Deal between private Christian school in Riverdale and public charter raises questions

RIVERDALE — Shari Mabbit smiles, moving her dry-erase marker in big, bold strokes as she spells out vocabulary words for her class at Christian Heritage School. It's easy to tell, however, watching her move through the room checking the second-graders' carefully penned lists, that the teacher is grieving inside.

In a few months, because of financial problems, the private elementary school Mabbit loves will be no more.

"It breaks my heart," she said, but she and her colleagues haven't lost faith.

Christian Heritage School plans to rent its Riverdale elementary building to Good Foundations Academy, a public charter school that, minus references to Jesus, touts a similar value set and a near-identical curriculum. Many of the soon-to-be-laid-off teachers have already applied for jobs with the charter. Parents, eager for a shot at a squeaky-clean, tuition-free education, have started lining up for the enrollment lottery.

"It isn't ideal, but it's still a miracle," said Christian Heritage headmaster Steve Deihl. "God found a way to keep the spirit (of the school) alive."

Administrators on both sides of the deal call the set up, which leaves Christian Heritage with enough cash to continue offering high school classes, "a match made in heaven." Critics, though, draw disturbing similarities between the schools' plans and a nationwide trend toward "character-focused" charter schools that use taxpayer money to promote parochial views.

In the past three years, more than 1,000 failed Christian schools across the country have reopened as public charters. The new schools, most of which hire the same teachers and serve the same students, deny preaching religion during class but still place heavy emphasis on Bible-based values. Some charters, like Nampa Classical Academy in Idaho, have even made attempts at substituting scriptures for textbooks.

While many experts argue teaching virtue alongside reading and math increases academic performance, others worry that, with little state oversight, charter-school staff can't be trusted to keep discussions nondenominational.

A prayer answered

Both Deihl and Tom Koehler, head of the Good Foundations Academy, regard each other as answers to prayer.

"They needed money, and I needed a building," said Koehler, who learned about the private school's predicament through his church. "I couldn't have planned it better."

The two schools didn't start out on such friendly terms, however.