Should Christian parents trust their children’s education to public schools?

[Ronald Nolette]

Should Christian parents trust their children’s education to public schools?

(Wanted to share this article with you all and the ask what your views are on home schooling against public school education.)


At the time America was founded, many parents in this nation took on the task of educating their children. Times have changed, and over the course of generations, an increasing number of parents have handed over the responsibility of educating their children to full-time teaching professionals. As less than 5 percent of students are homeschooled, the overwhelming majority of school-aged children attend public schools (90 percent) with the remainder attending parochial and non-parochial private schools (6 percent) (www.thinkimpact.com/homeschooling-statistics, www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/public-school, accessed 11/17/21).

According to an article in the Public School Review, cost and convenience are the public school system’s two biggest draws (www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/public-school-vs-private-school, accessed 11/17/21). Public schools are taxpayer funded; therefore, parents need not worry about costly tuition. Assuming that the child lives within the school district, transportation to and from the classroom is free. Also, public schools provide meals, often free or at reduced cost, and are equipped to aid students with learning disabilities and behavioral challenges.

However, many parents are at odds with public school systems. These parents worry that government-run public schools are a stronghold for political correctness, secular humanism, so-called wokeism, and radical, leftist indoctrination that will undermine the Judeo-Christian values they wish to pass on to their children. It would be foolish to assert all public schools are clandestine Marxist training camps. In fact, more than a third of the nation’s public school teachers identify themselves as evangelical Christians (www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/37-percent-of-public-school-teachers-are-evangelical-christians-poll-finds.html, accessed 11/17/21). There are many excellent public schools that focus on academics rather than political correctness and are staffed with caring, dedicated teachers who welcome, not discourage, parental involvement. However, it is the view of many that the nation’s public schools are heading in a wrong direction.

A child’s religious upbringing is the responsibility of the parents (Deuteronomy 11:19). Women and men of faith do not expect their children’s public school teachers to provide religious instruction; teachers are to focus on academics, the arts, and physical education. Public schools are to serve children of all faiths or of no faith, and classrooms are to remain free of bias concerning matters of religion, but a growing number of Christian moms and dads believe public schools are becoming openly hostile to the values, beliefs, and doctrines expressed in Scripture. These parents see public schools as encroaching upon their parental authority. Are public schools undermining Christian ethics and biblical morality? Here are some areas of concern:

• The presence of LBGTQ and other sexually explicit literature in some public school libraries
• The National School Boards Association’s labeling of parents expressing their dissent at school board meetings as “domestic terrorists”
• Public education’s overwhelming unwillingness to give creation science equal time with evolutionary theory
• The influence of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s leading abortion provider, in public schools—according to their own website, Planned Parenthood is also the nation’s leading sex education provider
• The “dumbing down” of curricula on the assumption that some subjects, such as advanced mathematics, are steeped in racism
• A child’s inability to refute or resist teachings that are contrary to the Christian faith


For many families, one option to a public school is a Christian school, which has a different approach to education. Tuition cost is a prime factor preventing more parents from enrolling their children in a Christian school. There is also the matter of practicality. Parents’ work schedules, a lack of transportation, and distances to and from school may pose logistical difficulties for families. Even so, there are advantages offered by private Christian schools:

• Christian schools partner with parents of faith by teaching all subjects from a Christian worldview.
• Christian teachers consider their efforts a divine calling.
• Classes are smaller in most Christian schools, making students more likely to receive individualized attention from their teachers.
• Christian schools are inherently safer. Illicit drugs are not as prevalent, and instances of bullying and gang violence are less likely to occur on Christian school campuses.
• Faith-based schools tend to outperform public schools academically. Also, many Christian schools offer programs in athletics and the arts, and the school size allows ample opportunity for involvement.
• Many faith-based schools offer scholarships that benefit lower income families.


Parents have much to weigh in the important matter of their children’s education: what’s taught in the classroom, the level and type of peer pressure, and possible challenges to their children’s faith, values, and even gender. All these things and more are considerations in the modern public school environment. The following passages may prove helpful in guiding Christian parents:

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6, NKJV).

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14, NKJV).

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up (Deuteronomy 6:6–7, NKJV).

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction (Proverbs 1:7, ESV).

