Is Public School
an Option?
By Dr. R. Albert Mohler
President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
S
HOULD CHRISTIAN PARENTS send their
children to the public schools? That question
has emerged as one of the most controversial
debates of our times. And yet, every family must
come to terms with the issues involved in the public
school debate—and fast.
Most parents already know that a great deal is at
stake in this question. We start with the affirmation
that it is parents who bear responsibility for the
education of their children. God will hold every
parent accountable for the decisions we make about
our children and the context, as well as the content,
of their education (Deuteronomy 6:1–26; Ephesians
6:1–4). In the truest sense, Christians understand
that every home is a church, a government, and a
school—the first church, the first government, and
the first school that a child will come to know. The
duty of Christian parents to raise their children in
the nurture and admonition of the Lord cannot be
delegated to anyone else—not to the state, not to the
schools, and not even to the church.
In today’s context, most parents still send their
children to the public schools. This has been the
norm and expectation for most American parents
since the beginning of the twentieth century. Until
fairly recently, exceptions to this rule have been
seen as profoundly anti-democratic and practically
un-American. Homeschoolers were seen as marginal
eccentrics, Catholics were seen as hopelessly sectarian,
and those who sent their children to private schools
were seen as elitist snobs.
For the most part, American evangelicals in
the twentieth century agreed with this assessment.
Evangelical families sent their children to the public
schools with confidence and with eagerness. They
had little interest in other alternatives for the simple
reason that they saw little need for any alternative.
Evangelical Christians were happy with the public
schools and saw them as both effective and efficient
in the delivery of an American education. They also
saw the public schools as safe and healthy places for
children, and they grew to love the athletic programs
and extracurricular activities that grew along with the
schools in the American Century, as the last century
came to be known.
Then, something happened. By the end of the
twentieth century, American evangelicals were aban-
doning the public schools by the millions. The last
four decades have witnessed the explosive expansion
of the Christian school movement in America and the
emergence of homeschooling as a mainstream educa-
tional option among the nation’s Christians. Why?
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