The joys of school creation

Thousands of Southern Baptist leaders assemble in North Carolina next week for the denomination's annual meeting. They plan to discuss and vote on a bunch of resolutions, including one particularly fascinating one: a call for Southern Baptist agencies to develop an "exit strategy from the public schools that would give particular attention to the needs of orphans, single parents, and the disadvantaged."

That resolution includes something old and something new. Some Southern Baptists have long proposed an exodus from public schools, and an attempt last year to make that denominational policy failed. This resolution, though, combines a desire for Christian education of church kids with mercy toward those whom some churches ignore -- but God does not.

We have a similar combo approach in Austin: Our 75-student City School brings together children of privilege with those facing economic or academic obstacles. Keeping it running has been hard work, but we've just finished our fourth year, and reports from the children themselves are worth passing on to those who wonder whether to support the "exit strategy."

Our kindergarten kids, asked for their "favorite thing about City School," offered statements like "learning about God in Bible," "worshipping in chapel," "reading Bible stories." Similar responses could not come from public school students.

Marvin Olasky

Just excellent, Marvin.