“Education is an adventure! It’s about people, children, life, reality!” 
Susan Schaeffer Macauley, author of For the Children’s Sake.

As parents, we desire to give our children the best education possible. In today’s culture, it’s becoming more and more difficult to achieve any kind of education through the government schools with their anti-God agenda. Private schooling, while an option for some, is not an option for many. And while it is important to not “get on our high horse” about homeschooling being the only “Christian” option, we do want to celebrate that homeschooling is a very real, desirable, and viable option! Once a family decides to enter the homeschooling arena, however, the choices regarding the method of how to homeschool can be daunting!

I’d like to share a vision of what education can be for your child, in your home, and even in your micro-school. This “method” of education is based first and foremost on a Christian understanding of what it means to be human and on the Christian meaning of life. Second in importance, it is deeply practical and has been proven for over a century in a myriad of educational situations. This method, based on the Philosophy of Education of Charlotte Mason (1842-1923), has been nicknamed “the gentle art of learning,” but its approach is one that rigorously prepares students to first and foremost think and then to be able to articulate those thoughts with clarity. A skill sorely needed in our current culture.

What’s also attractive about the gentle art of learning is that there is no expensive curriculum to buy. Based on the idea of “living books,” nature study, art and music appreciation, and a Christian world-view, one can apply this approach with a library card and access to museums and/or the internet!

If you doubt the validity of this educational method because you simply have not heard of it, that’s actually not all that surprising. Charlotte Mason’s philosophy is built upon a strong Christian base which in and of itself is enough to make it an unpopular approach in secular education. As Christians, our starting point for an educational system or approach must be rooted in our Christian worldview. As persons, our God has established that our education starts from the moment we are first held, talked to, and cuddled. As human beings, we are constantly in a state of learning–from birth to death. With this understanding, it is easy to realize that all of life is an education! Clearly, whether we “homeschool” or not, we as parents are actually the curators of our children’s education.

So what does it mean to be educated? An educated person is not someone who has this or that degree after their name, rather “the truly educated person has only had many doors of interest opened. He knows that life will not be long enough to follow everything fully.” As a parent considering home education, there is relief in that truism. One does not have to check all the boxes and ensure that there are no gaps in the child’s education. Once one realizes your goal is to first of all develop a love of learning in the child and then to equip the child with the skills of being able to think, articulate and compute, confidence and freedom ensue.

While a Charlotte Mason education is built upon the bricks of not *“twaddle” but living books, narration, no homework, short lessons, free afternoons, few lectures, ideas, culture (art, literature, and music), and good habits, it’s foundation is centered in the idea of “children are born persons”.  This truth is a central truth to our interaction with each child.  A child is not a being for us to prune or mold. Rather he is an individual made in the likeness of God, entrusted by God to our care, who thinks, acts, and feels. His value is not in what he will become, but who he is right now. He is not an extension of us to do our bidding, but an individual who must grow to embrace for himself reality and the framework of truth. Our role? To come alongside this individual as he grows in the knowledge of truth. We have something to offer not because we are adults, but because we are also persons who have experienced life and its lessons in possibly the same ways this little person might.

As one approaches a child from the perspective of his individual personhood, one begins from a place of respect for this individual recognizing that one “cannot own him, but only love and serve him and be his friend.” At the heart of this idea is the rejection that each individual is merely a cog to be “educated” to grow up and fit into a mold society may have for him. It is the embracing of the idea of respect for the child’s mind which is not the product of his education, but rather the instrument of it.

“The most prosaic of us comes across evidence of mind in children, and of mind astonishingly alert. Let us consider, in the first two years of life they manage to get through more intellectual effort than any following two years can show.  . . . If we have not proved that a child is born a person with a mind as complete and beautiful as his little body, we can at least show that he always has all the mind he requires for these occasions; that is, that his mind is the instrument of his education and that his education does not produce his mind.”

In the end, as parents, our job then becomes not how to fill this mind, but rather how to nourish it so it can flourish and become all that God intends it to be.

In my next installment, we will look at Charlotte Mason’s answer as to how best to accomplish this momentous task–for our children’s sake!

