Family Life Noon Report – 06/23/23
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Special Feature – Student Loans and College Costs – Paul Celuch – 06/23/23
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President Biden’s actions to write-off some of the college loans for some college students has been controversial. Some who would benefit from Executive Branch forgiveness of student debt wonder how they would add loan payments to their current personal budgets. Others though say it is unfair to force those loan costs onto people who paid up front for their education, didn’t take Federal loans, went to a Christian university which doesn’t get entangled with government funds — and anyone who never went to college.
A decision from the U.S. Supreme Court is expected any day.
A New York-based financial adviser predicts that the Court will rule that Mr. Biden had no legislative authority to simply write off some debts for some students. The wrangling has cost the government billions every month, and a ruling could through young people who haven’t begun paying off the loans they signed into financial crisis.
College loan expert Paul Celuch was a special guest on the June 23 Family Life Noon Report to discuss student loans, college costs, and options for every student and family who wrestles with debt. He talks about how higher education has relatively little reason to hold down costs, especially after a decade ago the student loan program was taken away from private lenders and solely rests with the government.
This podcast version of that interview also has some Bonus Content for students and their families, in addition to what was heard during this Noon Report.
Faith Under Fire – Drama in a Vegas High School – 06/22/23
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Faith Under Fire: First Amendment protections for students and their parents
Parents are increasingly being ignored, targeted and attacked – for protecting the rights of their children in school settings. Family Life talked with a Christian attorney who says what is happening to the young people is even worse.
A 15-year-old student in a Clark County school district in Nevada was forced to perform a profanity-laced, sexually explicit, and obscene monologue before the entire class as a graded assignment. School officials then lied to the parents. Although the teen girl had been forced to say those words in front of her class the school board prevented the student’s mother from reading aloud those same words in a public meeting of adults.
Abigail Southerland of the American Center for Law and Justice explains the case for us, as well as the multiple efforts which the parents made to complain to the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts. (The girl’s father had to do so virtually, as he was on a military deployment.)
A decision from the Federal Court is expected soon. Because of the First Amendment issues raised, there could be an appeal of the verdict, to address what the plaintiffs call compelled speech for the student and restricted speech for the parents.
Bonus content:
- A written summary of the experiences of this family and the case before the Nevada Court
- ACLJ’s one-page guide on the Free Speech rights of all students in schools nationwide.
Family Life Noon Report – 06/21/23
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Feature – How Often are Churches promoting Adoption and Foster Care? – 06/21/23
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Christian agencies and Christian households have been, for centuries, leaders in providing care, love and nurture for children who do not have another safe home.
Where do people of faith get motivated to do so? Often, from their congregations.
Lifeway Research surveyed American Christians about how often they hear about adoption and foster care from their churches’ leaders and programs. Executive Director Scott McConnell joins Greg Gillispie to talk about what their researchers found, plus how that promotion of unique ministry to children and teens has changed in recent years. McConnell also offers analysis of how pastors and other church leaders can use these trends to encourage more support for the next generation, whether it is a family explorin
g whether and how to be adoptive parents and siblings, or a foster family — or for those who need a different opportunity, options to support the young people and their new families in other ways.
This conversation is a timely companion to this week’s Family Life “Hometown Heroes”. Listen for that feature here, about a local angle on supporting foster kids and foster families. Foster Hope New York offers that kind of advocacy and encouragement in the Syracuse region and central New York.
Family Life 5 O’Clock Report – 06/20/23
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Family Life Noon Report – 06/20/23
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Hometown Heroes – Hannah Bender – Foster Hope NY – 06/20/23
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This week we feature the founder of “Foster Hope New York”, a ministry which helps pair up local foster care kids with families. Hannah Bender started by connecting with one fostering family in the Syracuse area just a few years ago. This ministry added a foster club, and now helps to “fill in gaps” as needed in the foster and adoptive community in central New York.
The program includes advocacy and recruitment. There are support groups for foster families, for those in foster care, and for teens and young adults who have aged out of foster care. Donors stock a Foster Closet. Its clothing and toys and supplies are especially needed for the first day — or the first night — of a placement of a child or teen, especially if that happens on an emergency basis.
Hear about how Bender discovered how to enact her personal motivation to help these young people, as well as how you can become involved. Foster Hope acknowledges that not everyone can become a foster family — but says everyone can do something to create positive experiences and outcomes for the kids they call their “little warriors”
For more about national trends in how congregations are promoting, supporting, and encouraging the valuable ministry of foster care, you can also listen to or download our parallel June 21 News Feature. We interviewed the director of Lifeway Research about their survey of how — and how often — churches lift up the topic of recruiting and supporting adoptive parents and foster families.
Family Life Noon Report – 06/19/23
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Issues in Education – Summer learning loss, and more – 06/19/23
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Issues in Education
Controversial new guidance on gender-identities from the NYS Education Department — plus how to mitigate Summer “Learning Loss”
Dr. Ralph Kerr, founder of the “Teaching and Learning Institute” has the latest education issues in the news, in this conversation with Family Life’s Bob Price.
This week’s edition of “Issues in Education” is our 2022-23 “season finale”, as this program takes a “summer break” – but don’t worry, Kerr will be back with the start of the upcoming school year, to help you analyze issues and actions in school districts where you live, and throughout New York and Pennsylvania.
