Education officials and charter school backers on Monday lashed out at teachers unions and the Legislature after New York failed to get $700 million in federal Race to the Top money.

Tennessee and Delaware scored a combined $600 million of the competitive $4.3 billion pot of education money to help turn around failing schools and implement other reforms.

New York finished 15th out of the 16 finalists.

“Race to the Top sets a high bar for states to adopt sweeping education reforms, and at least this time, New York State couldn’t clear that bar,” Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said.

New York lost 30% of its potential points because of its failure to pass charter school reform, link teacher evaluation to student performance and develop a statewide data system.

The state also lost points for not having full support from local school districts and unions and not having a strong plan in place to turn around failing schools.

Article.

Newsweek probes the failures of education reform over the last decade.

Extreme Poverty and AIDS

Bill Hybels interview with Bono, featuring testimonies from pastors throughout
Willow Creek Leadership Summit 2009

(My notes below were taken real time via Twitter. Read them from the bottom up.)

# Hybels: we need compassion AND justice to end stupid, extreme poverty in this generation. #tls094:54 PM Aug 7th from twidroid

# Hybels: God in his humor chose bono to get the poor on our radar. #tls094:51 PM Aug 7th from twidroid

# Hybels: I get paid too much. Willow is a resourced church. Do I do enough? #tls094:50 PM Aug 7th from twidroid

# Hybels: Jesus had ‘blinding clarity’ abt church’s obligation 2 poor. Matt 25 #tls094:48 PM Aug 7th from twidroid

# bono: its not ok to have a child die for lack of immunizations and food. #tls094:43 PM Aug 7th from web

# bono: anger re injustice gives me reason to get out of bed an hr early. stats have faces. we must make poverty history #tls094:42 PM Aug 7th from web

# bono: nothing is dependent on you. but it’s hard, because there is resistence. journey of justice&equality requires each of us #tls094:41 PM Aug 7th from web

# Bono: grace happens in community. #tls094:38 PM Aug 7th from web

# soccer coach testimony: caring for the poor is more than giving money. give your life. #tls094:34 PM Aug 7th from web

# bono: people want preachers to be honest. have a spirit of humility. be real. #tls094:32 PM Aug 7th from web

# bono’s “fear of denominationalism” – hybels is pushing back. bono: “i go where the life is… hard to take lifeless ceremony” #tls094:31 PM Aug 7th from web

# After banks crashed, it was so easy to bail out wall st with $700 billion. but it was so hard to find $ for ppl in a far off crisis #tls094:29 PM Aug 7th from web

# “jesus created the church to exist for the world. … why did it take a rock star?” #tls094:28 PM Aug 7th from web

# testimony of infertile couple who gave their $ for fertility treatmnts to feed malnourished kids even if they nvr had their own child #tls094:26 PM Aug 7th from web

# testimonies from pastors who were afraid to talk abt poverty … until a rock start prophet brought conviction. WOW #tls094:23 PM Aug 7th from web

# bono: intuition is better than intellect. u2′s best work comes when we dont know what we are doing. #tls094:21 PM Aug 7th from web

# interpreting bono: god was with the hungry etheopian who inspired the song, and hes with u when u remember him. #tls094:20 PM Aug 7th from web

# Bono: i wrote the lyrics at an etheopian feeding station as ppl who walked all nite for food arrived. thats the street with no name. #tls094:19 PM Aug 7th from web

# Bono: when we sing “where the streets have no name” god walks thru the room. humbling bc it’s a bad lyric, but god uses it. #tls094:18 PM Aug 7th from web

# A mark of spiritual maturity is whether people are releasing their resources for the least of these. #tls094:17 PM Aug 7th from web

# When global poverty became personal, churches started making a difference. Find where God is working and join in. #tls094:15 PM Aug 7th from web

# Bono: the concept of neighbor has completely changed. in the global village, Africa and US are now neighbors. #tls094:13 PM Aug 7th from web

# Bono: The church is now in the lead, not the rear. we are now winning in some places because the church has woken up! #tls094:12 PM Aug 7th from web

