The pandemic lockdowns have created quite a conundrum for conservative parents. On the one hand, we’ve been on the front lines of the (maskless) school reopening movement. On the other hand, as schools do reopen, our children are encountering a level of sexual and political indoctrination never before seen.
Or maybe we just hadn’t noticed. Ironically, it was the closures themselves, championed by the left, that helped bring the abuses to light. Parents peeking in on their children’s Zoom lessons found themselves appalled at what was being taught: critical race theory, BLM-inspired anti-police rhetoric, “LGBTQ” propaganda.
The backlash has been swift and harsh, with parents across the country crowding into school board meetings to demand an end to this nonsense. Meanwhile, conservative pundits like Matt Walsh and Dennis Prager have been arguing that the public schools are irreparably broken and the best thing conservative parents can do is get their kids out as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, for many parents, that’s not as easy as it sounds. For one thing, in many parts of the country, the public schools are still pretty good. Families are invested in their local schools and loathe to just up and leave.
Even for those who agree it’s time to go, where exactly will they go? Home schooling is growing in popularity, especially since many parents (again, ironically) discovered during the closures that they could educate their children just fine on their own. But for other parents, especially in two-career families, home-schooling simply isn’t practical.
Then there are private schools, which present their own set of problems. First, they tend to be prohibitively expensive, far beyond the ability of most families to pay, especially if they have multiple school-age children. Besides that, many private schools these days seem beset with exactly the same problems facing their public counterparts. In many cases, they, too, have become “woke” indoctrination factories. So what do families gain for their money?
I would like to propose a possible solution: that communities, churches, and other charitable organizations band together to create a new kind of private school. I confess that this suggestion is not original. It was inspired by a recent article by Trevor Thomas atAmerican Thinker. I would, however, like to give the idea an even wider airing while also adding a few wrinkles of my own.
In this battle for the heart and soul of America, we conservatives are at a distinct disadvantage, with very few institutions on our side. We do not have the mainstream media (although we do have our own media, thank goodness). We do not have the entertainment industry (although the folks over atDaily Wire, among others, are working on that). We do not have the government bureaucracy. We do not have the education system--yet. We no longer even have corporate America.
What we do have are churches. Granted, more and more Christian churches these days are also becoming “woke,” which is to say no longer Christian. But there are still many good, conservative churches. We also have money, in that many of us are at least moderately well off. Indeed, we already give so liberally to our churches that many congregations are blessed with large, modern facilities.
What I propose is that we use that money and those facilities to create a network of affordable private schools. I know many churches already sponsor schools, but like most private schools those tend to be expensive and exclusive. What I’m suggesting is that, as Christian conservatives, we put our money where our mouth is and make those schools accessible to nearly everyone by subsidizing the cost of attendance.
Families that could afford to pay, of course, would do so. But for everyone else there would be needs-based scholarships, with the churches themselves—which is to say, the parishioners—picking up the tab. Churches could also conduct capital campaigns to raise funds in the community.
And of course, it would be ideal if states would pass so-called “voucher” laws, allowing parents to take their tax money out of the public school system and give it to the private school instead. But I don’t think we should hold our breath waiting for that to happen. We will probably have to fund this initiative ourselves.
The good news is that we can. We have the means, if we’re willing to use it.
I’m also thinking that these new private schools, though sponsored by churches, should not be exclusively Christian. They shouldn’t require a statement of faith to attend (or teach), nor should they seek to indoctrinate students into any particular religious tradition. That would only keep people away. The schools should focus, instead, on providing an excellent, college-preparatory education in the arts and sciences while also teaching the truth about American history.
A potential roadblock would be accreditation, since accrediting bodies nationwide are as responsible for the recent radicalization as the local schools themselves, perhaps more so. When accreditors insist that schools institute “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” initiatives, for example, the schools themselves have little choice in the matter.
The solution would be for these community-based, church-sponsored private schools to form their own national accrediting body—focused, again, on high-quality education, not social engineering. Hopefully, many private religious colleges would recognize that accreditation initially, and over time, other colleges would follow suit as the excellence of the graduates, compared to their public-school peers, becomes apparent.
Obviously, there are many more details to be hashed out than I can cover in a short column. My goal is to help Trevor promote the idea in the hope that those in a position to do so will take it and run with it. I believe if we are ever going to win the culture war, there are certain things we just need to take into our own hands—and the education of our children is at the top of the list.