As incomprehensible to average Americans as it may seem, three stories about government school students facing disciplinary actions for expressing their Christian faith were featured in Christian media publications over the past few months:

• A six-year-old girl loves Jesus and is concerned about her second grade classmates’ eternities. She shares her newfound faith and it scares her friends. The Des Moines Washington teacher hears concerns from the classmates’ parents, and the little one finds her book bag searched everyday when she enters the schoolyard.

• A 14 year old student in Florida is ridiculed for reading his Bible at school. Not only did classmates reportedly threaten the boy on account of his faith, the high school freshman’s science teacher publicly questioned him and insinuated he was “ignorant” for believing in God and the Bible.

• Last year, yet another Florida high school student was reprimanded by her drama teacher for writing a monologue that referenced her faith in Jesus. The student was told to rewrite the assignment with no reference to religion.

Those are only three instances made public by legal groups representing the students who, their lawyers say, have had their First Amendment rights restricted in government schools.

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

While the First Amendment focuses on the U.S. Congress and what they cannot do, it asserts that public policies restricting religious practice or expression at lower levels are not acceptable, either.

The 14-year-old Florida student whose teacher ridiculed him for his faith experienced something no American should ever have to experience, his attorney Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a statement.

“It’s bad enough that the school has done nothing to stop the bullying from his peers, but have gone as far as joining in on targeting [the student] for simply practicing his faith. This blatant violation of his First Amendment rights is another example of how extreme so many in our education system have become,” Dhillon said, and why her law firm took on his case.

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which took on the 14-year-old drama student’s case, described a similar legal scenario.

“This is what ‘wokeness’ has come to—shaming middle school students for expressing their joy in their personal relationship with Jesus Christ because it is considered ‘offensive,’” Christina Compagnone (Stierhoff) of the ACLJ wrote in April 2021. “This was a clear violation of this student’s First Amendment rights and an affront to the religious liberties rooted deeply in the history and culture of the United States.”

The U.S. Supreme Court dealt with the First Amendment rights of students five decades ago, in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969). In their ruling favoring the plaintiffs, the highest court in the land wrote:

In our system, state-operated schools may not be enclaves of totalitarianism. School officials do not possess absolute authority over their students. Students in school, as well as out of school, are “persons” under our Constitution. They are possessed of fundamental rights which the State must respect, just as they themselves must respect their obligations to the State. In our system, students may not be regarded as closed-circuit recipients of only that which the State chooses to communicate. They may not be confined to the expression of those sentiments that are officially approved. In the absence of a specific showing of constitutionally valid reasons to regulate their speech, students are entitled to freedom of expression of their views.

And while that’s a strong statement in favor of students’ rights to express their opinions, the question is whether the Court would hold a similar position in 2022, or would the Court decide that maintaining peace in a politically- and religiously-divided setting is the “greater good?”

A growing number of Christian parents are choosing home schools and private Christian schools rather than dealing with antagonistic settings and curriculum offered in state-operated schools.

As more and more cases like those hit Christian media headlines and eventually make it to dominant media, the more intense the issue will become and all the more urgent for American freedom-loving parents to defend future generations from anti-Christian sentiments within government schools.

Illinois Family Institute offers an array of resources on their website at illinoisfamily.org to help parents make crucial decisions about their children’s education.

As it becomes increasingly obvious that homeschoolers do significantly better than victims of government “education” on every academic metric, apologists for the public-school system often fall back on their “socialization” mantra.

But under its true definition, “socialization” is hardly something to be desired. And under the commonly held understanding of socialization — gaining certain desirable social skills — the data show clearly that home-educated children outperform public school students on every key indicator.

Before examining the issue of “socialization,” it helps to define the term itself. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, it is “the process whereby an individual learns to adjust to a group (or society) and behave in a manner approved by the group (or society).”

Contrast that with the biblical command that Christians “be not conformed to this world,” or that they are to be “not of the world.” Throughout the Scriptures, God repeatedly makes clear that His people are not supposed to “adjust” to a society that does not respect Him and His moral code.