Students are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher (Luke 6:40, NLT).


Christian parents are obligated to know the who, what, why, and how their children are being instructed. Know your child’s teachers. Know the school’s administrators. Know the curricula being taught. Knowledge is power, and, where your child’s education is concerned, there is no bliss in ignorance.

Many parents do not have the time or resources necessary for home schooling or sending their children to a Christian school. but parents who do send their children to public schools, should review and correct all false teachings the schools seek to indoctrinate children with.

 

[bluedragon]

In my case, I was a part of the DOD School system until High School. Teachers carried degrees in the subject they taught. They were given the textbook to teach from. When most of us got out (graduated) and entered college ......we were well ahead of the freshman classes of most Universities. (Dad was in the Air Force) I graduated High School in Japan.

My daughter was great, at first, A's and B's. Then we hit a brick wall. I recognized it as the point in which math problems were not numbers, but words. Didn't take long to figure out she couldn't read. She failed the forth grade by one point. I had a friend who had just been named Principle at a new Christian School. They needed students. I went to him with a plan ....We negotiated a one year scholarship and an agreement to start in the fifth grade provided I did exactly what I planned for her summer. At the time, I was managing the construction of a major hotel at Disney. She and I would get up at 4AM, get the paper and together sit and read a chosen article. I chose the article. We would finish breakfast and I would be out the door by 5:30AM. Her day, like mine was not over. At 8AM, she had to be at Sylvan Learning Center, spending three hours reading out loud. Mid summer, it was obvious she was reading at a much higher level than the paper offered .......I turned to industry technical papers .....At the end of the summer (gave her a week off) she started school in the fifth grade. We updated each other every week, following her progress. I got a call ....."She's getting bored. With your permission, we are moving her to sixth grade classes. We moved her ......she excelled .....I asked her later if she wanted to spend another summer on Dad's English reading drill team ......She had other ideas .....I had to pay for that summer. She joined the swim team. 4AM practices .......Dad got to sit in the parking lot .....or the stands reading the paper ...

We turned a Public School failure into an outstanding scholar ....Because we worked on it and corrected the problem. I have no certainty or confidence in what resided in the public school system. I've got a lot of friends that home school. The entire curriculum is formulated. the kids spend less time in school. Why? Because they are not waiting for a bell to ring, not wasting time waiting for slower kids to finish a task .... They learn more and faster than thier counterparts sitting and being indoctrinated ......by people not interested in teaching. I would call a pre start of school meeting with all the teachers together .....less than half would show.

 

[Mr E]

Public schools are taxpayer funded; therefore, parents need not worry about costly tuition. Assuming that the child lives within the school district, transportation to and from the classroom is free. Also, public schools provide meals, often free or at reduced cost, and are equipped to aid students with learning disabilities and behavioral challenges.

While your article focuses on Public school versus Private school, your poll only mentions belief (or support for) Home education as an alternative to that Public School indoctrination.

My wife and I made the decision early on to forgo the "free" school option the government offers as Public education. We pay taxes and have to, because that's the law of the land-- and those taxes pay for those public schools, so there really is no such thing as free education, so don't be fooled by the nomenclature. But we decided to keep our boys out of 'the system' and out of our own pockets, in addition to the taxation amounts we already pay-- we put our kids in a Private Christian school-- all three of them, starting with pre-school right through twelfth-grade graduation. One of the best decisions we ever made, not because of all the wonderful things they learned at this Christian school-- but because of all the things we avoided by avoiding Public school. We avoided the nonsense, the mind-scrubbing, and the perspective poisoning that kids in Public school are forced to endure, then struggle to overcome in order to become functioning adults with a grip on reality of all kinds.

It was expensive. In the beginning it was a hardship and financial burden for us, but we sacrificed other things to make it happen for them--to protect them really, from what we saw as the dangers of sending them to the California indoctrination-concentration camps that are known as Public schools. The finances eventually worked themselves out- and the rewards were never about finances anyway. We were determined to give our kids a fighting chance at life. It's so sad to say, but I truly believe that kids who have attended Public schools for those same 12-14 years of their young lives have been damaged intentionally.... by the State. By Public education.

