It's Time For Real School Choice In New York

School choice is a nationwide movement that empowers parents by enabling them to make the best possible choice for their children's education. In short, it puts power in the hands of parents to decide which type of education best fits the needs of their particular child – whether that is a public, private or religious institution, or educating their child at home.

School choice also protects parents' constitutional rights to direct their children's upbringing in accordance with the values, principles and religious convictions they hold dear.

Private school choice refers to publicly funded scholarship programs that redirect the flow of education funding to individual families rather than to government schools. In other words, the money now follows the child rather than a bureaucracy. Under these programs, parents can apply for scholarships that allow them to send their child to a private school of their choice, including religious ones.

Without school choice scholarships, parents who want their kids to go to a private school would have to, in essence, double pay. In other words, they would pay for a private education while also paying taxes that go toward public education. It would level the playing field for families of different incomes by allowing parents to redirect their tax dollars toward schools of their choice.

We just received another great review of our school!

We just received another great review from one of our parents! Mr. St. Louis wrote, "We just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge what a blessing the URCS & it's staff has been to our family over the past 10 years. Our daughter Evanna has attended the school since T-K & is now an 8th grader. Watching her development over the years both academically & spiritually has been 1 of the high lights of our lives & we know that the hard work, guidance & efforts of your teachers has played a pivotal part in this process & that's why we couldn't wait to get our 2nd princess Naomi started with you & she did start kindergarten this year & is already doing well. We also think that's important to note that your hard work is not going unnoticed by others, recently we decided to look at some other schools to see what else is being offered out there, long story short Evanna was accepted into the Waldorf School in garden city. This school is supposedly 1 of the top private prep schools in the state & they really wanted us to enroll her there offering us a lot of incentives, after a tour of the school we didn't see anything that wasn't being offered at Upper Room & not to mention it's not a Christian School. Oh & by the way did we forget to mention to 25,000 $ tuition, naturally it was a no brainer that we decided to keep her at Upper Room where she's getting a high quality education both spiritually & academically. Thank you again for all that you do & God willing we hope to work with you & your staff for many years to come to provide the excellence in education thru Christ that is truly a standard at URCS."
Sincerely: The St Louis Family Ivan, Taira, Evanna & Naomi

Our Latest Video

This video describes a bit of our purpose, mission and vision. Located in Dix Hills, New York, Upper Room Christian School has a 34 year history of providing quality education in a spirit controlled, disciplined, academic environment that is conducive for learning and spiritual growth. Our atmosphere is warm and caring. Our school is safe and vibrant. Come to our next open house on Saturday, April 18th at 10 am or just call our school office at 631-242-5359 ext.201 for more information. You can also visit us on the web at www.URCS.org.

Come to our Open House

Upper Room Christian School is a New York State Regents School.
We offer an innovative developmental elementary program that focuses on Spiritual, Social and Academic growth providing small class size with low student/teacher ratios.  We have a complete academic program that includes Art, Dance, Music and Technology as well as several Advanced Placement classes for High School students accredited through St. Johns University. We offer competitive sports programs and are the the Boys Varsity Baseball and have been Basketball Champions for the IPSSAL League.  We occasionally compete in both the NYSMA and SCMEA Music Programs.

Our graduates have been awarded scholarships to such prestigious Higher Education Institutions as:
Adelphi, Boston University, Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell, Culinary Institute of America, Dowling, Erskine College, Fordham University, Florida A&M, Georgetown, Hofstra, Ithaca, Johnson and Wales, Kings College, Long Island University, Messiah College, New York institute of Technology, Oral Roberts University, Penn State University, Quinnipiac, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, St. Johns University, Temple University, University of Rochester and Virginia Tech to name a few!

We have Bible Devotions four days a week and a Chapel service each Friday.

We are a non-denominational multi-racial and multi-cultural educational extension of Upper Room Christian World Center and serve families from over 100 churches in the Queens, Nassau and Suffolk County Areas. We are an approved I-20 school with International Students from China, Korea, Germany, England, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Spain. We also have the largest special education (IEP) program of any private school on Long Island.

• Safe
• Loving
• Christian
• College Prep

 

Our "Open House" will be held in the school's lobby on Saturday, March 23rd at 10 am.

 

Blessings!

Pastor Ed

Why Private Education?

Today we ask the question, "Why do more than 6,000,000 families in the US choose private education over public, charter or magnet schools"? The answers to this question are too numerous to answer here in one article but I'll try to list a few.

Private education is good for the students! Private schools benefit students by fostering academic excellence and high achievement, educating the whole child within a values-based setting, and preparing youngsters for success in life. If you want a caring, challenging, nurturing, safe and secure environment for your child--a place where he/she can learn and succeed--consider a private school.

Private education is good for the families! Private education benefits families by offering a wide range of educational options, including schools rooted in religious traditions, schools that provide intensive academic experiences, and schools that are specialized for specific populations. School choice, which should be every family’s right, enables parents to select an educational setting based on the needs of their children and their sense of what a school should be.

