THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, March 2, 1996                TAG: 9603020283
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY ESTHER DISKIN, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                     LENGTH: Medium:   51 lines

COLUMNIST CAL THOMAS TO SPEAK AT FOUNDERS INN

Cal Thomas, conservative columnist and television commentator, will air his views on the virtues of religious education in a speech Friday at the Founders Inn.

His speech, ``There's No Such Thing as Christian Education,'' will be the highlight of a banquet fund-raiser for Norfolk Christian Schools, which enrolls about 700 students at its two campuses in Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

The money raised at the banquet will be used for a tuition aid program at the nondenominational Christian schools, said Curtis Byrd, director of development. Tuition at the schools ranges from $1,040 for prekindergarten to $5,140 for high school students.

Thomas has been a speaker at several Hampton Roads events, most recently a journalism conference last year at Regent University, the evangelical Christian school founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson. Thomas' column appears in more than 350 papers nationwide, including The Virginian-Pilot, and he hosts a television talk show on CNBC.

Thomas has strong opinions on the failures of the nation's public schools, which he refers to as ``government schools.''

``I don't call them public schools because, to my mind, they don't serve the public,'' he said in a brief interview this week. He said public schools have demonstrated their failure through a rise in violence, declining test scores and the bevy of nonacademic subjects that are taught.

He said many of those problems can be traced to the public schools' secular approach, rather than an approach based on biblical principles. Thomas said he is a strong supporter of both Christian schools and the home-schooling movement.

``Education without Bible-based values and intellectual systems is not education, but propaganda,'' Thomas said, adding, ``Bible-based education is growing despite opposition from the pagan educational establishment.'' MEMO: Thomas will speak from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday at the Founders Inn. Tickets,

which sell for $50 per person, can be purchased until Monday by calling

489-2257.

ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Cal Thomas says public ``government'' schools are failures, blaming

their secular approach.

by CNB