# Bono: in last 3yrs, the church has “ruined it for me.” cant mock church anymore. “i didnt know the giant cld run that fast.” #tls094:11 PM Aug 7th from web

# Bono: has he seen a difference bw the disengaged, detached church 3 yrs ago, and the church fighting global poverty 2day? #tls094:08 PM Aug 7th from web

# Hybels: Don’t get heated re polarized extremes. “Resubmit our brains” to the HS so we can think abt both #tls094:05 PM Aug 7th from web

# Hybels: No child shld EVER starve to death in our world. BUT we must also fix systems that are broken. Smart ppl shld do both. #tls094:04 PM Aug 7th from web

# Hybels: there’s a difference between life saving compassion and long-term, empowering justice #tls09

The politics of New York City’s public education system stepped into sharp focus again this week, with petty partisanship ruling the day. The New York State Senate persisted in its recent foolishness by refusing to vote on renewing Mayoral Control of the NYC’s public schools, allowing the law granting mayoral control to simply lapse. Mayor Bloomberg successfully sidestepped the Senate in a band-aid remedy by reconvening the old Board of Education for now. But as the Mayor explains below, that is, at best, a temporary solution. If you live in New York State, please call your state senator and urge them to vote to renew Mayoral control.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 1, 2009
No. 305
www.nyc.gov

MAYOR BLOOMBERG UPDATES NEW YORKERS ON SCHOOL GOVERNANCE WITH BOROUGH PRESIDENTS, SPEAKER QUINN, AFT PRESIDENT WEINGARTEN, AND CSA EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT MCNALLY

The following is the Text of Mayor Bloomberg’s Remarks as Delivered

“Well, good afternoon. Because of the State Senate’s failure to meet a deadline that it has known about for seven years, the historic school governance law enacted in 2002 has lapsed, effective today. I’ll have more to say about the Senate’s reckless behavior later, but first let me review today’s developments. Since the Senate refused to exercise its duties responsibly, we here in the city are moving to protect our children. We’ll do our best to keep them from becoming victims of the Albany train wreck.

“Specifically, to fill the vacuum created by the Senate’s irresponsible inaction, a temporarily reconstituted Board of Education has been named, using the appointment structure that existed under the pre-reform status quo. It will serve until Albany rectifies its inaction and reauthorizes mayoral control, and I want to commend the city’s borough presidents and the Board members for coming today and acting expeditiously to help reconstitute this temporary Board. The board members are Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott, appointed by Queens Borough President Helen Marshall; Dr. Delores Fernandez, appointed by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr.; Carlo Scissura, appointed by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz; Jimmy Yan, appointed by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer; Deputy Borough President Ed Burke, appointed by Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro; and the two mayoral appointees to the board: First Deputy Mayor Patti Harris and Deputy Mayor for Operations Ed Skyler. They are showing how to put the interests of our children ahead of narrow political gain – and I think that’s an example that I hope is not lost on Albany.

“The board just concluded an emergency meeting at the Tweed Building. Its first orders of business were to elect Dennis Walcott president of the board, and to reappoint Joel Klein as schools chancellor. I think both of these were very wise actions. Dennis Walcott, as you may know, is a former kindergarten teacher and a nationally recognized education leader. For the past seven and a half years, he has been the Deputy Mayor for Education and Community Development. His children, and now his grandson, have or are now attending, public schools. And perhaps his most important qualification is that he has both the experience and the temperament that I think is needed to provide the calm and judicious leadership our schools need at this moment. And Helen I just wanted to thank you for appointing him. I don’t think there’s a better representative of Queens that you could have picked.

“Chancellor Klein’s achievements since his appointment in 2002 I think also speak for themselves. Under his leadership, our schools have become a model for big-city school systems across the nation. And because continuity and stability are so important in the lives of children, the Board of Education also very correctly granted Chancellor Klein authority to direct the operations of the city’s public schools. Let me also add that the old, failed pre-reform governance structure of our school system included locally elected school boards with jurisdiction over lower and middle schools.  These elected boards no longer exist, and the existing statute provides for elections for them to be held in 2010.

