This case study examined the effort to convert a religious affiliated school to a public charter school in South East Queens. The Christian School was founded by an influential pastor who was also a former congressman and community developer. As the school experienced financial strain in the midst of a recession, the pastor developed a planning board to explore the effort to convert the religious school to a public charter school. If this pastor was successful in converting the Christian School to a charter school, then other private and parochial schools would conceivably be successful in efforts to convert. The study took place when states were competing for federal Race to the Top funds and the Charter School Act was being amended to more than double the number of authorized charter schools in New York State. If more charter schools were authorized, arguably, more private and parochial schools would apply for charters. The manner in which laws governing aid to religious affiliated schools interfaced with political representations associated with the effort to convert was the focus of the study. The discourse of the planning board, politicians, media, and other key participants that advocated and objected to the effort to convert the Christian School were reviewed in terms of Deborah Stone's strategic representation of goals, problems, and solutions in the polis. Although the effort to convert the Christian School to a charter school was not successful, the Findings and Conclusions suggest that strategic representations of advocates and opponents strongly impacted the outcomes and events that transpired over the time of the study. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]