In short, if one accepts the common definition of “socialization,” Christians — and anyone else who realizes that the “world” and society are becoming increasingly immoral — should be deeply skeptical at the very least of this supposedly essential process being carried out by government schools. In fact, alarm bells should be ringing.

Of course, many of those who ask about “socialization” regarding home education do not have that definition in mind. Instead, they are mostly thinking about whether children will fail to learn basic social skills such as communication and healthy interaction with others. In that case, the “socialization” questions are based on myths and anti-Christian talking points.

The first myth is that homeschool families deprive their children of contact with other people outside the home. While there are always exceptions, nothing could be further from the truth. Typical homeschool families are involved in educational co-ops with other families, church, sports teams, and all manner of extra-curricular activities.

Under the guidance of their parents and other family members, these children become “socialized” in the best sense of the word. This has been true for virtually all of human history prior to the widespread proliferation of government “education” over the last century.

Indeed, to the extent that the term “socialization” is meant as some sort of process whereby children acquire positive social skills that can be measured, homeschoolers do far better than their government-educated peers. This is true on everything from peer interaction and self-concept to leadership skills, family cohesion, participation in community service, tolerance, and self-esteem.

According to a review of the empirical research on home education published in the Journal of School Choice by National Home Education Research Institute chief Dr. Brian Ray, “87% of peer-reviewed studies on social, emotional, and psychological development show homeschool students perform statistically significantly better than those in conventional schools.”

But there is more to the story. In his book Faithful Parents Faithful Children: Why We Homeschool, Christian author Donald Schanzenbach explains that the entire concept of schools as engines for “socialization” is relatively new and did not exist even 200 years ago. Indeed, the term was not even in the dictionaries of the early 1800s.

Rather, the idea of “socialization” goes back to anti-Christian philosopher Auguste Comte, the founder of sociology in the mid-1800s. His goal was to overturn Christian civilization by replacing the Christian moral order then reigning in the West with the pseudo-scientific principles of “sociology” derived from the “study of society and group life,” as Comte put it.

With that in mind, it is true that what is referred to as “socialization” does occur in government schools. But that should hardly be considered a positive development — much less as reason to subject children to godless indoctrination by a government that openly wages war on Christian morality. As the Bible explains in 1 Corinthians 15:33,

“Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company ruins good morals.’”

In a typical government school today, a child will be surrounded by peers who are all being indoctrinated to believe morality is subjective, the Bible is at best irrelevant if not downright harmful, parents are “old fashioned” and should be ignored, and much more. The pressure from fellow students to get involved in drugs, promiscuity, perversion, crime and evil is ubiquitous.

Schanzenbach, the homeschool author, cites the American Heritage Dictionary’s definition of socialize: “1. To place under public ownership or control. 2. To convert or adapt to social needs. 3. To take part in social activities.” He argues that this is precisely what is happening on all three levels, very much including the placing of children under government control.

“Socialization is an idea in direct opposition to biblical thought,” continues Schanzenbach. “Socialized children will likely spend their lives working against the Kingdom of God just as a matter of natural habit. They will have been taught to do so under the socializing influence of a humanist mindset, taught by example, and assumed in every classroom at the government institutions.”

Even the best teachers in government schools have publicly repudiated the notion that they are helping “socialize” the children in any positive manner. Consider John Taylor Gatto, the New York City and New York State teacher of the year in the early 90s. After realizing the damage he was doing to children in the public system, he sent his resignation letter to the Wall Street Journal.

“I’ve come slowly to understand what it is I really teach: A curriculum of confusion, class position, arbitrary justice, vulgarity, rudeness, disrespect for privacy, indifference to quality, and utter dependency,” Gatto explained in his letter that sent shockwaves through the education world. “I teach how to fit into a world I don’t want to live in.”

“My orders as schoolteacher are to make children fit an animal training system, not to help each find his or her personal path,” added Gatto, who went on to write books on the devastation caused by public schools. “There isn’t a right way to become educated; there are as many ways as fingerprints. We don’t need state-certified teachers to make education happen–that probably guarantees it won’t.”

