Take a look at their website. I doubt any teachers would be hired who believe anything different from what I read there (narrow-minded, rigid religion). It is CRAZY that this school will receive public funding.
    
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http://theenglishprofessoratlarge.com says:

November 20, 2013 at 5:15 pm

Is this legal?

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Janna says:

November 20, 2013 at 5:27 pm

yes- it is a private school . . .

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- Eric Allgrim says:
  
  November 20, 2013 at 6:17 pm
  
  If its receiving public funds then it should be designated a public school. Time to lawyer up.
  
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- Robert D. Shepherd says:
  
  November 20, 2013 at 9:13 pm
  
  But it is using public funds!!!
  
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  - Janna says:
    
    November 20, 2013 at 9:43 pm
    
    http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2013/09/18/school-vouchers-come-to-north-carolina-3/
    
    There will be a fight over this but unfortunately the NC constitution is unclear.
    
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  - Spanish & French Freelancer says:
    
    November 20, 2013 at 11:17 pm
    
    I really don’t care about NC’s ‘constitution’. They’d better not be using one dime of my federal income tax to support this kind of travesty.
    
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  - Keybx says:
    
    November 21, 2013 at 6:21 am
    
    Public funds? My (property tax) dollars have never gone to support my children… This is just another example of corruption in the education system.
    
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  - Dienne says:
    
    November 21, 2013 at 6:24 am
    
    The NC constitution may be unclear, but the U.S.one isn’t. Something about Congress not establishing a religion….
    
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Joseph says:

November 20, 2013 at 6:13 pm

From Susan Ohanian

[Susan notes: Many good points. Here’s a simple one we can ask anyone who claims educators wrote these standards and curriculum: Are these “educators” teachers who have spent at least five years in a classroom and are familiar with developmentally appropriate instruction and learning theory? Give us the list of those who designed the curriculum, materials and evaluations along with their credentials as classroom teachers. ]

Submitted to New York State Senate but not published
11/19/2013

Dear Senator Martins,

Senator Jack Martins

New York State Senate

Albany, N.Y.

Re: Common Core Hearings at Mineola High School

And the Protection of Children’s Data

After listening to your extraordinary hearings at Mineola, I am convinced that we will need to start all over.

Like the story of the blind men trying to describe an elephant by holding a different part of its anatomy, the numerous issues and concerns make it obvious that no care was invested in a process that usually takes three years with close observation and input from actual teachers and administrators in the classroom.

This is an issue that directly impact the safety and emotional well being of all students, particularly early childhood, and the integrity of the educational system, as outlined recently in a letter by the Catholic Scholars: letter to the Bishops.

EVALUATIONS

The evaluation of students, mistakenly called “assessments”, needs to be revisited while we return to the excellent New York State curriculum that was recently in place. Teachers and students are unable to use this data for their own growth and understanding, or receive it in a timely manner. One suggestion was to have testing on alternate years, which could offset the costs of being able to provide testing questions and answers for our own enlightenment and legitimacy.

These evaluations will add to the costs exponentially as Common Core proponents look to the use of computers in the future.

At your hearings, we learned of the recent study indicating the severe costs to economically challenged communities due to the Federal government’s unfunded mandates in the Race to the Top (RTTT) program. It was indicated that the community of Rockland County foresees an increase over four years of $11,000,000 with a meager distribution of $400,000 from RTTT.

Commissioner King indicated that it was federal law that permits the schools to be governed by the States, when, in fact, it is by default in the Constitution that mandates States control of education and not the Federal government.

Another issue of concern is that parents who refuse to permit their children to be exposed to this questionable testing will cause their excellent local schools to be labeled in danger of failing, which would lead to State Control and the advent of new charter schools on these sites.

MATERIALS

Commissioner King indicated that resources are being provided to the schools, but they have the option of not using them. This may be the most pernicious problem with the Common Core, since testing questions are drawn from the materials which are the costliest component of the Common Core regime. Who controls the resources control the “evaluations” of both students and teachers and these “resources” crowd out good instruction.

The Commissioner indicated that these publishers will provide informational texts materials when, in fact, the research from their own Common Core indicates that publishers continue to dumb down the textbooks that they produce and provide excerpts from texts about numerous children with emotional stress creating an atmosphere of questionable social engineering both in literature and testing. Teachers become dependent on the “resources” provided by the State’s publishers in the absence of authentic literacy materials and expect that they will appear on the annual testing “evaluations.”

The Common Core Research for English Language Arts (ELA) & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects indicates that:

“There is also evidence that current standards, curriculum and instructional practices have not done enough to foster the independent reading of complex texts so crucial for college and career readiness, particularly in the case of informational texts.” (Appendix A)

Of major concern is that time and money is being spent by municipalities for “staff development” surrounding these resources that are “not required” and are untried and unproven, as indicated by the local school board representative from Port Washington.

