January 25, 2018
The Honorable Senator Michael T. Azinger (R - Wood, 03)
West Virginia Capitol Office:
Room 223W, Building 1
State Capitol Complex
Charleston, WV 25305
Capitol Phone: (304) 357-7970
mike.azinger@wvsenate.gov
RE:
WV's Senate Bill 252
Requiring
schools provide
elective course on certain religious texts.
Dear Honorable Michael T. Azinger:
I read about your Senate Bill 252 bill
and am really encouraged. I like it and pray that it becomes
a great
success. I will submit the text of your bill to my state
representatives for their consideration.
I am not a lawyer or politician but a parent with some experience
observing the state of education for a number of decades.
I would like to make 2 observations i.e.
challenges from experience and ask 2 questions for elective classes
involving the Bible. Hopefully some
solutions will be found to ameliorate the challenges and make your bill
even more effective.
Challenge
#1. About 10 years ago I talked with a parent on the east coast of Florida who was able to get the
National Council on
Bible Curriculum in Public Schools (
https://www.bibleinschools.net/
) into her daughter's public high school; and it went well for
the 4 years her daughter was in the school. After
graduation the parent was persuaded to continue her leadership for
another year. After the year was over there were no parents
willing to be the spokes person leader i.e. the energizer and the Bible
class promotion ended and finally the class was abandoned.
- Question #1.: Since the
schools
do not maintain very much interest i.e. advertise, promote or push
elective classes, what can be done to incentivize kids to
register for your elective Bible classes or What can be done to keep
it self sustaining What incentives are there
Would it be feasible to award the Bible classes a multiplier of 1.5 or
2.0 toward graduation credits
Challenge #2.
A few
years ago our local citizens were successful with: "
Pinellas
County School Board (PCSB) now has a new comprehensive Religion Policy
see #2270 text below". Later
when we realized that our parents, teachers, administrators and
school board personnel had a serious "separation of church and
state" bias, nor had any real knowledge of the limits vs
liberties of The
1st Amendment, we took
Gateways to Better Education Faith, Freedom & Public Schools Seminar to the school board and were rebuffed
(see:
BLOG: Pinellas County FFPS: Faith, Freedom & Public School Education
Workshop ). After that, FL Governor Scott signed
the
Religious Expression in Public Schools, Senate Bill 436 (2017) (
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2017/00436 ) which we are now requesting the legislature to allow Continuing
Education Units (CEUs) for Florida's teachers, administrators and
school board personnel for successfully completing a
Faith, Freedom and
Public Schools Workshop or it's equivalent.
Thank you for receiving my email and submitting such an outstanding law
for education.
Sincerely yours,
Richard Klenk,
152 SW Monroe Circle N.
St. Petersburg, FL 33703
Chairman, Hisways USA, Inc.
<staff
(a)Hisways.org>
727-521-6012 or
Preferred: 727-526-4790
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