 From
the Education Coordinator:
WV District UPCI Forum
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What Would You Do? |
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Uploaded Sep 08 2008, 2:34:08 PM | Viewed 324 time(s).
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Education Mandate?
The education laws of our fine State indicate that the government believes it has a duty to educate all our WV children the way it sees fit. That may sound well and good to some. But who gave the State such a mandate? God or man?
When we turn to the word of God, we see that God charges parents, not government, with the duty to educate their children in a godly way. This is a mandate given by God. Can the State take it away? According to the current laws on the books, yes, the State supposedly can grant and then can take away your revocable right to educate your own children.
So, is the duty to educate your children a God-given mandate? Or is it a State-revocable permission? Read our story and make yourself aware of the difference between your God-given mandate and this supposedly State-given right (which can then be taken away).
This is not just an empty threat on the part of the State code. We personally know a family who had their so-called right to homeschool their child revoked by a public education system employee (and they suffered it). The employee was simply enforcing an unlawful statute. What would you have done? We personally know another family that was told by a public education system employee that they could not send their child to the Christian school they had chosen. They resisted and thus later were simply ignored by the system. We ourselves were told by public education system employees that we had to bring our church's Christian school under the authority of either the county or the State in accordance with existing State code. We refused. Read more below.
Our Story
My name is Doug Joseph. I serve as the Christian education coordinator for the WV District of the United Pentecostal Church International. Previously, a precious brother by the name of Philip Neil (a pastor at Summersville, WV) served our district as Christian education coordinator. We owe him a debt of thanks for his deeply appreciated service.
I also serve as pastor of Christian Apostolic Church (UPCI) in Clarksburg, WV. As of Thanksgiving of 2008, we will have been here for six years. Prior to that we worked at the UPCI headquarters (in the Home Missions Division) for about 7 years, and prior to that we served under Pastor Billy Cole in Charleston, WV, for almost 9 years.
My wife and I, through study of the Bible and communication with the Lord, have been led by God to the realization that the responsibility to educate our children in a godly atmosphere, safe from undue pressures and false doctrines, is a charge laid upon as us parents, by the Lord God himself. Therefore, we have the religious conviction that it would be a serious mistake to permit any civic government the authority to take away from us our right to educate our children as we see fit.
When we came to Clarksburg six years ago, the church here had never had a Christian school (other than Sunday school). We led the church to establish Apostolic Christian Academy, a K-12 Christian school, as a ministry of the church, facilitating the parental duty to educate our children.
The education laws of the State of WV are very much against our sincerely held convictions. The State code insists that all children in WV (from first grade through a student's sixteenth birthday) must be enrolled in the government school system, and the only exemptions that are permitted for religious convictions are contrived in such a way that it requires us as parents to utilize only schools that are under the authority of the government, and which can be (indeed, are to be) disallowed by the government (as available options for us) if any such schools should fail to cooperate with the government and/or fail to operate in a manner acceptable to the government. The same strength of legal force is used to coerce home-schooling parents as well.
As mentioned above, we know one Apostolic family here in WV that was forced to stop home schooling one of their children. They were commanded to enroll their child in a State-approved school because of a lack of compliance with the laws on this matter.
When we started our school here, it was done without seeking or gaining permission or license from the government education system. Our school's existence is based on the authority of the church to operate such a ministry, as an extension of the God-given parental authority to educate our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We later found out that the code is structured such that our school would not prosecuted; our parents are supposed to be prosecuted!
When we started, we sent out letters of transfer (requesting records) for our first batch of students as they departed from the public education system. The local public schools were thus informed of our existence. At that time, all interaction was with schools located within our county (Harrison). The public schools replied by sending us the requested records. No problems thus far.
Interaction with Neighboring County Brought Education Officials On Us
A family attending church in a neighboring county has a child that suffers from a learning disability (dyslexia). They had been educating the child in a private, Christian school located there, but that school suddenly closed down. They didn't immediately tackle the logistical (distance and financial) questions of sending the child to our school. At first they tried something they quickly regretted. They enrolled the child in a public school there. After the first day, the child pleaded to not be sent back. They then made arrangements to enroll in our school.
They informed the public school of the transfer, and the letter was sent requesting records. Nevertheless, that county's truancy officer (now called an attendance officer) contacted the family about their child's absence from the public school. They informed him of the transfer. His reply was foreboding and ominous. He didn't see our school listed as an approved school. He said that if the school is not an approved school, he has the authority to come and take the student out. The family called me. They were distraught. (Wouldn't you be?) I tried to calm them by confidently assuring them he had no such authority. They refused to capitulate to his demands, and so he contacted his counterpart in our county. We were no longer flying under the radar in Harrison County.