Those who created the curriculum and materials were said to be “educators” by the Commissioner. I am not certain what that term means. Are these teachers that have spent at least five years in a classroom and are familiar with developmentally appropriate instruction and learning theory?

Senator Martins, you need to get a list of those that designed the curriculum, materials and evaluations along with their credentials as classroom teachers.

DATA PRIVACY

I am particularly concerned that the privacy of students has been diminished by Federal mandates permitting children’s data across the nation to be available to one outside economic entity. Besides testing scores, this entity will create a behavioral profile, which will include student and family social status and behavioral missteps.

Currently, the Clinton Foundation is creating a “digital badge” which will follow workers and those in education from cradle to grave, as they look for economic opportunities in the future.

SUMMARY

The elephant in the room, if I may return to the above mentioned metaphor, is the role of the publishing companies and the economic impact that they have in producing the materials for those program. Already we have seem major flaws and mistakes in their books and their inappropriate testing materials for children below 2nd grade.

I have seen math books now expecting children to round to the nearest five “5” as well as the nearest “0”. This may be useful for Walmart clerks, but not scientists.

I have seen Social Studies books speak of the Bill of Rights created in the Constitution without identifying them or their importance to individual freedoms.

I have seen workbooks micromanage with reductionist precision to the point that the subject cannot be perceived holistically and become boring and unbearable to the students. In many ways this is due to the market forces of the publishers where children are being prepared for multiple choice testing in kindergarten.

In summary we should take Regent Meryl Tisch at her word when she indicates that such issues will receive a fair hearing. Such a hearing will require a moratorium on this program for a few years until we can begin an entirely new review which includes parents and classroom teachers in the various municipalities across the State.

Sincerely,

— Joseph Mugivan, MS, Educational Administration PD

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Joseph Mugivan
Vesta Energy Consulting
Municipal and Commercial
vestaenergyconsulting.com
516 637 7069

“You never change things by fighting the existing
reality. To change something, build a new model
that makes the existing model obsolete.”
-R. Buckminster Fuller

516 637 7069
j.mugivan@yahoo.com

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Eric Allgrim says:

November 20, 2013 at 6:19 pm

Boy I wish I was a lawyer instead of a teacher in North Carolina. Only the lawyer is about to get rich after all is said and done with the amount of blatant discrimination about to occur with these publicly funded “private” schools.

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CTee says:

November 20, 2013 at 7:26 pm

I’m unfamiliar with school financing in the USA. Isn’t it the case that nearly all private schools (including many schools affiliated with anti-gay organizations like the Catholic church) receive some form of direct or indirect (through tax breaks) government support?

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- Emmy says:
  
  November 21, 2013 at 1:38 am
  
  Not really. They don’t pay property taxes if they own their land (I’m lookin at you Catholic Church), gifts to the school are tax deductible for donors and, as non-profits, they can avoid some sales taxes. However, with the exception of rent, the biggest part of a private school’s budget will be teacher salaries, instructional costs and administrative costs. There are no public funds available for these large recurrent costs.
  
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  - CTee says:
    
    November 21, 2013 at 5:27 pm
    
    But property taxes can be pretty substantial especially in urban areas. Plus, if the gifts were not tax deductable then there would be a lot less money coming in as donations, so that strikes me as a pretty big one.
    
    So it seems like the USA government, at both state and federal levels, routinely does provide direct or indirect support for anti-gay organizations. It doesn’t seem like a North Carolina only problem, or a vouchers problem.
    
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  - Emmy says:
    
    November 21, 2013 at 10:00 pm
    
    CTee, I do see your point. However, if you look at parochial schools in urban areas you will see that while the Catholic Church does own valuable land they can be “house poor” (so to speak) because there often isn’t enough tuition to cover the teacher salaries and administration (now that they can’t rely on nuns to work for free!) Check out the statistics on the number of US parochial schools that have closed in the last 15-20 years. Taxpayers do provide an indirect benefit, but the basic business model still relies on a consistent stream of tuition. It is very different from religious schools in the UK, for ex.
    
    In terms of your concerns, I would say that Catholic hospitals and universities are more successful in getting hold of American tax dollars.
    
    *I have no affiliation whatsoever with Catholic schools.
    
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Robert D. Shepherd says:

November 20, 2013 at 9:03 pm

I have no idea what the law is. If this is not illegal, it should be. Certainly, it’s ethically obscene, an affront to decency, for this scho9ol to be practicing such discrimination!!!! #@&@#*(&*#@*!!!

