An advisory group for National Ministries’ Children in Poverty Initiative met in Washington, D.C., at the end of April. Held at the historic District of Columbia Baptist Convention building, located near the White House, the meeting gave national staff an opportunity to identify the types projects American Baptist churches can undertake to strengthen public education in the United States.

National Ministries organized this event to further objectives of the Children in Poverty Initiative, adopted in 2005 as a denomination-wide issue of concern for American Baptist Churches USA. A first advisory session in fall of 2005 helped identify major impacts on children in poverty, including access to healthcare, living wage requirements and quality of public education. From that initial assessment, National Ministries narrowed in on public education — the primary route of social inclusion for children — as the first emphasis for the initiative.

Through advisory deliberations at the April meeting, it became apparent that American Baptists can foster a thriving system of public education most pointedly by first witnessing to the need to improve and support public schools to lift children out of poverty. This will include exposing public policies and societal attitudes that work against support for public educators, children they teach and children’s families.

“The meeting brought together a robust mix of interests and individuals, making it possible to build consensus among disparate points of view,” commented Dr. Harold Dean Trulear, associate professor of religious education at Howard University School of Divinity, whose expertise is in social policy and urban ministry. “Representation from the Parent-Teacher Association was tremendous, because improving education needs to involve parents. Congregations can especially support public education in working with parents.”

Advisors included American Baptist regional executives, neighborhood center directors and leaders of non-denominational organizations invested in protecting and supporting children. “The meeting surfaced a number of opportunities for National Ministries to participate in efforts to strengthen and improve public education,” noted Curtis Ramsey-Lucas, National Ministries’ national coordinator for public and social advocacy. “It also provided evidence that we are on the right track.”

Lily Eskelsen, secretary-treasurer of the National Education Association, affirmed National Ministries’ first emphasis for its poverty initiative: “I taught in Utah for over 20 years, and some of those years were spent in homeless and children’s shelters. Education is a key factor in helping lift families from poverty.” She went on to say, “One of the most important aspects of the advisory board discussions was awareness of what an over-emphasis on testing and punishments that accompany test outcomes mean to poor children, who have scored lower on standardized tests on average. ... There are many factors to account for this, including access to health care, transience, prenatal care, nutrition, books in the home, education of parents, and the list goes on and on.”

Advisors met in work groups to discuss challenges and resistance to actions that strengthen public education and to devise strategies that meet challenges or turn aside resistance. Their recommendations centered on local church actions or a cluster of churches addressing their state legislature, in addition to partnerships nationally with organizations sharing the same goals, whether religiously-based or not, and advocacy at the national level.

In terms of national advocacy, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) featured prominently in advisory members’ discussions. NCLB prescribes that U.S. public schools judge student achievement by a standardized test that does not make provision for students with special needs or who are not proficient in English.

“Public schools are an avenue of opportunity and, in our increasingly diverse society, they are a cohesive force,” observed Ramsey-Lucas. “One of the most significant things we can do to address the challenge of persistent child poverty in our nation is to improve educational opportunities for all.”

To learn more about the issues of concern related to reauthorization of the No Child Left Act, read a “Joint Organizational Statement on NCLB” at http://www.ucc.org/justice/education/nclbjoint.pdf. Also, the National Council of Churches’ recently released statement, “Ten Moral Concerns in the Implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act,” is a talking-points resource for advocates in communities of faith. Visit http://www.ucc.org/justice/education/nclb-moral.pdf for that document.

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