The Harrison County attendance officer called me to inquire if we had filled out the necessary exemption forms (essentially, the question was, had we asked the government for their permission to have a school, so they could track whether or not our school then fully complied with the arbitrary demands of the code, which could lead to the revoking of our permission to send our children to our own school, if the school did not maintain compliance with the arbitrary demands of the code). The code does not bar a school from existing outside of government authority; rather it sets forth that parents will be prosecuted if they send their compulsory-age child(ren) to such a school. Compulsory age is roughly from first grade through a student’s sixteenth birthday.
We spoke by phone with, and later met in person with, both the attendance officer and the administrative assistant to the Harrison County superintendent of schools. I explained our convictions, and I was asked to put into writing our defense, to be sent to the county superintendent of schools, Dr. Carl Friebel.
We sent a letter, as requested. It was sent by certified mail on March 29, 2007. We called the administrative assistant at that time and told him the letter had been mailed. (Please email me at education@wvupci.org if you would like to see a copy of the letter.)
According to the State code, we should have been quickly arrested and prosecuted. Instead, the education system employees have never again contacted us. (They have not called, mailed, emailed, or visited us.) It's been a year and a half.
Maybe they are Christian-minded people who don’t want to prosecute innocent parents that are doing no wrong. Or perhaps they have been instructed by superiors to avoid people like us (perhaps for concern that if they prosecute, it will look bad in the public’s eyes, or maybe for concern that the current, unlawful code will be struck down in a court of law, winning freedom for like-minded parents statewide). We really don’t know.
Every day when we take our children to our school, we must disregard the unlawful code. To put it simply, the codified wording creates a situation where lawful activity is supposedly illegal. If the employees really believed that the code was lawful and would stand up in court, then they ought to prosecute us as parents. But they are not doing so.
Dr. Carl Friebel has since resigned as county superintendent of schools, and now the county has a new officer in that position. We are considering sending a review of this whole matter to the WV State superintendent of schools, to see if we can move forward. So far, the education system employees seem content to let us (once again) fly under the radar, leaving the current code unchallenged. That code has been used as a battering ram to intimidate good people, sometimes forcing them to abandon their convictions.
We would like to see the current code challenged and a victory won for the rights of godly parents to home school and/or Christian school their own children as they see fit. We would deeply appreciate your prayers regarding this matter. God is able to bring about a victory.
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Sincerely,
Bro. Doug Joseph |
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Seminary:
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Urshan
Graduate School of Theology
P. O. Box 40
Hazelwood, Missouri 63042
Ph; 314-921-9290
Fax:314-921-9203
http://www.ugst.org
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Colleges and Institutes:
Apostolic Bible Institute
6944
Hudson Blvd. N.
St Paul, Minnesota 55128
Ph. 651-739-7686
Fax 651-730-8669
www.apostolic.org |
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Indiana Bible College
3350 Carson Ave.
Indianapolis, Indiana 46227
Ph. 317-554-8069
Fax 317-783-9464
www.apostolic.edu
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Christian Life College
9023 N. West Lane
Stockton, California 95210
Ph. 209-957-4027
Fax 209-476-7868
www.clc.edu |
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Jackson College of Ministries
1555 Beaslev Rd.
Jackson, Mississippi 39206
Ph.601-981-1611
Fax 601-982-5121
www.jcm.edu
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Gateway College of Evangelism
P.O. Box C
Florissant, Missouri 63031
Ph. 314-838-8858
Fax 314-831-4609
www.gatewaycollege.net
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UPCI Christian
Schools / Home Schools in West Virginia:
Please Note:
If you know
of a UPCI primary or secondary school, or a UPCI family home school,
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Orphanages & Homes for
Trouble Youth:
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Lighthouse Ranch For Boys
Mail:
P.O. Box 1578
Hammond, Louisiana 70404
Physical Location: 5143 Hwy. 443
Loranger, Louisiana 70446
Ph. 504-878-6560
www.lighthouseranch.com
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Tupelo Children's Mansion
Box 167
Tupelo, Mississippi 38802
Ph: 662-842-6982
Fax: 662-791-7715
Website under construction:
www.tcmm.org |
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