Private donors, corporations and foundations are committed to educate American children at risk. Many children with a right to better education live in the dreaded “inner city.” It is asking a child a lot for to do serious learning  when his urban world is also home to drug dealers, gangs, killers and poor public schools. Where in the inner city is there an island, an anchorage to begin educating?

Begin with the children themselves. They are a lot better than many of us might believe. Mark Gerson taught 10th grade American history in Jersey City. In a  recent book Mark argues that the discipline and values of Catholic inner-city education resonate  well with poor Hispanic and black children. His school expects that its children will master the elements of western civilization. Gerson (IN THE CLASSROOM: DISPATCHES FROM AN INNER-CITY SCHOOL THAT WORKS) found much to build upon in the sorely tried characters which his students bring into their school. They hold  personal honor high. They accept responsibility and welcome clear rules laid down by authorities who love them.  Products of some of America’s meanest streets, they hate violent behavior and want it punished. These children, Gerson found,  have a natural affinity for religion and eternal truths.
 

People  are finding inner city children ripe for teaching if only the right kinds of school are either already in place or can be created quickly and inexpensively. Enter SAFE HAVEN,  the newest type of such a school. It is the creation of Indianapolis businessman and 1991 founder of the private school voucher movement, J. Patrick Rooney. Mr. Rooney’s partner for hi-tech in Safe Haven Schools is another  businessman, John M. Sayre, whose  SayTech Corporation has long experience designing computerized self-learning modules for the the Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

In early 1997 Rooney asked people, 

“What would you think if the center-city churches used their Sunday School space to provide education for their own children?” 

He answered those questions in April 1997 when he launched the first Safe Haven School. Two months later he created five new inner city schools in Detroit, all housed in churches and headed by ministers: four Baptist and one Episcopalian. Now there are also four Safe Haven schools in Indianapolis itself: four Baptist, one Catholic.

Here is  what a brand new Safe Haven school might look like were it to open in Hendersonville, Brevard or Asheville or elsewhere in North Carolina.

--The minister of the sponsoring church is in charge.

--The school in a church has two Classes: a combined Kindergarten/First Grade and a combined Second Grade/Third Grade. Each class has between 15 and 40 students.

--Classes meet five (or six) days a week 50 (or 52) weeks a year.  Children may be on the premises from 6:00 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. Each class has three hours per day of traditional academic programs. The rest of the time is given over to supervised activities: homework, recreating, going on tours, watching movies, receiving religious and value instruction, including etiquette and social skills.

--A certified teacher teaches three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon. One teacher’s aide works in formal instruction, one in the supervised activity program.

--What does the classroom itself look like? It consists of 15 student computer terminals, three multimedia learning centers and a group activities table. Computers are crucial, allowing modular individualized instruction. The program which Pat Rooney uses is John Sayre’s RISE (Reinforced Skill Enrichment). No textbooks are needed. The computer has each student’s personalized drills, tutorials, game reinforcement and a self-feeding student management system. With the computer replacing much of the repetitive dimension of learning instructors are freed to tutor their charges.

--Religion is the special province of the church pastor who also doubles as school principal. 

--Students may be excused from school at any time to go on vacations with their parents. When they return, their individualized computer learning is waiting where they left off.

Mr. Rooney assumes that both the computers and the computer software will be provided to the school by a Foundation. Indeed, Rooney himself is currently pledged to 20 schools to provide $15,000/year start-up money for two years.

--Messrs. Rooney and Sayre provide interested churches model budgets based on upper mid-western U.S. salary scales. These envision  costs of $50/week per child for 52 weeks or $2,500/child. Additional children from the same family are budgeted for $15/week or $750 annually. 

This model should work in North Carolina where so many Tar Heels belong to Baptist congregations. Like many others, I pray and pray again that Baptists will organize more schools for the K-12 years.  All Baptists, but in particular  ministers of inner city churches, are invited to hold a magnifying glass to Safe Haven schools. Their ministerial colleagues in Detroit and Indianapolis are only a phone call away. Patrick Rooney and John Sayre  are also on the road answering questions.  

Nor need Baptists be the only faith-based communities to think about Safe Haven Schools. Can Catholics, Disciples, Bahai, Jews, Muslims and others afford not to weigh a small school using pre-existing church, temple or synagogue facilities? No one can now say that the privately funded private school movement exists only on paper. For Safe Haven schools are proving themselves every day  in Detroit, Indianapolis and elsewhere. And maybe someday in North Carolina as well.
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for Asheville TRIBUNE