wfn.org | Interfaith Service Addresses NYS Public School Funding Crisis

["Carol Fouke" <cfouke@ncccusa.org>]

MEDIA ADVISORY

INTERFAITH SERVICE TO LIFT UP NEW YORK CITY SCHOOLS IN PRAYER AHEAD OF COURT
DEADLINE ON EQUITABLE SCHOOL FUNDING PLAN

What: Members of New York City's faith community will offer special prayers
for public education at a critical moment for the city's schools. Religious
leaders from several faith groups, parents, and education advocates will
gather for prayer at historic Riverside Church in New York City on July 28,
just two days before the July 30 court deadline by which New York State must
submit a plan to equitably fund New York City public schools. The prayer
service also comes less than a week in advance of the August 3 compliance
hearing before State Supreme Court Justice Leland DeGrasse.  

New York State's highest court, after many years of court proceedings, ruled
in June 2003 that New York State must improve its financing of public
education because the "State's school aid distribution system has for over a
decade prevented the New York City public schools system from receiving
sufficient funds to provide its students with a sound basic education." The
court gave New York State until July 30 of this year to come up with a plan
to respond to the court's findings. 

Why: Many people of faith are concerned about continuing inequalities and
inadequacies in public schools because they deny equal opportunity to all
children -- and thus violate the common human dignity that all people share
as persons created in God's image.

The prayer service will take place during a time of prayer statewide called
by the Interfaith Working Group on Quality Education, a new and growing
network of interfaith, ecumenical and denominational associations from across
New York State who recognize that public education has reached a crisis in
too many of their communities.

When/Where: 12:00 noon, Wednesday, July 28, at Christ Chapel, The Riverside
Church, 490 Riverside Drive (enter Claremont Ave. between West 120th - West
122nd Streets), New York City.

Who:  Participants in the service include the Rev. Dr. John Hiemstra,
executive director of the Council of Churches of the City of New York; the
Rev. Dr. James Fitzgerald, minister for mission and social justice at The
Riverside Church; Rabbi Anne Ebersman, Judaic studies programming director at
The Abraham Joshua Heschel School; Al-Haaj Ghazi Khankan, on behalf of the
Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Islamic Center of Long Island;
the Rev. T. Kenjitsu Nakagaki, resident minister of the New York Buddhist
Church; the Rev. Reginaldo Braga, pastor at West Park Presbyterian Church;
and Mr. Le'Roi Gil, executive director of Central Brooklyn Churches. 

The Prayer Service is sponsored and organized by the National Council of
Churches USA and the Interfaith Working Group on Quality Education.  The
Interfaith Working Group on Quality Education is a joint project of the
National Council of Churches and the New York State Community of Churches,
along with the New York State Catholic Conference, New York State
InterfaithIMPACT, New York State Interfaith Alliance, Lutheran Statewide
Advocacy, the Episcopal Public Policy Network and the Capitol District Board
of Rabbis.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:  
Annie Rawlings, Interfaith Organizer on Public Education
212/870-2221, ext. 4249      rawlsky@earthlink.net
Carol Fouke, National Council of Churches
212/870-2252  cfouke@ncccusa.org