Those who fashioned the system to socialize children appear to have had some of that in mind. Anti-Christian humanist John Dewey, widely regarded as the father of America’s public-school system, outlined his views on the subject in Democracy and Education in 1916 shortly before his infamous trip to fawn over the Soviet Union.

“Education, in its broadest sense, is the means of this social continuity of life,” Dewey explained, implying that education was not so much about the individual or God, but about society and the collective. “Each individual, each unit who is the carrier of the life-experience of the group, in time passes away. Yet the life of the group goes on.”

In other words, in Dewey’s mind, the purpose of education and “socialization” was to train individuals for the benefit of the group and its perpetuation. Whatever this may be or not be, it is certainly not the biblical view of education as a parent-led means of teaching individual children to know, fear and glorify God while giving them the tools to live a moral and meaningful life on this side of eternity.

Next time somebody asks about “socialization” of homeschoolers, you might start by asking exactly what they mean with that term. No matter how they answer, for Christians and even those who simply value true education, homeschooling clearly comes out on top.

As Brazilian lawmakers worked to recognize and legitimize home education, which has been wildly successful in the United States for decades, senior United Nations “education” bureaucrat Italo Dutra warned that homeschooling threatens “harm to children and adolescents.”

The UN hack’s reasoning behind the bizarre screed is that school is supposedly “fundamental to guaranteeing the right to learning, socialization, and a plurality of ideas, in addition to being an essential space for the protection of girls and boys against violence.” By “plurality of ideas,” he no doubt includes the grotesque UN sex-ed standards that would shock any normal person.

Dutra, who serves as UNICEF’s top education official, did not make clear where he got the idea that children have a “right” to such things, or where he got the idea that schools rather than family protect children from violence. Similar arguments have been made by UN bureaucrats and anti-family totalitarians around the world for decades.

Ironically, though, the UN’s own key documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) actually protect the right of parents — not government — to direct the education and upbringing of their children. In fact the UN declaration states that parents have a “prior right” to choose the education of their offspring.

Those measures protecting parental rights and educational liberty were enshrined in UN agreements after mass-murdering National Socialist (Nazi) dictator Adolf Hitler undermined parental rights, criminalized homeschooling, and used indoctrination posing as “education” to weaponize German children for his “Reich.” The result was catastrophe.

At the time, following the defeat of Hitler, humanity said “never again.” But with World Word II so far in the rearview mirror, and with generations of children indoctrinated by governments to believe in statism, those lessons on the extreme danger of allowing government to sideline parents have been obscured in many places.

While homeschooling has been taking place successfully in Brazil for decades, it has so far existed in a kind of legal limbo. The nation’s Supreme Court called on lawmakers in 2018 to enshrine the practice, ostensibly protected under the Brazilian Constitution, in federal law. And President Jair Bolsonaro, sometimes known as “Tropical Trump,” has been a vocal supporter.

However, totalitarian forces including UN operatives, communist politicians, and even well-known “Christian” charities such as World Vision have sought to demonize and restrict the rights of parents to educate their own children. Regimes and governments including those in North Korea, China, Cuba, Germany, and Sweden have made similar arguments to justify persecuting homeschooling families.

The UN has become increasingly vociferous in its efforts to restrict the fundamental human rights of parents to direct the education of children. In fact, the dictator-dominated UN “Human Rights Council” passed a measure in 2015 calling on governments to regulate private schools, as well — supposedly to protect “human rights.”

Meanwhile, leading UN officials, including a top UNICEF “child rights” campaigner, have been repeatedly caught raping and sexually assaulting children. Estimates by former officials suggest some 60,000 women and children have been raped by UN “aid” workers and “peace” troops in the last decade.

The UN should have no say in nation’s policies on education or anything else. The fact that an unelected agent of the dictators’ club is lobbying against fundamental human rights offers more proof that this rogue collection of tyrants, perverts, and kleptocrats must be not just reined in, but abolished, for the benefit of mankind.

This article was originally published at FreedomProject.com

Written by Sandy Glenn

The pleas for Christian parents to pull their kids out of public schools are growing louder and more fervent every day. And, while many parents agree that the time for exodus has come for their family, some feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. They know they need to leave but they don’t know where to go!

