Introduction and Note from John Holmes, ACSI Director for Government Affairs
During a recent family outing, we enjoyed The Blind Side (directed by John Lee Hancock, Alcon Entertainment, 2009), a movie based on the true story of Baltimore Ravens’ NFL rookie offensive-lineman Michael Oher. As I watched the film, I was moved to tears on at least three occasions. Abandoned by his family, this young man was found by a wealthy Christian family who sent Michael to an ACSI member school and then adopted him. It was amazing to see his transformation and success as he learned to live with a family who loved him unconditionally. I was reminded of how important the family is to a person’s well-being.
Family is so important to God that He began the world with a family. Later He sent His Son, Jesus, to earth, where Jesus was born into a family. And now, through His Son, God has adopted us into His family. In Romans 8:14–16, Paul states, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (NKJV).
In a healthy God-fearing family, love is unconditional. In such a family, a person’s word means everything, and a covenant with Christ and with each other is the foundation that the family lives by. This type of family places a high priority on children being born, protected, taught, cared for, and honored as gifts from God. It is in the godly family that the gospel is lived out, the love of God is exemplified, and children most often learn about love and acceptance.
Where each of us lives, there are children who live in healthy families and reap the rewards of such a life. There are also countless boys and girls who, like Michael Oher (until he met the Tuohy family), have never experienced the love of a mom and a dad. Many of these children do not experience the security of a warm home, and some never have a comfortable bed to sleep in.
As we come to the close of another school year, we encourage you to join us in several points of prayer:
- Pray for your family.
- Pray for your Christian school staff’s families.
- Pray for your pastor’s family. (The pastor’s home is a major point of attack by the enemy.)
- Pray for the family ministries (i.e., children, youth, men, women, marriage) in your church and for your Christian school.
- Pray against a spirit of divorce and abandonment that has gripped our nation.
- Pray that God will give our churches and Christian schools an open door to bless children who need the love and care of a healthy family.
Let’s emulate God’s family: “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4–5).
From Capitol Hill
Unconstitutional regulations of private and religious schools! The U.S. House passed legislation that governs elements of a school’s disciplinary policy and practice.
HR 4247, which deals with the seclusion and restrain of students, would affect all public schools as well as private schools whose students or teachers benefit from any federal education program (about 80 percent of Catholic schools, for example). Here are a few of the measure’s troubling provisions:
- establishes detailed conditions surrounding the use of physical restraint and seclusion in schools that, ironically, could ultimately serve to harm students (see CAPE’s [Council for American Private Education] letter on the bill);
- relates to activities as commonplace as holding back two students in a schoolyard scuffle;
- requires an undetermined number of private school teachers to have special training and certification in the use of physical restraint and seclusion;
- requires annual disaggregated demographic reports on the instances of the use of physical restraint and seclusion in a school.
The bill represents an unprecedented degree of federal control of private and religious schools that threatens their autonomy and puts them between a rock and a hard place: accept the federal intrusion in policies and practices or give up participation in federal programs that benefit students and their teachers. By using even limited involvement in federal programs as the pathway for regulating schools, the bill establishes a dangerous precedent for federal control of private [and religious] education in the future.
[ACSI member schools and CAPE schools] are unreservedly committed to the safety and well-being of students and support the bill’s intent to safeguard children from harm. But specific provisions of the bill constitute an unacceptable level of government [intrusive] regulation that could set the stage for rendering private schools [in every state!] indistinguishable from public schools.
Like our nation’s system of higher education, private schools have been largely untouched by federal regulations and, as a result, have flourished as effective, autonomous alternatives to public schools. A step down the road of federal control is a risky step indeed, not only for private schools and their families, but for the nation as a whole. (House Passes Bill to Regulate Disciplinary Policies in Schools, CAPE News Web page, 3/3/10)
Action needed NOW! HR 4247 passed the House and is now before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP). No one knows how soon the HELP Committee will vote on this issue, so please go to CAPE’s Legislative Action Center(LAC) to contact your senators now. Using your address and zip code, CAPE’s system will ensure that your electronic letter gets to the senators.
