Bishop Calls Scandal by Name

THE CATHOLIC TIMES, Feb. 5—Former Lansing Bishop Kenneth Povish sharply criticized the Jesuits'University of Detroit Mercy in a column in the newspaper of the Michigan diocese.

Bishop Povish said it was a “scandal” that some 60 people heard the Rev. Gloria Albrecht, chair of the university's religious studies program “bemoan the fact that religion is not influential enough in protecting women's legal right to kill children in the womb.”

The bishop wondered how Albrecht, a Presbyterian minister who recently gained tenure at the university, can be “going around Michigan and presenting herself as chairperson of the religious studies department at University of Detroit Mercy.”

According to a statement issued March 25 by the Archdiocese of Detroit, Cardinal Adam Maida contacted the university president, Sister of Mercy Maureen Fay, about Bishop Povish's column “and asked her to take action.

“At this point, he is trusting Sister Maureen and others at UDM to handle the matter.”

Liberals Begin to Praise School Choice

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, April 15—The latest initiative from the business world to give children an alternative to poorly performing public schools — the Children's Scholarship Fund now being organized with the $50 million donations of three Wall Street executives — is gaining liberal support, according to columnist Albert Hunt.

“George Miller, one of the most influential liberals in the House … is fed up: ‘For too long, we've been willing to accept mediocrity and give the educational establishment a pass; we have to ask them what are we getting for the money we invest,’” reported Hunt.

Former Atlanta mayor and civil rights leader Andrew Young goes a step further by sitting on the board of the Children's Scholarship Fund. “I believe in public education,” he told Hunt. “But any monopoly gets stagnant and it takes competition to wake it up.”

‘Zero Tolerance’Under Fire

USA TODAY, April 13—Eighth-grade honor student Lisa Smith “who has never known trouble” faces five months in a military-style boot camp, according to a story in the national daily. Her offense: she violated the school's “zero tolerance” policy by bringing to school a 20-ounce bottle of 7-Up mixed with a few drops of grain alcohol.

Lisa, described by one teacher as a “sweetheart,” is one of “a growing number of examples in which zero-tolerance policies have been attacked as inflexible, harsh and lacking in common sense,” reports USA TODAY's Dennis Cauchon.

Cauchon writes that the criticisms have increased in the past two years as zero-tolerance policies have become standard operating procedures in the nation's 109,000 public schools.