“The Senate has, through its inactions, handed our City a current governance structure not too dissimilar from the governance structure of the Senate: one made up of multiple and conflicting lines of authority, certainly the formula for gridlock. The temporary School Board has attempted to sidestep the worst consequences, but as prudent as its actions today have been, bear this in mind: these are band-aids, not solutions. Now we all need to keep the pressure on the State Senate to act. So I commend the Board for also passing a resolution urging the Senate to enact, unchanged, the bill already passed by the State Assembly re-establishing mayoral control of New York City’s public schools.

“Governor Paterson is also certainly taking the right course by continuing to call special sessions of the Senate. And I wholeheartedly second his statements that he will continue to call such sessions until Senate members finally discharge their duties responsibly.

“The current paralysis in Albany is not only making New York State government a laughing stock from coast to coast but more importantly blocking much-needed legislation. The Senate’s failure to even take a vote on a school governance bill that is clearly backed by a majority of its members is only one example. The Senate’s refusal to enact the sales tax legislation that New York City needs is also costing us $60 million a month, the equivalent of supporting 600 police officers or supporting all of the Fire Department’s engine and ladder companies’ infrastructure. Continued inaction will jeopardize our ability to pay for essential services, and raises the specter of layoffs. But if the Senate acts quickly to correct its misbehavior, the people of New York, including more than a million of our school children, may still, perhaps, avoid any serious resulting harm.

“Finally, let me remind everyone that our schools are focusing today on what really counts: teaching and learning. Summer school classes began today across the city. They will continue through the first week of August for elementary and middle school students, and through the second week of August for high school students.  Many students will be studying our nation’s history and wonderful form of government.

“And it’s not too late for our State leaders to stop dishonoring the institutions and traditions that we try to teach our students to respect. Let me point out that the students that showed up today are students who need some extra help and they’re getting the help that they deserve. Our teachers are working hard, the administration is working hard, classes are going on the way they would have – today at least – the way that they would have if the Senate had acted responsibly.

“Our first priority is to do what’s right for our children and comply with the law, even when I don’t agree with the law. I think we are doing both of these, and I wanted to commend once again our Borough Presidents and those who have chosen to serve to go head and do what’s right. On that note, let me start out with the Borough President with the greatest seniority in elective office, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. The fact that we share a birthday had nothing to do with putting him first.”

Tomorrow, my friend Joel R. Rivera confronts underdog status as the community candidate rather than “the machine candidate” in a special election for the New York State Assembly’s 77th Assembly seat. If you live in the South Bronx neighborhoods of Morris Heights, Highbridge, and Morrisania, be sure to vote. Call 866-VOTE-NYC for polling locations.

Here I am supporting Joel’s candidacy along with mentors Bishop Ron Bailey, Dr. Luis Carlo, Dr. Ray Rivera, and other faith and community leaders at a press conference last week at Bronx Borough Hall.

I confess a fondness for Sojourners. Several friends are on its board. Others contribute regularly to its blog and other publications. Their call to economic justice is righteous.

So I followed with great interest the Twitter chatter from Sojourners’ recent “Mobilization to End Poverty” event in Washington, DC, and even re-tweeted choice morsels throughout. I especially enjoyed Christine Scheller’s “Poverty is on the Agenda” report from that event at UrbanFaith.com.

But I was equally challenged by Scheller’s personal, less journalistic, reflections from the event that SoJo refused to publish, particularly her concerns with escalating rhetoric that feels like classic, polarizing limousine liberalism (my characterization of her critique; not hers).

It’s great to rally the troops and celebrate our victories, as long as we don’t become the thing we despise. Don’t become the thing you despised Sojourners. You have friends of all political and theological persuasions.

Her observations, combined with Jim Wallis’ need to go on the record last week distancing himself from a senior staffer’s (SoJo’s deputy press secretary) description of Sojourners as the “Religious Left,” remind us just how tricky it is to pursue a Kingdom agenda that transcends a political one.

