After LGBT activists protested state reputation of a Christian K-12 approval company in Pennsylvania, the state education department refused on Thursday to identify the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) as a third state-recognized company. Twenty-two says now recognize ACSI‘s approval requirements as genuine.  ,
Pennsylvania requires state-recognized approval to participate in its secret school choice programs through two tax-credit fellowships that serve nearly 85, 000 children in moderate- or low-income families. In 2022-23, almost 165, 000 individuals requested award applications, but state lawmakers would have to let more programme funding before those students can take advantage of the program to attend the school of their decision.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education said this week that private school licensure is not required at religious schools, and because ACSI would only be accrediting religious schools, giving it state approval is” not necessary”, according to a PDE recommendation read into the record during a PDE committee meeting on Tuesday and repeated to the full board on Wednesday.
Private schools can get accredited by one of the state’s three approved accreditation businesses, which are nonreligious. Schools are free to pursue an ACSI accreditation without the authority of the PDE behind it. But without the state’s blessing, parents would not get tax-credit scholarships at such schools. It is a sneaky way of minimizing public interest in religious schools.
There is another element afoot. LNP, a Pennsylvania newspaper, reported in January the state board had received “pressure to reject” the application from” the Pennsylvania Youth Congress, a coalition of LGBTQ+ groups, the Pennsylvania Department of Education and at least 32 Democratic state lawmakers]who] sent memos to the board opposing it”.
Private education, which often means faith-based education, is under attack nationwide by Democrat leaders who have fought alongside teachers unions against school vouchers and other ways to make private education more accessible to parents who choose to keep their kids out of public school.
In Arizona, Gov. Katie Hobbs introduced a state budget in January that would end universal vouchers for parents who wish to homeschool or send their children to private or parochial schools. Under her plan, the voucher would be available only to lower income families instead of all parents as it is now.
In Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz, a former teacher, proposed a budget last month that would end all state money used for private and home school students. That includes killing all funding for books, transportation, testing, and services provided to private school students through the public school. It shows how much Walz cares about kids.
Federalist contributor J. T. Young recently wrote about an Oklahoma case headed to the U. S. Supreme Court after the state’s high court said the state” can exclude privately owned and operated religious charter schools from its charter-school program by enforcing state-law bans on’ sectarian’ and religiously affiliated charter schools. The court also held that a charter school engages in state action for constitutional purposes when it contracts with the state to provide publicly funded education”.
In the Pennsylvania case, the PDE denial of ACSI based on its connection to faith is essentially saying one of two things. Either state approval of accreditation businesses for private schools is meaningless in Pennsylvania, or PDE does not care about the quality of education for kids attending schools affiliated with religion. Pennsylvania’s faith-based schools cannot seek accreditation from a faith-based accrediting authority with the credibility that allegedly comes from being endorsed by the state. And of course, no tax credit scholarships.
Speaking during public comment on Wednesday, Randall Wenger, who serves as chief counsel of the Independence Law Center and was representing ACSI, acknowledged ACSI holds religious beliefs considered controversial today, such as basing sports participation, and the use of bathrooms and locker rooms, on sex.
” Unfortunately, there are some groups that would want to derail ACSI’s application from being recognized as an accrediting agency, not because of the quality of the work that they do, or the completeness of its application, but solely because of its religious beliefs”, Wenger said before the board voted. ” For months, ACSI has worked through the process with the excellent members of the PDE review team, who looked into every aspect of the application. … Eventually, after many months, the review team was satisfied that the application was ready for the board”. But the application took an unexpected turn when it got to the approval board.
On Thursday, the PDE board unanimously voted against approving ACSI’s application in Pennsylvania.
” PDE simply claimed that there was no value since private Christian schools need not be licensed”, Wenger said in a statement. ” But that misses the point. Many Christian schools want to be accredited because of the credibility it brings the schools, and they want ACSI to be their accrediting agency because of their relationship with ACSI. ACSI wants to be recognized as an accrediting agency to serve those schools in the best way possible — with the gold star of recognition that they comply with state standards”.
Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.