I guess my point is that there are options apart from Home education, which requires another sort of sacrifice where one partner would forgo a career option to stay-at-home and pour themselves into becoming a teacher for their kids. I don't have this experience to compare, but I can say that this isn't "free" education either-- even if you avoid the extra $15k/yr tuition I paid. You will still pay taxes to support those Public schools you don't 'support' and you will pay the cost of someone staying at home to be the teacher and that's likely substantially more than what I paid for Private school tuition.

But it's worth it.

 

[Mr E]

And oh.... by the way....

 

[Jack]

I plan to homeschool when I have children. But I believe it's fine if parents prayerfully decide to choose public school.

We can't avoid our children's exposure to worldly ideas forever. We must, however, equip them to handle it well.

My wife home schooled our son. She had zero experience. It's not difficult once you get organized. Our son went on to a university and a lucrative occupation. Public schools have gone almost totally Satanic. If you want to turn your kids over to Satan, public schools is the way to go! Small children's minds can be warped pretty easily by highly organized public schools. At least if you home school when they are very young they are much less likely to have their minds stolen by Satan. If we love our kids home schooling can be very rewarding.

 

[Ronald Nolette]

In my case, I was a part of the DOD School system until High School. Teachers carried degrees in the subject they taught. They were given the textbook to teach from. When most of us got out (graduated) and entered college ......we were well ahead of the freshman classes of most Universities. (Dad was in the Air Force) I graduated High School in Japan.

My daughter was great, at first, A's and B's. Then we hit a brick wall. I recognized it as the point in which math problems were not numbers, but words. Didn't take long to figure out she couldn't read. She failed the forth grade by one point. I had a friend who had just been named Principle at a new Christian School. They needed students. I went to him with a plan ....We negotiated a one year scholarship and an agreement to start in the fifth grade provided I did exactly what I planned for her summer. At the time, I was managing the construction of a major hotel at Disney. She and I would get up at 4AM, get the paper and together sit and read a chosen article. I chose the article. We would finish breakfast and I would be out the door by 5:30AM. Her day, like mine was not over. At 8AM, she had to be at Sylvan Learning Center, spending three hours reading out loud. Mid summer, it was obvious she was reading at a much higher level than the paper offered .......I turned to industry technical papers .....At the end of the summer (gave her a week off) she started school in the fifth grade. We updated each other every week, following her progress. I got a call ....."She's getting bored. With your permission, we are moving her to sixth grade classes. We moved her ......she excelled .....I asked her later if she wanted to spend another summer on Dad's English reading drill team ......She had other ideas .....I had to pay for that summer. She joined the swim team. 4AM practices .......Dad got to sit in the parking lot .....or the stands reading the paper ...

We turned a Public School failure into an outstanding scholar ....Because we worked on it and corrected the problem. I have no certainty or confidence in what resided in the public school system. I've got a lot of friends that home school. The entire curriculum is formulated. the kids spend less time in school. Why? Because they are not waiting for a bell to ring, not wasting time waiting for slower kids to finish a task .... They learn more and faster than thier counterparts sitting and being indoctrinated ......by people not interested in teaching. I would call a pre start of school meeting with all the teachers together .....less than half would show.

It is sad that the Public schools are getting worse and worse at teaching skills and instead preparing students to be acolytes of future biblically prophesied governments.

There are still many outstanding public school systems. However they are shrinking more each year as the deception grows stronger.

I was fortunate to be able to send my children to Christian Schools. they had excellent grades, and are solid believers and upstanding people.

 

[bluedragon]

Alabama and Florida have made sure that trash is not taught in the school systems. Highlight from the south. Mississippi went from being the worst schools to beig number 1 in math and English. They will get better .....

Michigan is busy trying to figure out how to jail you for hurting someone's feelings ....

 

[TinMan]

In my case, I was a part of the DOD School system until High School. Teachers carried degrees in the subject they taught. They were given the textbook to teach from. When most of us got out (graduated) and entered college ......we were well ahead of the freshman classes of most Universities. (Dad was in the Air Force) I graduated High School in Japan.

