Should Christians Send Their Children to Public Schools?

 By Warren Cole Smith - Posted at MinistryWatch:

Published September 13, 2024

A better question is: How can we make Christian education available for all who want it?

It’s back-to-school time in America. In the past few weeks, more than 54 million kids went to school at the kindergarten through 12th grade level. Add preschool and college to that number, and 79.5 million Americans are students. That’s nearly a quarter of the entire population of the country.

Most of these students go to public schools, but we have seen significant shifts in the past few years. The US Census Bureau says about seven million children, or about 13 percent of school aged students, go to private schools. This includes about 3.5 million homeschooled children. Both numbers represent significant increases in the past five years.

Why has this shift taken place? The reasons are many and complex. Surveys of homeschooling parents cite a concern about the learning and social environments in the public schools and the cost of private Christian schools as top reasons for their decision to homeschool. Most private and homeschool families believe the quality of the education in public schools is a factor.

A growing infrastructure is also playing a role. In my hometown of Charlotte, the number of Christian schools is growing. In North Carolina and other states, voucher programs are putting the cost of Christian schools within reach of more families. Pandemic restrictions forced Americans to look for education alternatives, and now some of these alternatives have become permanent fixtures of the education ecosystem.

Today, online educational opportunities are much more robust than they were just five years ago. In most American cities, it is easy to find homeschool cooperatives that allow high school students to get higher level math, science, and other courses. Club sports give homeschoolers more athletic opportunities. Community colleges have discovered homeschoolers, and they are actively reaching out to them. Because homeschool education is self-paced, it is possible (and increasingly common) for a 17-year-old to graduate from high school with a year’s worth of college credit under his or her belt.

Some Christians – including Christian thought leaders — remain committed to public schools for convenience, but others make conscience claims. A recent defense of public schools appeared in Christianity Today, written by Stefani McDade, the magazine’s theology editor. She cited popular writer and speaker Jen Wilkin, who “has made faith-led arguments in favor of public education, citing benefits for children including a more diverse socialization, a healthy exposure to different worldviews, and fulfilling the call of being a Christian witness in the world.” Wilkins said, “Our participation in the public school system was directly related to loving our neighbors.”

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