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Have you ever heard a Christian parent say, “I know the public schools are generally bad and getting worse, but ours is not so bad. Two of our children’s teachers attend our church and they are wonderful Christians.” It is nothing short of amazing to me that Christian parents continue to erect such a defense for sending their children to the public schools. How can a Christian parent know, on the one hand, that the public schools are bad and getting worse, and yet maintain the fiction that the particular public school in their district is not so bad? Think about it. Not so bad? That is a telling admission in itself. Let’s say that your local public school is “not so bad.” Is that the standard by which Christians should judge the schools their children attend? Shouldn’t Christians, of all people, demand excellent schools in keeping with the excellence of their Master? Neither is the situation much improved by the presence of Christian teachers—even if your child is in their classes. I was at one time a certified teacher in the public schools. I have some experience with what Christian teachers can accomplish while working for Pharaoh, and it isn’t much. On his own turf, Pharaoh holds all the cards. Oh sure, a committed Christian teacher, if she is very careful and subtle about it, can have some minimal impact on students. The trouble is that she can’t have much more influence than that on her Christian students. The public schools, committed by definition to “secular education” (in itself a contradiction in terms) simply cannot permit a competing religion to hold any ground. Christianity is a mortal enemy of the very purpose of public education, which is to create a herd of compliant voters who are friendly to the liberal and socialist agenda of the education elite. So, why do so many Christian parents continue to send their children to the government schools? Money and, well…read on. First of all, there is the perception that public education is free, while all other options are expensive. Permit me to explode the myth. A public school education is not free. The public schools offer an education at public expense, which means at your expense. An average public education will run $5,000 a year, and in some areas can cost more than $15,000 a year. The fact that the school district buries your share of that figure in your property tax bill does not make the education free. I suspect that the reason many Christian parents continue to send their children to the public schools is because they are required to pay for it no matter where they actually send their children. They see Christian school tuition or the cost of homeschooling as an additional financial burden, and in this they are correct. Alternatives to public education are not free, just critically important. As Christian parents, however, we should remember that the cost of a public school education goes far beyond the tax bill. The cost has been literally the loss of a generation. Fully 80% of “Christian” teens in this country leave the faith, at least for a season, shortly after leaving home. Charles F. Potter, a signer of the Humanist Manifesto, revealed the reason why in Humanism: A New Religion (1930). He said, “What can a theistic Sunday school's meeting for an hour once a week and teaching only a fraction of the children do to stem the tide of the five-day program of humanistic teaching?" Some Christian children are in public schools because their parents, rather than insisting on what is best, and fearing they may lose the “friendship” of their offspring, cave in to the child’s desire to be with friends at school. Is being with one’s friends during school time of paramount importance? Is sharing that time critical to friendships? If it is, both parents and students need to examine their priorities. The critical task of education is to focus upon God and what He created, and how we are to interact with both. Being among friends during school hours is a relatively unimportant social consideration, and virtually irrelevant to the educational enterprise. Let’s get our priorities straight. I know that for the vast majority of my readers, I am preaching to the choir. I also know, however, from speaking to many homeschooling parents, that some still have children in the public schools. I pray that, whether through this message or another, Christian parents will be encouraged to remove their precious children, His children, from Pharaoh’s schools. Just about everything we hold dear depends on it. Sincerely, Mark L. Beuligmann, M.S. Ed. Administrative Director Christian Liberty Academy School System |
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