Jack Matthews
New Member
Glen Schultz of Lifeway has an excellent book called Kingdom Education: God's Plan For Educating Future Generations. The Christian school where my family is involved gave us a copy of it a couple of years ago, and I find agreement with most of what Dr. Schultz has to say.
However, I think Christian schools, especially the evangelical ones, are headed for a train wreck if some other, creative means of financing them, other than charging tuition, are not found and soon. My wife and I are raising my two younger brothers and her younger brother in addition to our 10 year old son and are fortunate enough to have the means to send them to a Christian school, though we have had to make some adjustments and accomodations to do it. With three boys in high school and one heading for middle school, all involved in at least two sports and two in band, two in drama and speech, we will pay over $10,000 apiece in tuition and fees next year. When we started there six years ago, it was around $5,500 apiece.
I've noticed that there are some changes at the school as a result. The enrolment drops whenever there is an increase in tuition and fees. Financial aid is provided, but only about 5% of the families receive it, and it is $1,000 per child per year. 90% of the budget comes from tuition, with contributions and additional fundraising only accounting for 10%. The number of families who are active in their church has declined, and they are replaced by more affluent people who are looking at the academic side of the school and not the Christian emphasis, and there has been an increase in disruptive behavior and negative behavior. The school administration seems to be more likely to respond to things based on what I call the "money factor" over the "moral factor." I'm wondering if it can be called "Kingdom Education" if 80% of the people in the "Kingdom", the churches, can't afford to send their kids there?
We've looked around at alternatives, and found that Catholic schools are about half the cost for non-Catholics, and even less than that for Catholic students. In addition, Episcopal and Lutheran schools run quite a bit less. The other evangelical schools we looked at, at an Assembly of God church and a non-denominational school, were higher than ours, and the Church of Christ school, even higher than that. It would seem that Baptists and other evangelicals might need to get together and see what they could come up with to work together to make this a more efficient operation. Within a couple of years, I'll have three boys in college, and I'd rather not spend their college money on high school. Anyone else feel the same way?
However, I think Christian schools, especially the evangelical ones, are headed for a train wreck if some other, creative means of financing them, other than charging tuition, are not found and soon. My wife and I are raising my two younger brothers and her younger brother in addition to our 10 year old son and are fortunate enough to have the means to send them to a Christian school, though we have had to make some adjustments and accomodations to do it. With three boys in high school and one heading for middle school, all involved in at least two sports and two in band, two in drama and speech, we will pay over $10,000 apiece in tuition and fees next year. When we started there six years ago, it was around $5,500 apiece.
I've noticed that there are some changes at the school as a result. The enrolment drops whenever there is an increase in tuition and fees. Financial aid is provided, but only about 5% of the families receive it, and it is $1,000 per child per year. 90% of the budget comes from tuition, with contributions and additional fundraising only accounting for 10%. The number of families who are active in their church has declined, and they are replaced by more affluent people who are looking at the academic side of the school and not the Christian emphasis, and there has been an increase in disruptive behavior and negative behavior. The school administration seems to be more likely to respond to things based on what I call the "money factor" over the "moral factor." I'm wondering if it can be called "Kingdom Education" if 80% of the people in the "Kingdom", the churches, can't afford to send their kids there?
We've looked around at alternatives, and found that Catholic schools are about half the cost for non-Catholics, and even less than that for Catholic students. In addition, Episcopal and Lutheran schools run quite a bit less. The other evangelical schools we looked at, at an Assembly of God church and a non-denominational school, were higher than ours, and the Church of Christ school, even higher than that. It would seem that Baptists and other evangelicals might need to get together and see what they could come up with to work together to make this a more efficient operation. Within a couple of years, I'll have three boys in college, and I'd rather not spend their college money on high school. Anyone else feel the same way?