Adopt-A-School

Very interesting stuff on education from the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, A School Prays for Help. As schools struggle with funding, some are looking outside of the normal funding process and obtaining “sponsors” ranging from regular corporations who sponsor them financially to local churches that “adopt” a school. From the article:

LAKELAND, Fla.—When his budget for pencils, paper, and other essential supplies was cut by a third this school year, the principal of Combee Elementary School worried children would suffer.

Then, a local church stepped in and "adopted" the school. The First Baptist Church at the Mall stocked a resource room with $5,000 worth of supplies. It now caters spaghetti dinners at evening school events, buys sneakers for poor students, and sends in math and English tutors.

The principal is delighted. So are church pastors. "We have inroads into public schools that we had not had before," says Pastor Dave McClamma. "By befriending the students, we have the opportunity to visit homes to talk to parents about Jesus Christ."

Short on money for everything from math workbooks to microscope slides, public schools across the nation are seeking corporate and charitable sponsors, promising them marketing opportunities and access to students in exchange for desperately needed donations.

Like I said, very interesting (especially the name of the church, First Baptist Church at the Mall?). Some people are not happy that schools are exposing kids to even more corporate marketing, others predictably have concerns about church-state issues. I understand those. If my kids were at a public school and the local mormon church “adopted” the school and thereby gained access to my kids, that would concern me. What about a muslim mosque? Could we see a time where this school is sponsored by the big Baptist church in town, that school is sponsored by the Methodist church and the one over there by the Roman Catholic diocese?

What do you think about this? I guess I would rather that Christians look at public schools as a place to witness to, somewhere we can seek to influence rather than sending kids from Christian homes there to be influenced by the schools. I do think this is a sign of the world we are living in. Schools can no longer expect to receive enormous amounts of funding with few questions asked. The money just is not there anymore. Schools are going to have to look for new sources of funding and whoever has the money is going to dictate terms. The days of seeing advertisements on the walls in public schools may not be far away.

“This pep rally brought to you by Kellogg’s. Root for our team, they’re GR-R-REAT!”