The Real Subject is the Children

After the vote by the Hamilton County Commission against a property tax increase, much of which would have provided additional funding to local education, the August 19, 2004, edition of the Chattanooga Times Free Press carried a full page advertisement. In this ad, the outstanding community leaders (board and staff) of the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga, Inc. expressed their concerns under the title "It's Supposed to be about the Children."

As Chattanoogans equally interested in a quality educational experience for our children, Bible in the Schools appreciates the sentiments expressed by the Foundation. Here are some of the statements from that message followed by our comments in parenthesis.

• The proper focus is the impact on our children. (Our courses impact more than 3,000 students each year.)
  
• The long-term economic success of this community is directly tied to the quality of our public education system.(And so is the long-term moral character of this community.)
  
• For the community, education brings social stability and safety. Illiteracy and low educational attainment are core causes of crime, poverty and drug abuse. (The Oakland Released Time study demonstrated the Bible's impact on increasing morality and decreasing delinquency.)
  
• All students deserve access to high quality, public education. (True education demands a knowledge of the Bible.)
  
• Significant private resources from both local and prominent national funders have been committed to improve our schools. (Bible in the Schools is one local source through which hundreds of thousands of dollars each year are paid to cover the costs of public school teachers.)
  
• This is a generous and progressive community. In the past, it has been willing to commit significant assets to the continued improvement of public education. (Bible in the Schools has been doing so since 1922 and, with your generosity, will continue to offer our entire series of elective courses to thousands more students in the future.)
  
• You are also a steward of the present and a guardian of the future. If our efforts go no further than our own self-interest and our own present time, we fall short of what citizenship, religion and mutual obligation have always expected of us. (Bible in the Schools provides an immediate and reliable avenue of philanthropy for meeting our mutual obligations to the educational enhancement of future generations of students.)
  
• Look to the future. Demand excellence. Support what it takes to achieve it. (Support for the teaching of Bible History is one significant way to ensure a better, brighter future.)