A new version of “shared time"--a program through which the Grand Rapids, Mich., public-school system provides instruction to private-school students--has come under attack in federal district court.
Under the original program, the school district rented classroom space in private schools and provided teachers for special classes in art, music, physical education, reading, and mathematics. About 10,000 private-school students participated last year, according to Grand Rapids school officials.
After U.S. District Judge Richard A. Enslen found that arrangement unconstitutional on Aug. 16, the school system devised an alternate plan for serving private-school children, most of whom attend Roman Catholic, Lutheran, or other Christian schools.
The new arrangement, which went into effect in late September, provides classes for about 3,000 parochial-school pupils, who are bused to public schools and attend separate classes.
Albert Dilley, a lawyer for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, has asked Judge Enslen to invalidate the new arrangement on the grounds that it violates his previous order.
“I’ve taken the position that this is even more offensive because it involves the segregation of children by religion in the public school,” Mr. Dilley said.
The Utah State Board of Education has paid Charles M. Bernardo $31,500 to compensate him for the inconvenience of having been offered a job, then having that offer canceled.
The former head of the Montgomery County, Md., schools was chosen last spring to be Utah’s superintendent of schools, but was shortly afterwords told that he no longer had support from the board. Mr. Bernardo claimed that he arranged to sell his house and that his wife had quit her job before he was informed of the Utah board’s change of heart.
