WP: Aid ($1M) to Christian School In Alaska Spurs Lawsuit

[DeepModem Mom]

Aid to Christian School In Alaska Spurs Lawsuit

By Brian Faler
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, May 9, 2005; Page A21


There are those who complain that Congress does not care about the concerns of the little guy. But those people do not attend Alaska Christian College.

The school, founded five years ago and affiliated with the Evangelical Covenant Church, has 37 students. It is not accredited and does not grant degrees. It offers, instead, certificates in biblical studies at the end of a student's first year and certificates in biblical and general studies to those who complete a second. Over the past two years, Congress has given the school more than $1 million.

That amounts to a significant chunk of the school's annual operating budget, although its president declined to say exactly how much. It is also an unusually large amount of federal aid for a school its size, some outside education policy experts said. It has proved enough to attract critics -- more critics, perhaps, than the school has students -- who complain that the school is a thoroughly religious institution that, by law, is not eligible to receive the money.

The Anchorage Daily News criticized the appropriations last year, writing in an editorial that "Alaska's congressional delegation might just as well have put a $1 million check in the church collection plate." The American Civil Liberties Union is looking into the case. But the school's most important critics these days are 3,600 miles away in Wisconsin, where the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation is suing the Education Department to rescind the funding.

The advocacy group, which supports maintaining a strict separation between church and state, contends in a lawsuit filed last month that the subsidies amount to an unconstitutional government endorsement of a religion. The government is allowed to give money to schools with religious affiliations. But the money must be used for secular purposes -- which, the group contends, the Alaska school does not have....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/08/AR2005050800780.html

[havocmom]

1. AAARRRRRGGGGG!

sorry for shouting, but it is a heartfelt scream of total rage.

[Nimrod]

2. Okay, let me get this straight

37 students.
Offers certificates in bible studies.
$1,000,000 a significant chunk of the school's annual operating budget.

WHAT FUCKING BUDGET?? How much do 37 fucking bibles cost these days?

Curse swear blaspheme cuss cuss profane.

[Erika]

3. Bush repaying his 2004 voter evangelic ans.

With our tax money. Surprise, Surprise.

I just keep on thinking that we've made it through one more of Bush's final days as (gag) president.

Why aren't those kids in Iraq and Afghanistan?

[Horse with no Name]

4. Let me see

Max Pell grants are $4050 a year.
That is 247 Pell grants that could have been given to deserving college students. And this school has 37 students?
This is total bullshit.
How many pending lawsuits are there for not funding No Child Left Behind?
Yet we are giving educational monies to 37 adults who will not be productive humans.
This is total bullshit.
How many children will not be able to eat breakfast at school anymore due to funds being cut?
Yet we have a million bucks to hand over to special interest groups.
This is total bullshit.

[gavodotcom]

5. Yeah, but, these are real 'Murkans.

[The White Tree]

6. That is $27,027 per student at this school

How much do we spend on each student at a public school.

How can this appropraition be justified in any way, shape or form?

I would have loved being given $27,000 a year to go to college.

[AzDar]

7. I hope this blatant outrage becomes a rallying point. ENOUGH!!!!

[Miss Chybil]

8. And how much money have they cut from school lunch programs...? nt

[LostinVA]

9. And it's not even accredited,a nd they don't get a degree

So.... WTF is the Bible certificate good for??? OMG. Give the $1 million to some of the Native Americans in Alaska.

[msongs]

10. this alleged school should ask their god for the money, ........

aafter all the lordie lord lord provides and moves in mysterious ways, lke when it murdered all the innocent first born in egypt to demonstrate its brutal sadistic nature.

Msongs
www.msongs.com

[mondo joe]

11. They get $1mil and don't even have to disclose their financials?

If they were a proper (non religious) non profit they'd have to disclose their financials and there'd be no question what % this is of their budget.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. I wonder if the head of the school is a major contributor to

the Alaska Congressional delegation, and if they snuck the funding for the school onto some other bill as a "rider."

That's why when I'm asked what I would propose as new Constitutional amendments, I name first the use of paper ballots and second, the banning of "Christmas tree" bills--bills for necessary allocations with so many unrelated pet projects from various legislators tacked on that they're decorated like Christmas trees.

[Moderator]

13. kick to combine

[IChing]

14. Congress give Christian School $1 million (37 students)

Aid to Christian School In Alaska Spurs Lawsuit
By Brian Faler
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, May 9, 2005; Page A21


There are those who complain that Congress does not care about the concerns of the little guy. But those people do not attend Alaska Christian College.

The school, founded five years ago and affiliated with the Evangelical Covenant Church, has 37 students. It is not accredited and does not grant degrees. It offers, instead, certificates in biblical studies at the end of a student's first year and certificates in biblical and general studies to those who complete a second. Over the past two years, Congress has given the school more than $1 million.