If this sounds like you, I’ve got great news. You do have options! But here’s the catch. You’ll need to take more than just a passing glance at the alternatives. It’s all too easy to make quick, sweeping judgements such as “we can’t afford private school” or “I could never homeschool” without really giving those alternatives a fair chance.

About ten years ago, when God first put homeschooling on my heart and in my mind, I was armed with all kinds of excuses as to why it wouldn’t work. I’m not a teacher. I don’t remember calculus. We’re not homesteaders. I hate bugs; how will I teach about bugs? We can’t afford for me not to work; what about my career? How will my kids make friends? The list went on and on.

If I’d given more thoughtful consideration to my list of fear-based objections, I might’ve saved myself years of anxiety. But, over time, God has helped dismantle the stereotypes and misconceptions I once had about home education. As I’ve shed my preconceived notions about what school is “supposed” to look like, my family and I have discovered an amazing lifestyle of learning, togetherness, and blessing.

Sadly, many prospective homeschooling parents do what I did at first. They look into homeschooling briefly and, even if they think the method has some merit, they dismiss it because they feel it’s ineffective, lacking in opportunities, or just not practical.

In reality, it’s often just their mental picture of homeschooling that’s impractical. For example, if someone thinks homeschooling means recreating the entire public school experience in their home or teaching every subject for every grade for every child, then of course they’d feel that it’s an impossible feat. Or, if someone’s idea of homeschooling includes kids who never interact with anyone outside their immediate family, then naturally that person would be skeptical about it.

Thankfully, real homeschooling is nothing like those imagined scenarios. Not only is home education absolutely doable for the average family, it’s also exceedingly efficient and endlessly customizable. In fact, it’s the efficiency and flexibility of home education that makes it so successful for so many different families.

Maybe you feel that this past year of virtual schooling in your home proved that you could never homeschool successfully. Believe me, “pandemic-public-schooling-at-home” and “home education” are not the same thing!  Though their kids may have been at home, the experience many public schooling families endured over the past school year is a far cry from the day-to-day experience of home educators who aren’t tied to public school curricula, schedules, or systems.

If you’re considering educating your kids at home but you’re feeling overwhelmed by the thought of it, take a deep breath (or ten). As I said in my new book Think About Homeschooling: What It Is, What It Isn’t, & Why It Works, homeschooling “is no less practically possible than any other career, educational method, or way of life. The simple fact that it’s less well understood in our culture just makes it seem that way. In actuality, the skill sets you use to adapt and succeed in other areas of life can be the same ones you use to homeschool successfully.”

In Think About Homeschooling, I tackle the five most common categories of misunderstanding surrounding home education as well as its main advantages. With a clearer picture of what homeschooling is and isn’t, parents are then equipped to truly consider homeschooling as a real possibility for their family. Whether or not you end up deciding to home educate, it’s critical that you are basing your decision on accurate information.

As stewards and guardians of the children God has placed in our care, it’s our privilege and responsibility to provide spiritual and academic training and instruction for them. Whether we send them to the public school down the street, the private school in the next town, or the homeschool co-op at our church, we make a choice to delegate some portion of their education to those institutions. It’s critically important that we’re mindful of the training that our kids are receiving in those settings. And it’s equally as important that we’re aware that we have a choice in the matter!

Christian parents, as you consider your schooling options for next year, please give careful and intentional thought to all of your choices. Do your best to research the specific alternative schooling opportunities available to you in your area (private schools, hybrid or co-schools, co-ops, homeschooling, etc.) and pray for clear direction from the Lord. If you feel convicted to find an alternative to public schooling, don’t let fear stand in your way!

For those of you curious or skeptical about home education, or if you’re new at it and need a confidence boost, my book Think About Homeschooling would be a great next step. You can buy it now in ebook or paperback format or find out more here.