Related

+ Congrats to one of my favorite justice collaborators, Lisa Sharon Harper, for receiving Sojourners’ 2nd Annual Organizers Award for pioneering New York Faith and Justice, for which I serve on the board. Consider joining NYFJ’s “Just One Day” to eradicate poverty in New York.

+ Congrats also to Alexie Torres-Fleming for receiving SoJo’s Amos Award. If you do youth ministry in New York and don’t know Alexie, prepare to be challenged in your thinking.

A certifiable genius contends for capitalism as the “only cases in which the masses have escaped from grinding poverty. … The record of history is absolutely crystal clear… there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.”

HT: Rudy

What say you?

- Classes begin next week. Limited seats remain.

The Latino Leadership Circle in partnership with Street 2 Street and American Bible Society offers ACTS to equip youth leaders, ministers, and volunteers through cutting edge training for those involved on the frontlines of Urban Ministry. Sessions will be conducted by professionally trained and experienced ministers, social workers and marketplace leaders.

Topics Include:
+ A Theology of Urban Ministry
+ Strategic Planning
+ Developing Leaders on Your Team
+ Knowing Your Leadership Style
+ Conducting a Community Assessment
+ Project Management
+ Developing a Holistic Urban Youth Program
+ Social Justice and Advocacy in Urban Ministry

Speakers Include:
+ Fred Arzola, Ed.D., Associate Professor at Nyack College
+ Rev. Jose Humphreys, MSW, Pastor of Metro Hope Church
+ Mayra Humphreys, MSW, Associate Professor at Nyack College and Pastor Metro Hope Church.
+ Lisa Sharon Harper, MA, MFA, Author, Co-Founder and Executive Director NY Faith and Justice.
+ Rev. Juan Carlos Morales, MAR, Adjunct Professor Spanish Eastern School of Theology, Pastor Hosanna Christian Church
+ Belinda Passafaro, MSW, Professional Consultant and Market Place Leader
+ Jeremy Del Rio, Esq., Professional Consultant and Architect, 20/20 Vision for Schools
+ Rev. John Acevedo, MAR, Pastor Open Door Fellowship
+ Rev. Orlando Crespo, MA, Author, National Director of InterVarsity La FE Ministry
+ Rev. Luis Alvarez, M.Div., Adjunct Professor Spanish Eastern School of Theology, Pastor Park Slope Christian Tabernacle
+ Rev. Maritza Ortiz, Ed.D. Candidate Fordham University
+ Rev. David Ramos, M.Div, MSW, Chancellor of Faith International Training School & the Director of Covenant Ministries International

Meets:
Wednesday Evenings
March 4 – May 27, 2009

Location:
The King’s College
Empire State Building
350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1500
New York, NY 10118

Cost: $45

Download ACTS2009.pdf (297.7K). For more information email: acts@latinoleadershipcircle.org.

About the only thing more unseemly than grandstanding politicians are entitled corporate executives. Get both groups in the same room for a blame-shifting session rather than a fundraising or lobbying powwow, and fireworks ensue.

In light of the controversy sparked by my friend Eden Martinez’ video interpretation of Michael Gungor’s song “White Man,” I’m reposting an article I wrote five years ago during Black History Month.

While I agree with the critics that tremendous strides have been made in American race relations (that feels ridiculously trite to type given last month’s historic inauguration), and while I am weary of race baiters who inject racial politics into lots of discussions where it doesn’t belong, I am saddened and dismayed at the institutional American church that seems comfortable with the fact that Sunday mornings are still the most segregated time in our nation every week.

_______________________

The following article is reprinted from the February 2004 issues of Tri-State Voice and Relevant magazine.

Losing Races: a Dream Deferred

“What happens to a dream deferred?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?” – Langston Hughes

I had a dream this past July.

A major evangelical ministry invited me to a conference at a four star hotel, all expenses paid. The setting: a luxury resort high atop a rocky cliff overlooking silky sand beaches, pacific coast sunsets, fine dining, and accommodations that make inner city missionaries blush.

