Public Education Advocacy and Faith: Why The Church Should Care

The United Methodist Advocates for Public Schools (UMAPS) team from Saint Francis United Methodist Church and the NC Conference and Pastors for NC Children invite you to join us for an Evening Webinar on Wednesday, September 16, 2020 from 7:00 - 8:30 pm as we explore the calling our faith provides to support public education for all students in North Carolina. For over 20 years, public schools in NC have been dramatically underfunded. Our schools need all communities, especially churches, to advocate for the sound basic education the NC Constitution guarantees.

We are people of faith who value the lives of children as Jesus did. We hope in this time of listening and learning that we will be inspired, informed, educated, and motivated to become advocates for our children through support of public education.

We will:

• Learn about the Leandro Case and public school critical issues through a historical overview
• Explain why the church should care about equity in public schools
• Discuss steps being taken to fulfill the Leandro Case
• Consider actions to accomplish the vision of every child in North Carolina having a sound basic education through public education
• Pray for each of us as we make decisions for the future of public education in North Carolina
• Close with a blessing for public schools, teachers and students in the midst of our current health crisis

Our Moderators for the evening are Tom and Rev. Lib Campbell.

We will have comments from Bishop Hope Morgan Ward of the NC Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Our speakers for the evening are:

• The Rev. Paul Robeson Ford, Senior Pastor at First Baptist Church Highland Ave, in Winston-Salem, NC and Board Member at Action4EquityWS
• Lynn Edmonds, Outreach Director at Public Schools First NC
• Kris Nordstrom, Senior Policy Analyst for the NC Justice Center

This Event is being planned by:

• United Methodist Advocates For Public Schools (UMAPS) Team, Saint Francis United Methodist Church, Cary, NC
• UMAPS, NC Conference of the United Methodist Church
• Pastors for NC Children

Join us for this free webinar event! We look forward to seeing you on Zoom! The Zoom link will be sent via email to all registrants. The event will also be broadcast live on Facebook through the NC Conference of the United Methodist Church's Facebook page, and be available for replay. For full event details, check out https://pastorsforncchildren.org/home/events/forum916/.