Sandy Glenn, MAE, went from “Homeschooling? No way!” to “Homeschooling is awesome!” in just a few short years. After working in the architectural engineering industry for over eleven years, she left the workforce to stay home with her firstborn and she’s been home educating ever since! She and her husband live and learn with their three children in the Chicago suburbs. Sandy’s writing has been published in the Journal of Architectural Engineering and The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, and she also provides practical help and encouragement to homeschooling parents on her blog: sensiblehomeschool.com. 

It might not be what you think.

I’m a second-generation homeschooling Dad. I won’t deny my bias in favor of home education, nor my belief that it’s an amazing lifestyle that offers tremendous benefits to families willing to make the commitment. After all, I experienced those benefits myself.

But in addition to my personal experience, I have more objective reasons for believing in homeschooling. And today I’d like to share with you what may very well be the single greatest reason why every Christian parent should consider homeschooling their children.

As we look at Scripture, we see a pattern emerge about how God views education. The Biblical model for education is always God centered, faith driven, and parent directed. No exceptions.

We could talk about all three of those elements, but today I want to focus on the third one.

In debates among Christian parents about educational choices, the discussion often seems to center around the educational content. Advocates of Christian education rightly point out that our public school system is becoming increasingly hostile to our faith—that the environment has proven itself toxic to our young people, and that the worldview taught isn’t consistent with our beliefs as Christians.

That’s a discussion worth having, but lost in that often contentious debate is a point that, in some respects, is even more fundamental.

It’s the question of who is doing the teaching.

Throughout Scripture, we see multiple passages commanding parents to teach, instruct, and guide their children. From the classic passage in Deuteronomy 6:6-7, where parents are commanded to teach their children diligently, to Ephesians 6:4, where fathers are told to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, the pattern is consistent: parents are given the fundamental responsibility for the education of their children.

Grandparents are given some responsibility as well, but guess who isn’t given responsibility? That’s right: the government. But guess who else isn’t given the primary responsibility? The church. Yes, the church has a role, but nowhere in Scripture will you find the church given the main responsibility for the training and education of the next generation. That lies squarely with parents.

Now, there are some responsibilities in life we can delegate. If you hire a lawn care company to mow your grass, the owner of that company can delegate the task to an employee. As long as the employee does a good job, the owner has fulfilled his responsibility.

But there are some things we’re not supposed to delegate. My brother once made the statement that God has given parents a jurisdictional responsibility to teach their children—not as something to delegate, but as something to do.

There are some big words there, but the idea is simple. God created different areas of responsibility (i.e., jurisdiction). There are certain tasks that are given to the government that can’t be done by individuals. There are other tasks that are given only to the church. And, of course, there are some tasks that are given only to families. Extreme caution must be used when delegating any such fundamental responsibility to someone else, even another God-ordained institution.

Too often, however, Christian parents in America are ensnared by a mindset of delegation. We delegate our children’s minds to their teachers at school. We delegate their physical development to a coach or P.E. instructor. We delegate their entertainment to TV, video games, and the Internet. And we delegate their spiritual growth to a Sunday school teacher or youth pastor. Then we sit back, satisfied that we’ve got it all under control.

But God doesn’t call us to merely coordinate our children’s upbringing. He calls us to grab hold of our responsibility with both hands and do the hard work ourselves.

A simple question we should ask ourselves is this: when it comes to my children, am I delegating more than I’m doing? I’m not saying we can’t delegate anything, but when we start delegating to others more than we’re personally doing, I believe we’ve crossed a line God never intended for us to cross.

This is one of the primary reasons I believe in homeschooling. It’s not just about the content of the education and the fact that the government schools are hostile to our faith. It’s about the simple fact that God didn’t give the government (or church, for that matter) the responsibility for teaching my children. He gave it to my wife and me. And we want to take that responsibility seriously.

Maybe you’ve considered homeschooling in the past, or perhaps you never have. If you’re on the fence, allow me to encourage you to look to Scripture to see what God says about the training of the next generation.

And let me also encourage you to grab hold of your responsibility as a parent and never let go. Remember, some jobs were given to us to do, not to delegate. Raising the next generation in the ways of God is one of them.

