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The Truly Great Cost of Repairing the Ruins |
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Imagine a landscape where every Christian family in America has economic access to a covenantal Christian school, offering superior, biblically sound teaching for every child. Given where we are today, this may seem unattainable. But with God, all things are possible. Classical and Christian schools have initiated the worthy effort of dusting off hundreds of years of covenantal neglect and developing a framework within which education may again be done to the glory of God.
At first look, this may seem to be a simple task. Repent of your sins and then teach your children in a way that glorifies God. That's all it takes, right? Well, yes and no. God does lay out the basis for education, its objective and even its essential components, right in the pages of scripture. In themselves, these things are not hard to follow.
But then think back one generation. How many people do you know that believed in Christ and loved Him as their Lord? Surely you know many who did. Around America, there must have been millions. But how many of these Christians were working to be sure their children were educated to the glory of God? Better yet, how many of them even gave it a passing thought? By and large, Christian parents in recent generations have left education to the state, and the result of that neglect resembles a garden overgrown with briers and brambles, or a treasured possession that is in serious decay.
Now, in commencing to educate the next generation of Christians, we are writing on tablets that have been scribbled upon, covered in dust and left in mothballs for a very long time. If we are sincere about the idea of repairing the educational ruins that we have come upon in our own time, we need to understand the magnitude of the task ahead.
We need to understand that it is a multi-generational effort and that we are participating in its commencement, not its consummation. We need to also understand that initial stages are well under way - a garden has been planted and begun to grow. But as the vegetation has surfaced and is now visible, tending the garden has become more complex. These lovely, little chutes have already begun bearing fruit, even while they reach varying stages of growth, as they have been planted in different places and on varying soil.
We should be preparing for the continuing cultivation - pruning, weeding, cutting, planting, etc. - that will be necessary in order to keep these gardens lovely and growing in the future. We should also be working to take dominion over more of the wasteland that has been left to us, and to seed more and even better tools of learning as we go.
A major part of our task is to discover the means God has made available for doing the great works He has planned. There are many avenues for continuing the work: homeschooling, church schools, independent schools, and cooperatives all play a part. Each of these demands a great commitment of resources - prayer, labor, etc. Because schools involve the shifting of teaching from parents to others, they also require great financial resources. Meanwhile, as government continues to intrude on private land usage, the cost of capital, as well as labor, grows higher and higher with the passage of time.
These cost factors make obvious the critical importance of a well-founded system of repairing the ruins. To adequately reach all of the places it should go, it needs to be funded systematically. The very concept of repairing the ruins will quickly degenerate into a series of isolated oases in various locations unless there is a willingness to actually share resources - including monetary resources - and work to ensure the continuing growth of the system, much the way that creeping vines come from different sprouts, and different directions and ultimately cover an entire area of ground.
Of course in covering the ground, it is essential that seedlings themselves are sufficiently nourished. They will not spread unless they are healthy. Likewise, a vital part of the mission of funding a system is to be sure that what is already in place can thrive. In order to do this, each school needs sound, multi-generational development principles. This requires thinking as biblically and covenantally about the finances of the school, as about its academics. It cannot be done by applying the "Miracle-Gro" approach of modernist, prep school development schemes, and hoping the mission will survive the money chase.
It means that all of the association's schools should work to be sure that no family that desires to send its children will be left behind because of finances. Why? Consider some financial decisions that families regularly face. When families make decisions about the cars they will drive, the food they will eat or the vacations they take, they make those decisions based on their personal finances. They get what they decide they can afford. When it comes to schooling decisions, they basically do the same - they decide what they can afford.
But the arithmetic involved is quite different. Those who decide they can afford the well-financed, chic, "Christian" school in their area, send their children to that school, along with others who can afford the same. For those who decide they can afford something less, they send their children to a cheaper school, or keep them at home.
So far, this appears to be entirely consistent with general, market economics, and many people are comfortable with that. But it completely overlooks two important factors. First, the market is badly distorted by the enormous presence of government education. Almost none of the government's schools budgets are financed by paying customers. Sure, many of a particular school's taxpayers also send their children there, but the payment and attendance are entirely disconnected.
You may send your child to the school if you pay the most taxes, or if you pay no taxes at all. Either way, you do not have to spend one additional cent to send your child to the local, government school than if you would have sent him to the private school. There is no correlation between what you pay and the services rendered. Thus, no family ever goes through the process of deciding if they can "afford" public school, and the decision is nothing like the decision about what car you drive, what food you eat or what vacation you take.
