Same Price as Pewaukee Universalist Towers:
NEW ULM - Martin Luther College (MLC) will build a new Early Childhood Learning Center on the site of the current center in New Ulm, MLC officially announced, following an MLC Governing Board meeting over the weekend.
Dr. David Wendler, Vice President for Academics, summed up the significance of the project.
"One focus of MLC is early childhood education," said Wendler. "The construction of this new building will facilitate the instruction of young children in our community, the preparation of future early childhood teachers, and the continuing education of in-service early childhood teachers and caregivers."
The present building will be torn down June 1, and construction of the new facility will start July 1. The building is expected to be ready for occupancy Jan. 1, 2013.
During the construction phase, children currently enrolled at the center will be accommodated in classrooms on the main college campus, with access to self-contained green space and the college gymnasium.
The $2.8 million project will be funded through donations. MLC is launching a fund-raising campaign to ensure its completion.
MLC, run by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), trains early childhood, elementary and secondary teachers for service in both private and public schools. New teachers receive state certification.
Open to families with young children regardless of religious affiliation, the early childhood learning center helps meet community needs, while also as a training site for MLC's early childhood majors. The center seeks to provide quality education based on current research in the field.
Early childhood education is the fastest-growing area of service in WELS, say college leaders. The number of children enrolled in WELS preschools nationwide has doubled over the past ten years, from 6,241 to 12,327. The number of early childhood majors trained at the college has nearly doubled over just the past five years, from 62 to 112.
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GJ - Anticipating another bazingo, I looked up all the teachers leaving their jobs at Wisconsin Lutheran High School (WELS, Milwaukee). According to this report, three are retiring and six more have had their positions eliminated. But the WLHS Contact full-color slick magazine is hailing their work as gonzo successful. They are "making disciples," which anyone with an IQ above room temperature can guess. And their tax-supported (voucher) student population is growing. In fact, the voucher kids seem destined to take over the entire school in time.
However - live by taxes, die by taxes. The school has noted that the money given for the vouchers has been frozen while costs go up! Although the school budget is now 40% voucher lubricated, that only means a growing cash flow problem in the future.
The formerly successful alumni basketball game has fallen on hard times. As one graduate said, "It is not my school anymore." Academic standards have fallen.
But the school was never very Lutheran, so no loss in doctrinal standards is anticipated. When a group of graduates were asked about the Book of Concord, one said, "A manual for repairing jets?"
WELS is doing what the LCA did. They are hailing their school as being oh-so evangelistic and missional.
3 comments:
In this aspect, elementary education, the WELS is guilty of mission creep. It used to be fairly inexpensive to operate an LES. All that a congregation needed was enough member families. Decades ago, family size was larger. The purpose of the LES was to provide a Christ-centered education the children of the member families. Yes, it was exclusive. This enabled a certain aspect of quality control about it. The school was funded entirely through what was considered congregational operations. Fundraisers were scarce and frowned upon. Parental responsibility and support were emphasized. Extra curricular athletics were not significant. The mission creep has occurred because the emphasis has shifted from serving member families to being missional via community outreach efforts and day care facilities. Yet, with all of this in place, WELS membership numbers continue to decline. Some would argue that there is a latency period between day care and adult membership that is a half of a generation long. This is logical sleight of hand and is only used to rationalize the entire fiasco of congregation operated day care.
The missional aspect hurt one parochial school I know of. The church was continually abused by a large extended family that really was just nominally Lutheran, i.e., rarely attended church and didn't give any money. However, the WELS puts too much stock in the profession of faith, meaning you are something special if you assent to WELS doctrine without reservation. That consideration allowed this extended family, which had so many social problems, to send kid after kid to parochial school and never get kicked out, despite the fact that at least one of the kids was a bully. That family ended up killing the parochial school, by most accounts.
Parochial schooling does however turn out a better product than public schools (which studies show is not true with voucher schools generally despite the conventional wisdom). In this case, the parochial schools only served to make the kids from the troubled extended family the best drug dealers and single mothers in public high school. Also, I suppose they stood the best chance at rehabilitation after going to jail since at least they knew basic math and reading!
WISCO- the WELS public school.
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