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Written by Bruno Behrend

American education has become more and more centralized over the past 100 years. While this consolidation is associated with a great deal of expense, there has been little evidence that it has improved outcomes. Instead, the evidence points to, but does not yet prove, that decentralizing education offers more benefits, first in outcomes, and second in lower cost.

Centralization is the key problem in American education

In 1939, America had 117,108 school districts. By 2006, this number was down to 13,862. While it is difficult to correlate test scores over this period of time, America’s relative decline in comparison with other nations in reading and math since the 1950s is convincing evidence that this rapid consolidation and centralization clearly hasn’t helped outcomes.

Expense

During this same period, education spending has skyrocketed, much more so in the last 30 years than the previous 50. It is interesting that the bulk of district consolidation took place from 1950 to 1968, and rapidly decelerated from 1970 through today. This lack of correlation between the spending increases of the last 30 years and the consolidation that took place before that does not necessarily show that continued consolidation would have lowered cost. Rather it shows that expense and district consolidation bear little connection.

It should be noted that while the numerous small districts that were consolidated during the 50s and 60s might be considered “centralization” from the perspective of the small districts, the fact remains that during that period, education was still considered a local matter. These districts, though fewer in number, still were mostly locally controlled. The more insidious type of centralization is where the state, and then increasingly the federal government, started to dictate curriculum, standards, and desired outcomes. This has accelerated over the last few decades. We are now at the point where we can say “local control” is mostly a myth.

This creeping centralization, whether intended or not, has lead to the rapid acceleration of administrative positions in government schools. It is clear from the data that this run up in employment, primarily in non-classroom expenditures, has been the largest cost driver in the last few decades.

This is borne out through many studies on district consolidation. It doesn’t really matter whether you consolidate, split up, or otherwise rearrange the management of schools. Relative to expense, what matters is payroll, and the payrolls are fat.

Curriculum Quality

If there is any area where we can see the dramatic effects of centralization, it is the curriculum most American children are exposed to. Standards, curricula, and testing have become increasingly centralized. You can say what you want about the local control and your elected school board, but the 50 states now have standards that are increasingly similar, and districts must comply. Combine this with the oatmeal-like similarity of the textbooks and narrow choice of testing regimes across America, and American school districts all operate within a very narrow band, dictated by an affiliation of public, private, and quasi-private organizations that advise the federal government on what should, and shouldn’t be, taught in American schools.

That was how things were before the “Common Core State Standards,” and the adoption of the Common Core in 45 states merely codified a process that had been taking place for decades.

In an effort to avoid making this article an anti-common core screed or a pro-common core wonk-piece, it suffices to say that the centralization culminating in the Common Core hasn’t “destroyed” American education, and getting rid of it won’t “save” American education.

Rather, the tepid benefits and pitfalls of the Common Core illustrate that American public education has reached yet another expensive dead end (or cul-de-sac). The standards might have been a slight improvement over the aggregated standards of all 50 states (at the expense of the better standards in some states). But a standard is only as good as the number of people who can attain them, and tests show that the Common Core has been another expensive experiment that yield little or no clear benefits in that regard.

Jay P. Greene, Head of the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Early Education, Elementary and Secondary Education about the role and implementation of national curriculum standards. He testified that:

“One thing that should be understood with respect to nationalized approaches is that there is no evidence that countries that have nationalized systems get better results. Advocates for nationalization will point to other countries, such as Singapore, with higher achievement that also have a nationalized system as proof that we should do the same. But they fail to acknowledge that many countries that do worse than the United States on international tests also have nationalized systems. Conversely, many of the countries that do better than the United States, such as Canada, Australia, and Belgium, have decentralized systems. The research shows little or no relationship between nationalized approaches and student achievement.”

Instead of debating yet another attempt to fix our overly centralized education system, perhaps it is time to begin the process of decentralizing it. Should we spend less time trying to “fix” things, and more time pulling things apart? Should we create more independent schools, putting more authority in the hands of parents, who might then choose from a wider array of these new, independent education options? Would that work.

Is Decentralization better?

Decentralization probably would work better, but we can’t say definitively unless we try. Following the logic of Mr. Greene above, there are excellent schools in today’s centralized system, as well as awful ones. It follows that there will be awful schools among these new options, as well as excellent ones.