Gladly I accepted. Interesting topics and a free, first class vacation for my family. Why not?

I found myself surrounded by wonderful people who loved the Lord and were passionate about evangelism. By their presence, that much was clear. But what was even more clear, overwhelming even, was the jarring facade of the ministry. Call it a complexion condition or pigmentation problem. Whatever.

The bottom line: two black faces, two Latino surnames, and maybe two handfuls of women in a crowd of 150. Like me, all had attended on someone else’s dime to learn about bringing the Gospel to the public square.

Black people care about that. So do browns and yellows, and most evangelicals of every race, gender, and ethnicity. But judging from who comprised the audience, you would think it mattered only to suburban white guys.

Then I woke up and realized it hadn’t been a dream. It was real, in 2003 mind you, not 1803 or 1903.

Forty years ago, a prophet issued a clarion call to the nation. Decades later, his dream that one day we would be judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character, was deferred for all but two African Americans, two Hispanics, and several women at the gathering of evangelical leaders.

It is similarly deferred every day in the boardrooms and executive offices of many national ministries and on the airwaves of top-rated evangelical media. Some of the most prominent evangelicals fail to engage subjects of race, economic and social justice, and related issues every chance they get.

Then they wonder why “colored folk” (a phrase not often uttered but a lingering attitude frequently communicated) don’t attend their events or embrace their causes.

Last month we remembered the prophet, Martin Luther King, Jr. (at least we got a vacation day), whose dream continues to inspire. This month we celebrate Black History (at least on paper). It’s an appropriate time to consider how far evangelicals have come towards realizing the dream of racial justice according to Galatians’ standard of “one[ness] in Christ.”

The head of the ministry that sponsored me in July presents an interesting case study, and frankly leaves me conflicted. Widely embraced by evangelical America, he presides over an annual budget of hundreds of millions of dollars, employs thousands around the globe, and critiques dozens of socio-political issues. Hundreds of thousands of people listen to his radio program daily; his books rest on my shelves and his ministry has directly enhanced my life.

Yet of the hundreds of interviews I’ve heard him conduct, I can think of only three black guests and no Latinos. Of all the social commentaries I’ve heard him give, none were about racism, immigration, improving the quality of public education, or poverty. When the subject of poverty did arise at the conference, it was in a lecture about abortion.

I had the opportunity to discuss my conflict – on the one hand personally benefiting from the conference but on the other, discomfort with the lily-whiteness of it all – with the ministry’s vice president. He acknowledged the racial imbalance by blame shifting: blacks and Latinos don’t respond when invited. My discomfort he attributed to being from New York. Does that mean that attendees from the Bible Belt were fine with it?

For literally hundreds of years in this country, appeals for justice, compassion, and racial equality under the law fell on deaf ears. As recently as forty years ago, when the Civil Rights movement systematically dismantled Jim Crow apartheid, white evangelicals largely ignored the issue and in certain regions actively opposed it, leaving the black community and their church leaders to fight on their own. While the NAACP and other historically black institutions list prominent Jews and political liberals among their founders and earliest supporters, white evangelicals stayed away in droves. As recently as today, they continue to avoid issues that matter to minorities, mainly because they don’t matter to them, despite rhetorical commitments to so-called “racial reconciliation” throughout the 1990s.

It’s time to renew the dialogue about racism in the Church. Centuries of betrayal and injustice have bred distrust that token relationships, courtesy invites, and a few high-profile gatherings cannot alleviate. Repairing the breach requires the initiative of the offenders, not just the offended, to nurture real and meaningful relationships. Not just a tearful foot washing ceremony or an ethnic face on the cover of an annual report, but in listening, empathizing, repenting (i.e. changing behaviors), and learning to relate on unfamiliar terms.

We must remember that Jesus dwelt among the people he hoped to serve (not just save) for thirty years before trying to teach anybody anything.

It’s time to get up off the pavement in a race we’ve been losing for years.