- Oct 17, 2011
- 44,822
- 47,774
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Atheist
- Marital Status
- Legal Union (Other)
Story from October, but there haven't been a lot of new developments.... yet.
A new K-5 school in Pueblo, referred to as Colorado’s “first public Christian school” by its founders and authorizer, is at the center of a debate over whether its students qualify for public funding.
School officials from the 2-month-old Riverstone Academy say their students are owed state funding under protections in the U.S. Constitution while state education officials argue that allocating dollars to a school with religious teachings would violate both the state and U.S. Constitution.
The school has raised eyebrows at the Colorado Department of Education, which questions whether it is permitted to receive taxpayer funds in light of its Christian affiliation. Similar questions have bubbled up in other states like Oklahoma, where earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court barred a religious charter school in the works from receiving public dollars.
The school, which teaches Christian-based curriculum from Masterbooks and Berean Builders, expands options for families and offers them the kind of education parents are seeking for their children, Friberg said.
“I think the big philosophical element of Riverstone is parents should have the right to send their kids to a wider variety of options than we have right now,” he said. “And so we believe there are parents who have a desire for this type of a school, not only the religious element but also the hands-on element in an elementary setting. So we decided we would try to provide it to the community.”
[Sure, if they want that product, they can go and pay for it.]
Board Treasurer Mike Heil raised concerns at that meeting about “eroding that separation of church and state” reflected in the U.S. Constitution.
Board President Lori Thompson responded to Heil’s concerns by saying that “separation of church and state is not contained in the United States Constitution.”
“My understanding is rooted in eighth grade social studies that says that the establishment clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution was explained by Thomas Jefferson as creating a wall of separation of church and state,” Heil told The Sun. “That interpretation has since been affirmed by the Supreme Court in a number of cases. In fact, they have frequently used his exact phrase. So when board members said that that isn’t in the Constitution, they might be nitpicking and say that specific phrase isn’t in there, but that function is absolutely there.”
[He can thank his 8th grade teacher for doing a good job.]
“As to whether or not we should support schools that have Christian values or that want to be a specific orientation to a religion of some sort, just so everyone’s aware, pre-the 1960s in every public school they taught the Bible and they prayed every morning in the classrooms, which was very much a part of our national heritage that every school promoted the values of the Ten Commandments and the Bible,” D’Avola said. “And they were funded. So there you go.”
[And what did SCOTUS think of that?]
A new K-5 school in Pueblo, referred to as Colorado’s “first public Christian school” by its founders and authorizer, is at the center of a debate over whether its students qualify for public funding.
School officials from the 2-month-old Riverstone Academy say their students are owed state funding under protections in the U.S. Constitution while state education officials argue that allocating dollars to a school with religious teachings would violate both the state and U.S. Constitution.
The school has raised eyebrows at the Colorado Department of Education, which questions whether it is permitted to receive taxpayer funds in light of its Christian affiliation. Similar questions have bubbled up in other states like Oklahoma, where earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court barred a religious charter school in the works from receiving public dollars.
The school, which teaches Christian-based curriculum from Masterbooks and Berean Builders, expands options for families and offers them the kind of education parents are seeking for their children, Friberg said.
“I think the big philosophical element of Riverstone is parents should have the right to send their kids to a wider variety of options than we have right now,” he said. “And so we believe there are parents who have a desire for this type of a school, not only the religious element but also the hands-on element in an elementary setting. So we decided we would try to provide it to the community.”
[Sure, if they want that product, they can go and pay for it.]
Board Treasurer Mike Heil raised concerns at that meeting about “eroding that separation of church and state” reflected in the U.S. Constitution.
Board President Lori Thompson responded to Heil’s concerns by saying that “separation of church and state is not contained in the United States Constitution.”
“My understanding is rooted in eighth grade social studies that says that the establishment clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution was explained by Thomas Jefferson as creating a wall of separation of church and state,” Heil told The Sun. “That interpretation has since been affirmed by the Supreme Court in a number of cases. In fact, they have frequently used his exact phrase. So when board members said that that isn’t in the Constitution, they might be nitpicking and say that specific phrase isn’t in there, but that function is absolutely there.”
[He can thank his 8th grade teacher for doing a good job.]
“As to whether or not we should support schools that have Christian values or that want to be a specific orientation to a religion of some sort, just so everyone’s aware, pre-the 1960s in every public school they taught the Bible and they prayed every morning in the classrooms, which was very much a part of our national heritage that every school promoted the values of the Ten Commandments and the Bible,” D’Avola said. “And they were funded. So there you go.”
[And what did SCOTUS think of that?]
