Released Time Curricula and Programs in Arkansas
Last week we wrote about released time at Arkansas’ public schools.
Legally in America, public schools may set aside released time during the school week for students to voluntarily attend religious classes off-campus.
Released time makes it possible for students to be excused from school so they can attend Bible studies or other religious classes during normal school hours.
Released time programs have been in operation for over 100 years across the U.S.
The number of students participating in released time programs is growing rapidly as more people become aware of it and find new resources that help educate them on starting programs in their communities.
Released time programs are typically conducted throughout grades K-12, and they normally last 30 minutes to an hour one school day a week. Some programs break up that hour throughout the week. Scheduling is typically determined by the group and the school.
Volunteers in Gravette have taught the Bible to students for over 70 years in multiple ways, including released time conducted off-campus. In 2007 the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette wrote about the program, saying, “The tiny building [where released time takes place], which has the word Logos etched above the door, sits on a 50-foot wide piece of private property wedged between Glen Duffy Elementary and Gravette Upper Elementary School.”
Other released time programs exist in Arkansas, either independently or through organizations like School Ministries or LifeWise who provide curricula to local groups.
School Ministries has been in operation since 1991 and has helped hundreds — if not thousands — of communities “start, sustain and grow Released Time Bible Education (RTBE) programs — the only legal means to teach the Bible both academically and devotionally in the time between the first and last bell.” Breaking ground in 2019, LifeWise has also assisted parents, pastors, and faith leaders in providing a “structured, plug-and-play” model which provides communities all the tools to launch and maintain an effective program while limiting administrative duties.” Both of these programs provide beneficial help for starting and maintaining a released time program.
H.B. 1139 by Rep. Brit McKenzie (R — Rogers) and Sen. Joshua Bryant (R — Rogers) would have written released time into Arkansas law and clarified how public schools may excuse students for released time during school hours. Unfortunately, the bill failed to pass this year, but schools in Arkansas are still free to offer released time to students under federal court rulings.
Family Council hopes to work with state and local policymakers in the future to promote released time programs and pass a measure writing released time into Arkansas law.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
U.S. Attorney Takes Steps to Address Debanking in Virginia
Late last month, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia announced plans to address debanking in the state.
The Eastern District of Virginia Equal Access to Banking Task Force “will investigate allegations of ‘debanking,’ when banks refuse customers access to credit and other financial services based on impermissible factors under current federal and state law.”
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Erik S. Siebert said,
“Access to banking services is essential in today’s modern economy, and unlawful debanking practices prevent citizens from achieving financial security. My office, along with our partners in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and the Virginia Office of the Attorney General, is dedicated to eliminating these unlawful actions and ensuring that all Virginians can realize their own personal American dream.”
We have written repeatedly about allegations that major financial institutions deliberately targeted conservative individuals and organizations.
Recently our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom discussed how official documents indicate the federal government colluded with big banks to censor Americans.
Congressional investigations show that after the events of January 6, 2021, the U.S. Treasury Department gave banks and other financial institutions guiding “typologies” — patterns that could be used to identify suspicious people or activities — including search terms and patterns like “TRUMP” and “MAGA.”
The government also encouraged financial institutions to comb through transactions for terms like, “Bass Pro Shops,” “Cabela’s,” and “Dick’s Sporting Goods” when looking for “Homegrown Violent Extremism.”
In the summer of 2021, Family Council’s credit card processor that handled donations made via our website abruptly terminated our account after designating Family Council as “high risk.”
At 10:29 AM on Wednesday, July 7, 2021, our office received a terse email from our credit card processor — a company owned by JPMorgan Chase — saying, “Unfortunately, we can no longer support your business. We wish you all the luck in the future, and hope that you find a processor that better fits your payment processing needs.”
Within sixty seconds, our account was terminated and and Family Council could no longer accept donations online. Despite reaching out to the company for an explanation, nobody could tell us why we were designated as “high risk.” All we can do is speculate that our conservative principles and our public policy work might have had something to do with the decision to close our account.
Unfortunately, other organizations have had similar experiences as well. Corporate shareholders, state attorneys general, congressmen, and news outlets all have expressed concerns over conservatives being wrongly labeled as “high risk” or “hate groups” and subsequently debanked.
Since then, JPMorgan Chase has taken steps to prevent religiously-motivated debanking. That’s good, but our state and federal government need to make sure this sort of thing never happens to anyone again.
After all, banks that are too big to fail are too big to discriminate.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.