This difference has important consequences, even to the family that decided they will provide education for their children themselves, rather than depending on the government to do it for them. How? The marketplace of potential customers is greatly distorted. There are literally millions of people who have children, but decide they do not want to spend anything on their children's education, regardless of their level of income, and they are able to do this.
This is a real problem. Why? What would happen if those same families decided they would not pay for their own cars, food or vacations? A great many, different consequences would arise, and there would be varying levels of discomfort for each family. For example, if they were not able to produce their own food, they would simply die. What would happen, then, if the government stepped in to provide food for every family? Again, there would be many terrible consequences, not the least of which would be that it would become very difficult for those who wanted to buy food privately to do so.
A government that is ostensibly providing for its populace, demands a great deal of anything the market can produce. Private supplies of food would be largely gobbled up by the collective bureaucracy, leaving many people hungry. The prices of the remaining private supplies would be driven up to the point that many would ration their food and others would starve. All the while, the masses would get less and less substance in their diet, and wait longer and longer for that.
Now schooling is certainly different from food. People survive from day to day without it, and its provision is based on service of a teacher to a student rather than the procurement of a good. Nonetheless, the market forces work the same for schooling as they do for groceries. Government intervention distorts the market in such a way that you can no longer compare the cost of something provided by the government - like education - with something that is not - like cars. The cost of government involvement is disproportionately high!
This is why we can never really compare paying for K-12 education, where government funding is available for all comers - to higher education, where government significantly subsidizes payment but does not attempt to monopolize it. Government schooling aside, the remaining options for K-12 education, though they are many and superior, are extraordinarily expensive. The question of affordability of education, then, is not at all like the question of buying a car or taking a vacation.
Thankfully, even this kind of consequence comes with a blessing. Rather than excusing parents from making an informed decision, they now have a decision to make that carries a great deal more risk along with it. Unless they do not care how their children are educated at all, they must now consider the difference between what is available for "free", and that which they would have to "buy".
Some will say to themselves, "It may be possible to have my child in school and take my vacation to the Bahamas, but only if I do not pay for school." What are the consequences of this decision? If you believe that mixing your children with whatever students, teachers, and teachings may be present in the school that you do not pay for, government schooling is an easy choice. But if you believe anything other than this, then government schooling should not be considered an option at all. Your options are restricted to those available in the private sector, homeschooling and the various choices of private schooling that surround you.
Once you eliminate the government option, however, you find that what remains is very expensive. It is either expensive in terms of the financial cost, or very expensive in terms of the labor cost at home. For a wealthy family, the financial cost is not necessarily a great burden, especially compared to the cost of the parents' labor if the children are taught at home. In fact, there are many families with children in private schools, that will not have to forego any vacation, car purchase, to pay for their choice in education. This makes it a relatively easy choice for them to send their children to a private school.
But for most families, the decision is more difficult. It might not be the choice between a vacation or a new car and tuition, it might be the choice between making mortgage payments or health insurance and paying tuition. So the matter of making this decision should not be taken lightly.
"Let them homeschool!" is the cry of many stoic Christians. While this may be a good decision for many for a period of time, it should not be taken lightly either. Often, homeschooling is undertaken without ever seriously counting the costs involved. Many homeschooling families simply believe they have no choice, this is the way it must be done, and by God's grace, they will do the best they can.
But is there something better for them as well? If exceptional, Christian teachers were available to help teach their children, would it not be worth their while? In most cases, I would have to think it would. Yes, there is a core of homeschooling families who would not do anything different -and may God bless them. But generally, homeschooling is pretty fluid. The vast majority of homeschooled kids have been in or will be in a school setting at some point. Often, they are not there simply because of the cost.
Here is where the second overlooked factor comes to bear - charity. "And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." Acts 2:44-45
Arguably, there is no area the church can do more toward the fulfillment of the Cultural Mandate, the Great Commission or the Ministry of Reconciliation than in the area of discipleship of her children. Yet, while the church is quite generous in providing food and clothing to the poor, sending missionaries overseas, and building new sanctuaries, very little is given to ministry to equip children in our own churches as they grow - to know, understand and communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Yes, there are those who give to help build a new gymnasium to be used by students at a school, and even some who will help with tuition assistance, especially for those at the lowest end of the socio-economic scale. But the total number of Christians who give and the amounts that they give pale in comparison to what they give to overseas missions and other para-ministries while the majority of children in their own congregations are being discipled in the enemy's schools.