My daughter was great, at first, A's and B's. Then we hit a brick wall. I recognized it as the point in which math problems were not numbers, but words. Didn't take long to figure out she couldn't read. She failed the forth grade by one point. I had a friend who had just been named Principle at a new Christian School. They needed students. I went to him with a plan ....We negotiated a one year scholarship and an agreement to start in the fifth grade provided I did exactly what I planned for her summer. At the time, I was managing the construction of a major hotel at Disney. She and I would get up at 4AM, get the paper and together sit and read a chosen article. I chose the article. We would finish breakfast and I would be out the door by 5:30AM. Her day, like mine was not over. At 8AM, she had to be at Sylvan Learning Center, spending three hours reading out loud. Mid summer, it was obvious she was reading at a much higher level than the paper offered .......I turned to industry technical papers .....At the end of the summer (gave her a week off) she started school in the fifth grade. We updated each other every week, following her progress. I got a call ....."She's getting bored. With your permission, we are moving her to sixth grade classes. We moved her ......she excelled .....I asked her later if she wanted to spend another summer on Dad's English reading drill team ......She had other ideas .....I had to pay for that summer. She joined the swim team. 4AM practices .......Dad got to sit in the parking lot .....or the stands reading the paper ...

We turned a Public School failure into an outstanding scholar ....Because we worked on it and corrected the problem. I have no certainty or confidence in what resided in the public school system. I've got a lot of friends that home school. The entire curriculum is formulated. the kids spend less time in school. Why? Because they are not waiting for a bell to ring, not wasting time waiting for slower kids to finish a task .... They learn more and faster than thier counterparts sitting and being indoctrinated ......by people not interested in teaching. I would call a pre start of school meeting with all the teachers together .....less than half would show.

Maybe if you had been as involved in your daughter's education from the beginning she wouldn't have failed 4th grade.

 

[TinMan]

Alabama and Florida have made sure that trash is not taught in the school systems. Highlight from the south. Mississippi went from being the worst schools to beig number 1 in math and English. They will get better .....

According to who?

Michigan is busy trying to figure out how to jail you for hurting someone's feelings ....

According to who?

 

[bluedragon]

Before the state legislature. You live there don’t you?

 

[bluedragon]

Maybe if you had been as involved in your daughter's education from the beginning she wouldn't have failed 4th grade.

Maybe, if you knew anything about raising a family…..you would understand, you are not as smart as you pretend.

I saw the problem , reacted, corrected and prevailed. Somehow, I see you as being smaller than the problem.

 

[TinMan]

Before the state legislature. You live there don’t you?

There is absolutely nothing in the state legislature about jailing rude people.

I can only assume you just made it all up.

 

[TinMan]

Maybe, if you knew anything about raising a family…..you would understand, you are not as smart as you pretend.

I saw the problem , reacted, corrected and prevailed. Somehow, I see you as being smaller than the problem.

apparently the problem was your lack of involvement.

 

[bluedragon]

apparently the problem was your lack of involvement.

You would nor know where to begin to solve a problem with the school.
Pity, your family will have to deal with your inefficiencies…..

 

[bluedragon]

There is absolutely nothing in the state legislature about jailing rude people.

I can only assume you just made it all up.

In the committee to be sent to floor.

Like most of your trash. Arrogant

 

[TinMan]

In the committee to be sent to floor.

What is?

 

[Ronald Nolette]

Alabama and Florida have made sure that trash is not taught in the school systems. Highlight from the south. Mississippi went from being the worst schools to beig number 1 in math and English. They will get better .....

Michigan is busy trying to figure out how to jail you for hurting someone's feelings ....

Mississippi ranked 43rd out of the 50 states in overall school scoring. Don't think they are #1

Mississippui ranked 17th nationally in math for the SAT's.

 

[Patrick1966]

I wouldn't trust government officials to tell me the truth about what they had for breakfast. Anyone that puts their faith in the government is a FOOL.

 

[Grailhunter]

Should Christian parents trust their children’s education to public schools?

(Wanted to share this article with you all and the ask what your views are on home schooling against public school education.)


At the time America was founded, many parents in this nation took on the task of educating their children. Times have changed, and over the course of generations, an increasing number of parents have handed over the responsibility of educating their children to full-time teaching professionals. As less than 5 percent of students are homeschooled, the overwhelming majority of school-aged children attend public schools (90 percent) with the remainder attending parochial and non-parochial private schools (6 percent) (www.thinkimpact.com/homeschooling-statistics, www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/public-school, accessed 11/17/21).