That amounts to a significant chunk of the school's annual operating budget, although its president declined to say exactly how much. It is also an unusually large amount of federal aid for a school its size, some outside education policy experts said. It has proved enough to attract critics -- more critics, perhaps, than the school has students -- who complain that the school is a thoroughly religious institution that, by law, is not eligible to receive the money.>>>>snip


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/08/AR2005050800780.html

[davidinalameda]

15. your link isn't working

try this one

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/08/AR2005050800780.html

[Richard Steele]

16. Not Accredited = NOT ELEGIBLE. Someone needs to go to JAIL!

[Mojambo]

17. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Shit like this makes me very angry.

[Maat]

18. Grrrrr...

[Fenris]

19. That seems like a waste of money.

:eyes:

[mpyle27]

23. No, it's compassionate!

Come now. Isn't it worth producing 37 biblical intellectuals per year to go out into the world and spread the good news? How else is globalization going to occur without the guilt peddlers? Onward christian soldiers...marching as to war!! Woo Hoo!

[flamingyouth]

20. Meanwhile, the Seattle School District plans to shut 10 schools.

Clearly, our priorities are in the right place. :sarcasm:

[DS1]

21. Yeah, but you're a bunch of water-logged godless latte-sucking

cheese-eatin paper-readin commie libruls, grungy ones at that! :eyes:

[mpyle27]

26. you forgot....

bleedin' heart abortion fans.

[Sanity Claws]

32. You forgot we're tree huggers too

Lots of trees to hug 'round here.

[IChing]

22. They must be public schools and not

Christian, let's do the math
$27,000 per student

[Fenris]

24. Yes, but 37 people in Alaska need to learn how to turn water into wine.

[Megahurtz]

25. So fuck the public schools, eh?

:mad:

[MindPilot]

27. How do I go about applying for some of that cash?

I have a school. I'm the faculty and my administrative staff is two dogs and a cat. The curriculum offers a certification program in pornograghic film studies and repetitive motion.

Cleary I qualify. When can I expect to receive my check?

[Maine-ah]

28. WTF

:mad: 27,000 per fucking student???? Way to go MFer's, lets have our public school systems suffer under the unfunded NCLB BS, and give 1m to 37 fucking students at an unaccredited religous institution.

I wonder if any other news outlet (MSM) will have the balls to report this.

[MindPilot]

29. Shameless plug for FFRF

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is the organization mounting--and bankrolling--the legal challenge against this...umm...misappropriation.

Speaking as a member of their board I'd like to pluq the organization and ask that you check us out at www.ffrf.org. Please visit, join, or if you can donate. Fighting these fundies ain't cheap, and we sure appreciate all the help we can get!

Thanks!!!

[Mojambo]

30. Thanks for the link

I think I'll be joining and donating.

[EC]

31. Sure looks like pocket lining to me

maybe the Washington Post should do some investigating on all the intuitive based giving and see who's pockets it's going....

[Ilsa]

33. I bet I could come up with a scheme

to defraud the gubmint. I work with breastfeeding mothers, and I bet I could skew my philosophy (that would bite, though) to incorporate some "at-home, stupid, barefoot and pregnant" promotion scenario to fit the rightwingers' agenda. I wonder how much Congress would give me to give up my liberal-feminist-earth-mother routine?

[G_j]

40. let me guess, this is NOT an inner city school

with a few hundred minority children.
I didn't think so.

[marzipanni]

34. $weet Je$u$...

do they get their sheepskins on pork rind?

[DeepModem Mom]

35. Very clever!

[ewagner]

36. HooooRah!

Freedom from Religion is totally correct to file suit over this..it's another outrage that needs to be stopped...we've let the repubs go too far down the proverbial "slippery slope" on this issue....it's time to nip it off....right now...

[Nostradammit]

37. Alaska Christian College: Website down for maintenance...

Imagine that!




::ALASKA CHRISTIAN COLLEGE::

Site is down for maintenance/upgrade.
Please check back again soon

If this is an urgent matter please contact us:

35109 Royal Pl
Soldotna AK, 99669
Main Office:907-260-7422
Admissions:877-ACC-7211
Fax:[phone]
[e-mail]

Web Page Administrator:
[e-mail]


We apologize for the inconvenience.


How about: "We apologize from bilking you saps for a million cool ones"?

[SoCalDem]

38. There are 'storefront' church-schools all over that are being "supported"

by our tax dollars.. All it takes is for a few fundie moms to get together and apply for aid..rent a storefront, have a friend paint something on the windows...recruit their own (and a few others) children..and they got themselves a school..

disclaimer: I know there are more details to it, but judging from some of the ones i see around here, that's what most of them look like.

Since they are 'religious' schools, the local governments are actually a bit afraid to challenge them.. So some of these 'schools' continue for a long time with OUR tax dollars going to subsidize and pay salaries to a bunch of moms who would be teaching their kids anyway..

ridiculous

[Occulus]

39. Who went here and what did they do after they left? n/t