10/26/04 — A church-school partnership launched by Philadelphia schools CEO Paul Vallas promises to tap new community resources for the 210,000-student school system.
But it also is raising concerns that the initiative could stray across the constitutional boundary separating church and state.
A task force of nine ministers, rabbis, and other clergy are heading the effort to expand school-community partnerships by enlisting faith-based institutions to provide tutoring, mentoring, counseling, and other secular services.
“Many of Philadelphia’s public schools are orphans in their own communities, and as the city’s faith-based institutions are often the strongest community organizations, it would be remiss of the district not to encourage them to become involved with our children’s lives and education through secular activities, such as counseling, mentoring, and character education programs,” Vallas says.
According to Vallas, faith-based institutions also can recruit parents to serve as volunteer truant officers, bolster membership in parent-teacher organizations, and oversee “safe corridors” in the neighborhoods so children can walk to and from school under adult supervision.
Many school systems are looking to community partnerships to bolster school services, but Philadelphia is one of the most aggressive in its efforts. At least a third of the city’s schools now have at least one community partner.
But Vallas’ plan envisions the most significant effort anywhere to join forces with faith-based groups.
“I’m unaware of any initiative that’s quite so systematic,” says NSBA Staff Attorney Tom Hutton, who adds that years of litigation around religious issues in public schools understandably have made local officials very cautious about all matters religious.
Yet, “there is a very significant role that the broader community, including faith-based communities, can play in helping students succeed in schools,” he says. “The only caution is you must be careful to focus on the academic mission of the schools. You want to be careful you’re supporting the schools in a way that’s religiously neutral.”
Opening school doors to faith-based institutions is not without controversy, and some civil liberties groups are watching the initiative with concern.
“The man is getting dangerously close to crossing, and now may be crossing, the line between government neutrality and government promotion of religion,” the Rev. Barry L. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, told the Christian Science Monitor.
Such concerns are not being ignored, Vallas says. All programs will comply with the Federal Equal Access Act, and the district “would never implement programs that would violate the Constitution.”
According to Rabbi George Stern, a member of the faith-based task force, consultants, including attorneys, are advising on ways to steer clear of legal challenges.
“The issue of what is legal and what is not is really crucial,” he says. “Otherwise, you have a nonstarter; then you’re not helping kids but dealing with the courts.”
His understanding, he says, is that there should be no issue if congregations are tapped to join parents and other volunteers working in the schools.
“My sense is that what is legal is pretty clear,” he says. “What we have to do is really go to the various agencies, including faith ones, and say, “You have people in your organization who can help, who can partner with the schools in order to make it possible for kids to learn, learn safety, and get ahead.”
As faith-based organizations are recruited, he says, a consulting firm will provide training on how to steer clear of any controversy over separation of church and state.
The training program will “make sure the people apply know that, if they can only go in toting the Bible, we can’t [use] them.”