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- Robert D. Shepherd says:
  
  November 20, 2013 at 9:21 pm
  
  We still have, in many places in this country, one set of laws for gay people and another for straight people. That’s not acceptable. If local laws allow this kind of discrimination to take place, then those laws must be changed. They are a violation of the basic principle that the law must apply equally to all. What an outrage this is!!! North Carolina seems to be attempting to secure its place as the most backward, redneck state in the country.
  
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Jon Lubar says:

November 20, 2013 at 9:16 pm

This is but one of the many end runs around the constitution and the separation of church and state. Do not look to the courts with too much hope in your heart, as they have often turned a deaf ear to common sense. Somehow, using a ‘middle man’ or a parent as a ‘straw purchaser’ indemnifies voucher willing local governments against what can only be seen as a blatant violation of the intent of the constitution. With the activist SCOTUS we are now afflicted with, it may be some time before reason again takes hold.

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Nimbus says:

November 20, 2013 at 9:19 pm

May they never need a surgeon, a pediatrician, a lawyer, and an ivy league PhD in biology! Because they don’t deserve them.

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Robert D. Shepherd says:

November 20, 2013 at 9:24 pm

I remember, years ago, when some fundamentalist nutcases in Texas wanted to ban all gay authors from the English language arts curriculum. I scanned down the tables of contents of a standard basal lit series. Take out every gay or bisexual author, and one would end up with very thin volumes indeed. In fact, they would be so reduced in size and sophistication that perhaps even a North Carolina state legislator would be able to get through them.

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Seeking says:

November 20, 2013 at 9:54 pm

The school referenced in the blog is a PRIVATE school. I’m confused as to how private organizations can receive federal funding and yet not be accountable for following federal guidelines when it comes to discrimination policies. It is my understanding that once an entity accepts federal funding, it cannot ignore such expectations/laws. Is that correct?

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- dianeravitch says:
  
  November 20, 2013 at 11:16 pm
  
  It is probably state funding, but it is still public funding and should not go to a school that has a discriminatory policy for admissions.
  
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- Penny Culliton says:
  
  November 24, 2013 at 2:30 pm
  
  In my state, NH, our state constitution prohibits public finds from going to religious schools. There have been several unsuccessful attempts to amend the NH State Constitution to eliminate this prohibition. If such an amendment ever is successful, of COURSE there will be state-funded schools rejecting GLBT students and those of GLBT parents.
  
  There are just as many “fundamentalist nutcases” here in my part of NH (per capita) as in Texas, and it was exactly 17 “years ago” that my school fired me for not being anti-gay enough in my ELA classroom. In other words, they tried to strip away the gay authors, and I refused to cooperate. Because our collective bargaining agreement has a binding arbitration clause for dismissals of continuing-contract teachers, I won my job back (minus about 30K in salary+ benefits).
  
  No one kid yourselves that this cannot happen anywhere; there is indeed one law for GLBT people (and their open supporters, such as myself) and everyone else in this country. And employment protection for sexual orientation (which NH has now but didn’t in 1996) usually exempts religious institutions.
  
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Spanish & French Freelancer says:

November 20, 2013 at 11:25 pm

Where is the ACLU?? I want to know whether one slim dime of my [hefty] federal income taxes are going to Myrtle Grove Christian School in NC– Opportunity Scholarships? milk money? If yes, I want to see the National Guard down there at the door when a kid from a LGBT family tries to enter!!

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- Robert D. Shepherd says:
  
  November 21, 2013 at 12:20 am
  
  Completely with you on this, Spanish & French Freelancer!!!
  
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Keybx says:

November 21, 2013 at 6:14 am

Unfortunately the children will suffer from the benefits of a Christian education. I am straightly glad to see someone is willing to stick to their beliefs even if it means the loss of some funding. Today, organizations and people fold quick when money is on the table.

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ronnie says:

November 21, 2013 at 8:26 am

So shameful that such a ‘school’ would be receiving funds yet display such a despicable act.Can’t this be challenged?

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CTee says:

November 21, 2013 at 5:38 pm

Prof Ravitch, aren’t you a supporter of Catholic education?

Is your view that you privately support an anti-gay institution but are against its receiving public funds? In that case, how do you feel like the tax benefits given to Catholic schools? Is your view that its ok for the government to indirectly support anti-gay organizations but not to do so directly?

Or is your view that Catholic schools are not anti-gay enough to warrant outrage, in that they don’t ban gay students, they just think that gay students are suffering from a moral disorder.

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21st Century Poet says:

November 23, 2013 at 12:06 am

Reblogged this on 21st Century Theater.

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Katie says:

November 23, 2013 at 2:14 pm

This school is disgusting. They call themselves Christian. They are not Christian at all.

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Janna says:

December 7, 2013 at 10:38 am

The school refused the voucher money. I can a t least respect that even if I am not ever thrilled with groups that reject people. http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20131206/ARTICLES/131209808

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