Private schools are good for America! As America’s first schools, private schools established our country’s foundation for education. Today, private schools help fulfill the American ideal of educational pluralism. Our nation is blessed by a rich diversity of schools. Whether public or private, these diverse schools constitute the American educational experience and share a worthy goal: the education of our country’s children. Private schools help educate the public—including students from a wide diversity of backgrounds, income levels, and ability levels—at considerable savings to taxpayers. They produce high-achieving students who make significant contributions to the country. And they strengthen their communities economically, socially, and educationally. Research shows private schools to be particularly effective in educating disadvantaged students. Minority students who graduate from private high schools are more than twice as likely to attend four-year colleges than their counterparts in public schools.

If you are interested in finding out more go to the Council for American Private Education's website at http://www.capenet.org/index.html . There you can find all of the data supporting what was said here.

Blessings,
Ed

Private Education vs Public Education

A recent poll showed that 1 in 4 parents are considering switching their child(ren) from a traditional large public school environment to a smaller (independent, private, charter, religious) school. Parents feel that smaller schools have a clear academic focus and vision for high quality successful learning.

Many feel that in the public school system, there is a greater gap in achievement between socioeconomic classes, more violence and higher dropout rates, and children can easily get lost in the large, impersonal system.

Upper Room Christian School is a medium sized K-12 Private Christian School located on Long Island, NY. We have been established as a NYS Regent approved school for over 30 years! Our class size is small and we provide a safe academic environment that fosters intellectual growth while emphasizing Character Development.

Grace and Peace,
Ed

Christian Schools .COM

Christian Schools .Com has just endorsed Upper Room Christian School as "one of the greatest private Christian Schools in the WORLD!" We thank them for their 3rd party vote of confidence and we especially thank God, our parents, students and staff for making our school what it is today!!

Check out their site at http://www.newchristianschools.com/gallery

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Ed Dono
Assistant Principal/Dean of Students
Upper Room Christian School
722 Deer Park Road
Dix Hills, NY 11746
631-242-5359 ext.201
www.URCS.org

White House Summit on Inner-City and Faith-Based Schools

President Bush Calls Inner-City Faith-Based Schools a Critical National Asset.

America's inner-city faith-based schools are facing a crisis...between 2000 and 2006, nearly 1,200 faith-based schools closed in America's inner cities. The impact of school closings extends far beyond the children that are having to leave these classrooms. We have an interest in the health of these centers of excellence; it's in the country's interest to get beyond the debate of public/private, to recognize this is a critical national asset that provides a critical part of our nation's fabric in making sure we're a hopeful place.

Yesterday, President Bush hosted a White House Summit on Inner-City and Faith-Based schools in Washington, D.C, to increase awareness of the alarming school closure rate of inner-city faith-based schools that have provided much needed educational opportunities for disadvantaged children for decades. The event brought together educators, policymakers, philanthropists, business and community leaders, parents and students to develop local strategies to keep the doors of inner-city faith-based schools open to America's disadvantaged students. For many inner-city children across our nation, America's faith-based schools provide an option for a better future.

The summit highlighted the need to preserve the critically important educational alternatives for underserved students attending chronically underperforming schools. U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings moderated a panel discussion on "Educational Options and America's Cities." Other panels highlighted the impact faith-based urban schools have had in the education of youth in America's inner cities, the challenges faced by faith-based urban schools, community solutions to keep faith-based urban schools strong, and innovative public policies that help under-served communities.

In his remarks the President recognized that many children can find a bright future in faith-based schools and noted, "The closings place an added burden on inner-city public schools that are struggling. And these school closings impoverish our country by really denying a future of children a critical source of learning not only about how to read and write, but about social justice." At the federal level, the President called for reauthorizing and expanding the Opportunity Scholarship Program in Washington, DC, and for Congress to enact his Pell Grants for Kids proposal for $300 million to help low-income children now enrolled in troubled public schools to go to schools of their parents' choice.

The President also called upon state and local governments to respond to this crisis. He noted that, "more than 30 state constitutions that include so-called Blaine Amendments, which prohibit public support of religious schools and have their roots in 19th century anti-Catholic bigotry." Furthermore, the President stated, "And so state lawmakers, if they're concerned about quality education for children, and if they're concerned about these schools closing, they ought to remove the Blaine Amendments..."

One particularly interesting program that the President mentioned is the Pennsylvania program that gives tax credits to businesses for contributions for pre-K through 12 scholarships for low-income children. He noted these tax credits are, "an innovative way to use the tax code to meet a national - in this case, state - objective."President Bush spoke of innovations to address the problem, such as the Cristo Rey Network of schools, now in 19 cities; Memphis, Tennessee, where businesses have given money that allowed Catholic schools to reopen as Jubilee schools; and the University of Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education which prepares college graduates to work as teachers in under-served Catholic schools. The President closed by saying, My hope is that we're laying cornerstones for new schools here or revived schools; that we take the spirit of the Holy Father and extend it throughout the country, and work for excellence for every child; to set high standards, and when we find centers of excellence...to think of policy that will enable them to not only exist, not only survive, but to thrive. It's in our nation's interest. It's an important summit for America

For additional information on the White House Summit on Inner-City and Faith-based Schools, visit the website at: White House News Releases http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/04/20080424-2.html%20. To view the U.S. Department of Education's press release on this event, visit: Secretary of Education Participates in White House Summit http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2008/04/04242008.html

Grace and Peace,
Ed