IRA rollover. ACSI supports the Public Good IRA Rollover Act(s) of 2009 (HR 1250 that has 74 cosponsors, and S 864 that has 14 cosponsors). These identical bipartisan bills allow people to distribute their individual retirement accounts (IRAs) to charitable groups without having to pay federal taxes on the distribution. HR 1250 is before the House Committee on Ways and Means, and S 864 is before the Senate Committee on Finance. Please contact your congressional leaders, and ask each of them to support this legislation!
Education, Achievement, and Opportunity Act. Through HR 5060, ACSI’s friend Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) seeks to “amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow a refundable credit against income tax for tuition expenses incurred for each qualifying child of the taxpayer in attending public or private elementary or secondary school.” The bill was referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means on April 15. (Vouchers may not work, but tax credits are possible.) You can visit the THOMAS Library of Congress website for more details on the bill. And please ask your representative to become a cosponsor!
News You Can Use
Emergency plan. Does your school have an emergency plan? Have you reviewed and revised it recently? The U.S. Department of Education (USDE) has helpful guidance on such a revision on its Web page titled Lead & Manage My School: Emergency Planning. Find titles such as Practical Information on Crisis Planning: A Guide for Schools and Communities; Bomb Threat Response: An Interactive Planning Tool for Schools (a CD); and Campus Public Safety: Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism Protective Measures. (The USDE may need to include volcano risks in today’s environment!)
Age-appropriate disaster information for children has been developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and it is available in a cartoon-type format on a Web page titled FEMA for Kids. The U.S. Secret Service and the USDE have published a booklet titled Threat Assessment in Schools: A Guide to Managing Threatening Situations and to Creating Safe School Climates. It’s available on the Secret Service’s website.
The “wizard’s” veil ripped. The Pew Research Center’s recent poll indicates that “trust in government” is at a “historic low” of 22%. Congress’s approval is 25%, and 50% say they want a smaller government and fewer services. Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Henninger says that “something unique happened…. The veil was ripped from the true cost of government…. [This happened because of] email lists, 24/7 newspapers, blogs, TV and talk radio—the spending beast is running naked.” —“Democrats at the Edge of the Cliff,” WSJ.com, 4/22/10
A must-read! Read Professor Paul Peterson’s newest book, Saving Schools: From Horace Mann to Virtual Learning (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010). Dr. Peterson, a professor of government at Harvard and a longtime friend of school choice, “gives us a portrait of schools as they have come to be, and as they soon will be as technology brings ... a virtual little red schoolhouse” that meets every child’s need (Clayton M. Christensen, author of Disrupting Class, quoted on the back cover of Saving Schools). As Professor Peterson explained personally to ACSI, teaching must reach every student’s “price point.” Otherwise, the student experiences boredom (because he or she thinks, “this is nothing new”) or confusion (from a lack of comprehension).
Please note: This really is a must-read for the ACSI leader. The more of it I read, the more I understood why school choice efforts have failed and how technology will totally change the way schooling will be done.
Release of NCES report. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has released its Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B): Preschool–Kindergarten 2007 Psychometric Report. The USDE states that this methodology report, which began in 2007, documents the “design, development, and psychometric characteristics of the assessment instruments used in the preschool and kindergarten waves of the ECLS-B. The assessment instruments measure children’s cognitive development in early reading and mathematics, socioemotional functioning, fine and gross motor skills, and physical development (height, weight, middle-upper-arm circumference, and head circumference). The report also includes information about indirect assessments of the children through questions asked of parents, early care and education providers, and teachers.” To view the full report, please visit the NCES website.
Money available from the IRS for schools that hire new staff. The Internal Revenue Service has released a new form that will help employers, including tax-exempt organizations and public colleges and universities, claim the special payroll tax exemption that applies to many workers who were newly hired in 2010. The payroll tax exemption was created under the provisions of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act that was signed by President Obama on March 18.
—IRS memo April 7, 2010
National Notes May, 2010