The consequence of this limited giving greatly hinders the school in that it is often those who would help the Christian school community the most who are largely excluded. Well-educated, covenantal parents with many children often are the ones who decide they cannot afford the cost per student of a covenantal school. They learn or perceive that tuition assistance is not available to them or that it is their own, personal responsibility to cover the cost, so they do not participate in the school. Thus, the family names in the student body of many Christian schools now look more like that of a local country club than a local church.
We need to develop a different approach, and it should be consistent from school to school. When a family comes to a school and discusses finances, the conversation should go along these lines, "This year, the cost of funding our mission will be $X,XXX per student to maintain the quality standards our Board has set. How much would you be able to help us with this year?"
Those families that have the ability to give more than the cost per student should be expected to give sacrificially. If they can give 10-20 times that amount, they should. If they do not, they will be excluding families who would be the kind of covenantal neighbors that will help to sanctify the school. Every family that desires to send its children should be given the opportunity. No child should be excluded solely because of the financial circumstances of his family.
There are a number of things that can be done in the financing of a school that can make it more accessible. The model I favor is to distribute equity shares of ownership in the real assets (land and buildings) of the school, and to fund virtually all of the operational costs through gifts. While this seems to be a daunting task, I have observed at least one, high quality, classical school that has been funded nearly all of its current operations through gifts,[1] and it certainly could be replicated elsewhere, especially where a wise endowment program is established. Ownership and maintenance of the real assets means that every family is truly invested in the school, and has to contribute something to its upkeep, while the coverage of operational costs through gifts means that no family is excluded because of financial circumstance.
This is not a model that is likely to be adopted immediately, nor should it. But it provides some standards that are worthy of seeking. In the meantime, there are a number of steps that can be taken toward improving the long term financial stability of schools, and toward ensuring that students will be admitted without regard to their family's financial status.
Truly, it would be an immeasurable grace to fund operations through gifts each and every year. While God might favor a school in this way for a time, it is certainly more prudent to accumulate endowment in order to be sure the cost can be covered from year to year. As the majority of endowment will eventually be derived from individual's estates, rather than current incomes, it will be sacrificial, but not onerous to those who give.
A typical family that might be able to give $4,000-$5,000 per year to a school, might someday leave $50,000 or $100,000 in an estate gift if they were properly asked and encouraged to do this. An entire operational budget might be endowed for 20 years with only 100 such gifts, and it would take even fewer if there were a few larger gifts. This is truly, multi-generational, covenantal stewardship.
Like any other covenant blessing, endowment comes with the threat of curses if it is not used faithfully. Many universities, colleges and schools that were started with the intention of honoring Christ have turned to worldly humanism as they have lived off the fat of earlier generations' endowment gifts. For this reason, I believe every school should have a policy of using at least 5% of endowment principal every year, so that if it is not replenished by each generation, it will expire.
A school is not an island. As I said earlier, part of covenantal restoration is in the growing of a cohesive system of schools. They need to be able to support each other and draw upon the support of other schools, including and especially in matters of financial stewardship. It is a walk of faith, and it must be done in unity. While their may be a parent in your school who can cover a scholarship for a family in another school, the opposite might just as well be true.
At present, there are at least 15,000,000 children in public schools whose parents profess their faith in Jesus Christ. If all of them left, public education in America would be eradicated. I have often asked myself, what would it take to get them out? Clearly, it will be the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the parents that will do it.
But when that comes, it will take incredible resources to absorb 15,000,000 students into private, Christian education. The total cost would be somewhere between $50 and $80 Billion per year. The parents themselves will have less than half of this sum available. We are looking at a need of more than $25 Billion per year in charitable gifts and other resources. The figure is staggering, but it is finite before an infinite God.
What are the resources that can be brought to bear? Current and endowment gifts, and equity investments; individuals, churches, and foundations; gifts-in-kind as well as cash; and more ways resources can be made available. This is the great opportunity of our time for unity and diversity to be manifest together in the body of Christ. It requires steadfast action without continuing delay. To God be the glory. Written by Drew Thompson
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