According to an article in the Public School Review, cost and convenience are the public school system’s two biggest draws (www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/public-school-vs-private-school, accessed 11/17/21). Public schools are taxpayer funded; therefore, parents need not worry about costly tuition. Assuming that the child lives within the school district, transportation to and from the classroom is free. Also, public schools provide meals, often free or at reduced cost, and are equipped to aid students with learning disabilities and behavioral challenges.

However, many parents are at odds with public school systems. These parents worry that government-run public schools are a stronghold for political correctness, secular humanism, so-called wokeism, and radical, leftist indoctrination that will undermine the Judeo-Christian values they wish to pass on to their children. It would be foolish to assert all public schools are clandestine Marxist training camps. In fact, more than a third of the nation’s public school teachers identify themselves as evangelical Christians (www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/37-percent-of-public-school-teachers-are-evangelical-christians-poll-finds.html, accessed 11/17/21). There are many excellent public schools that focus on academics rather than political correctness and are staffed with caring, dedicated teachers who welcome, not discourage, parental involvement. However, it is the view of many that the nation’s public schools are heading in a wrong direction.

A child’s religious upbringing is the responsibility of the parents (Deuteronomy 11:19). Women and men of faith do not expect their children’s public school teachers to provide religious instruction; teachers are to focus on academics, the arts, and physical education. Public schools are to serve children of all faiths or of no faith, and classrooms are to remain free of bias concerning matters of religion, but a growing number of Christian moms and dads believe public schools are becoming openly hostile to the values, beliefs, and doctrines expressed in Scripture. These parents see public schools as encroaching upon their parental authority. Are public schools undermining Christian ethics and biblical morality? Here are some areas of concern:

• The presence of LBGTQ and other sexually explicit literature in some public school libraries
• The National School Boards Association’s labeling of parents expressing their dissent at school board meetings as “domestic terrorists”
• Public education’s overwhelming unwillingness to give creation science equal time with evolutionary theory
• The influence of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s leading abortion provider, in public schools—according to their own website, Planned Parenthood is also the nation’s leading sex education provider
• The “dumbing down” of curricula on the assumption that some subjects, such as advanced mathematics, are steeped in racism
• A child’s inability to refute or resist teachings that are contrary to the Christian faith


For many families, one option to a public school is a Christian school, which has a different approach to education. Tuition cost is a prime factor preventing more parents from enrolling their children in a Christian school. There is also the matter of practicality. Parents’ work schedules, a lack of transportation, and distances to and from school may pose logistical difficulties for families. Even so, there are advantages offered by private Christian schools:

• Christian schools partner with parents of faith by teaching all subjects from a Christian worldview.
• Christian teachers consider their efforts a divine calling.
• Classes are smaller in most Christian schools, making students more likely to receive individualized attention from their teachers.
• Christian schools are inherently safer. Illicit drugs are not as prevalent, and instances of bullying and gang violence are less likely to occur on Christian school campuses.
• Faith-based schools tend to outperform public schools academically. Also, many Christian schools offer programs in athletics and the arts, and the school size allows ample opportunity for involvement.
• Many faith-based schools offer scholarships that benefit lower income families.


Parents have much to weigh in the important matter of their children’s education: what’s taught in the classroom, the level and type of peer pressure, and possible challenges to their children’s faith, values, and even gender. All these things and more are considerations in the modern public school environment. The following passages may prove helpful in guiding Christian parents:

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6, NKJV).

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14, NKJV).

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up (Deuteronomy 6:6–7, NKJV).

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction (Proverbs 1:7, ESV).

Students are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher (Luke 6:40, NLT).


Christian parents are obligated to know the who, what, why, and how their children are being instructed. Know your child’s teachers. Know the school’s administrators. Know the curricula being taught. Knowledge is power, and, where your child’s education is concerned, there is no bliss in ignorance.

Christian schools and home education are better.
Let them hone their social skills in church.

 

[Naomanos]

Christian schools and home education are better.
Let them hone their social skills in church.

As I have said before. Not all of us can homeschool our children.