At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Christian education shined.
While only 8% of public school parents could say their children’s schools never closed, 26% of parents with kids in Christian schools did, according to a newly released survey by the Herzog Foundation.
“Parents of children in Christian schools are far more satisfied with their child’s education during COVID than the parents of children in public schools,” reported the study’s authors, Todd Graves and Jacob Hawkins.
Eighty percent of Christian school parents are satisfied with their children’s experiences, while 55% of parents with kids in public schools are satisfied. The study also revelealed, though, that 41% of public school parents are “unsatisfied with their child’s education during COVID.”
“The survey found that, during the pandemic, Christian school parents found it easier to manage their child’s time, communicate with teachers, manage their child’s assignments, and were better able to keep up their child’s morale than the parents of children in public schools,” Graves wrote in a column for RealClear Education.
In addition to COVID-induced restrictions, parents are worried about the public school systems infusing critical race theory into their curricula.
Seventy percent of respondents said they do not believe their children’s schools should be teaching that “white people are inherently privileged and black people and others are oppressed.”
The new data about the success Christian schools are experiencing comes as more and more parents are transitioning to full-time homeschooling.
For example, Yvonne Bunn, director of homeschool support and government affairs with Home Educators Association of Virginia, told CBN News in July that there has been “over a 48% increase in homeschoolers for the last year” in Virginia alone.
“I do think a lot of parents are going to continue homeschool,” she said. “They’re not happy with what’s going on. Parents are wanting to move in the direction of doing something else, even the parents who work. We’ve been amazed by the number who want to continue to work from home so they can continue to teach their children.”
HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?
When the Coronavirus and subsequent restrictions caused many schools to turn to education at home, parents were able to have a rare window into what public schools are teaching their children.
Up to that point, parents were kept overwhelmingly in the dark, not being able to have an understanding of the full scope of the “progressive” curriculum being fed to their impressionable kids.
Last April, the Santa Clara County Office of Education, held an “ethnic studies” training, in which the presenter warned teachers to be “extra careful” of parents seeing the materials being taught to their children.
“[We] have to be extra careful about what is being said, since we can’t just say something controversial now that we’re in people’s homes. Parents can take out of context or see what materials are being used so we need to be careful of what they see.”
This was not an isolated incident. In Philidelphia, a teacher expressed concern about parents overhearing what is being taught about gender, sexuality, equity, and inclusion.
“I am most intrigued by the damage that ‘helicopter / snowplow’ parents can do in honest conversations about gender/sexuality,” the teacher stated. “Virtual class discussions will have many potential spectators — parents, siblings, etc. — in the same room. We’ll never be quite sure who is overhearing the discourse. What does this do for our equity/inclusion work?”
He further reiterated that “‘conservative’ parents” are his “chief concern,” adding, “If we are engaged in the messy work of destabilizing a kid’s racism or homophobia or transphobia — how much do we want their classmates’ parents piling on?”
Now that many schools are back to in-person learning, there has been a massive increase in parents confronting school boards over the political and extreme nature of children’s education.
Numerous reports have emerged showing the shocking materials public schools, across the western world, are pushing. Ranging from severely explicit sex education and books to the promotion of gender transitioning, critical race theory, receiving abortions (without parental consent), and rejection of Christianity. (You can find more news on this important topic on Harbingers Daily under “Children in the Crosshairs.”)
Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, in his article “We Have to Stop Pretending Public Schools Aren’t Bad,” urged, “As Christians, we can’t outsource something as important as our children’s education.”
RECOMMENDED: “Prager: Most American Schools Are Damaging Your Child”
Ken Ham, Founder and CEO of Answers In Genesis, in his recent article, “Who ‘Owns’ Children?” wrote:
Who “owns” the children—parents or the government? In our day and age, many involved in western government believe it’s the government that owns kids. Many believe they know what is best for children and think they should get to dictate what children learn—and parents are just in the way of accomplishing the state’s goals. And that shouldn’t surprise us because how you answer the question of “Who owns the children?” depends on your starting point and the worldview you build that’s based on that starting point.
If you reject God and his Word, then anything goes—there’s no absolute standard on which to base your thinking. In this view, children are just biological machines, the product of millions of years of evolution. They aren’t given to parents—they are just a “choice” parents made.
But when we start with God’s Word, we learn that children are a gift from God—given to parents. He has given parents authority over their children and the responsibility of training, teaching, and raising children. They are not just “choices,” nor are they the government’s responsibility—children are parent’s responsibility because God gave children to their parents to train them up for him.
