Chalkbeat's journalism is made possible by our sponsors.
Interested in becoming one? Reach out here.
|
Hello!
This is Mila Koumpilova, one of the reporters here at Chalkbeat in Chicago.
My colleague Ann Schimke in our Colorado bureau has done an amazing job following the saga of a controversial now defunct religious school funded with public dollars. Her latest is based on correspondence and other documents she obtained showing that state officials knew it would be religious — and some raised alarm about that in internal emails — but approved its application for public funding anyway.
A state spokesperson told Ann that the Colorado Legislature had not given its education department “any clear authority” to enforce the state constitution’s ban on religious public schools or the Establishment Clause in the US Constitutions’s First Amendment, which prohibits the government from endorsing any religion.
Local education coverage is disappearing. Chalkbeat helps families and educators understand what’s changing. We can’t do it without you.
Around Chalkbeat
Colorado officials knew ‘public Christian school’ was religious before it opened. They didn’t stop it.
Officials from the Colorado Department of Education and the Colorado Attorney General’s office knew Riverstone Academy would be religious before it opened. They gave it a public school code and provided state funding.
As Philadelphia plans to close schools, board members call for more scrutiny of charter enrollment
Some Philadelphia charter schools that are supposed to serve a specific neighborhood are filling their seats with students from outside that area.
The fight for control over New York’s charter schools is escalating
A governor-appointed board has approved dozens of charter schools over objections from state education officials. Proponents say that’s a good thing.
|
What We’re Reading
India’s student protesters win some concessions from the government, The New York Times (Paywall)
The next literacy challenge: Teaching students how to write, Hechinger Report
|
|