However, unlike today’s system, where the awful schools stay open, and their attendees have few options to leave them, a more decentralized system will cycle through the good and the bad options faster. People will learn very quickly whether their child’s school is working for them or not. If it isn’t, a decentralized system will allow parents more options.

In short, there is no guarantee that a de-centralized education system will improve aggregate outcomes. What is very likely, however, is that parents and students will have more options, and that the action of choosing those options, will create a more dynamic system of testing those options. This alone will be a dramatic improvement over the expensive, slow, and culturally painful process of implement a large scale change in today’s ossified “district-based” system, where nearly every school is merely a franchise of a federally run school system. Furthermore, the probability is high that a decentralized system will be less expensive as well, as smaller, more nimble, schools do not require the administrative overhead of today’s “compliance-based” bureaucracy.

Decentralize, but how?

Of course, once you start talking about decentralizing education, the entire Government Education Complex engages in the process of defending its hard-won turf. Decentralization means dis-empowering the decades-long accretion of bureaucrats, union bosses, and private contractors that live off the yearly cash flow of education spending that reached $634 billion in 2013 (latest year available).

Simple legislative tools, such as charter schools, vouchers or education savings accounts, bring out the hammer and tongs of the entrenched education bureaucracy. They argue that this money diverts money from the local school district or our “already struggling public schools.”

This is beside the point. If a parent is unhappy with a local school, and believes they may have access to a better option, then denying the school district of funds is a pointless argument. Education spending should benefit the student, not the local bureaucracy.

Sadly, charters, vouchers and other mechanisms that might decentralize education will likely never take enough hold to truly do what the necessary dismantlement of today’s centralized system. The political clout of the established system is too great to allow enough funds (or students) to be pulled from their maw.

While there is value in doing what you can to expand your education options legislatively, the fact is that we are on the cusp of developing an entirely new way to decentralize government schools. Just leave them.

What if they gave an expensive, bureaucratized school district, and nobody came? Welcome to the “micro-school.” While very early in the development stages, the fact is that these new, small, schools are starting up across America. Maybe it is time you thought about starting one too.

Building upon the proven success of home schooling, American parents can now choose a wide variety of curricula, on-line resources, and tutors / teachers to educate their children. I lack the space in this article to provide all the details, but it suffices to say that all the pieces are in place for an exodus from the centralized system, and the moment you choose that option, you have essentially succeeded in decentralizing education in the only part of America that is most important to you – your kids and your home.

Yes, you will still be on the hook for all the taxes that the district system eats, but instead of fighting the impossible battle of convincing voters to cut that spending, convince them to open a small school with you instead. As more people leave for better options, the constituency for all that wasteful spending will shrink. It is time to do to government schools what Priceline did to travel agents.

Please click the links below to find out more about micro-schools, and how they might be the “killer app” the finally puts a stake through the heart of America’s mediocre, expensive, and sclerotic Government Education Complex.

• Acton Academy

• AltSchool

• Brightworks

• Full Circle School

• Highlands Micro School

• Khan Lab School

• NOLA Micro Schools

• Parish Academy

Bruno Behrend is a Senior Fellow at the Heartland Institute and a free lance writer on education policy.

The Left is working overtime to silence and/or marginalize conservative voices in America
The time to support IFI is now!

Recently, U.S. Secretary of Education John King, while speaking at a press conference, remarked that although some homeschool situations are just fine, in general, “Students who are homeschooled are not getting kind of the rapid instructional experience they would get in school.”

King also said that part of the school experience is learning how to deal with and build relationships with peers and teachers—implying that homeschoolers don’t get this kind of experience.

Now, before I go on, in the interest of full disclosure, I’ll tell you that my wife and I homeschool our three daughters. To be specific, we’re part of a community of homeschooling families with a hybrid model that shares resources and that journeys together. We think our daughters are receiving a first-rate education. I say that not just so you know I’ve got a horse in the race, but because my wife and I have personal experience. We know this world. We live in it.

But back to the Secretary’s comments. It’s not clear what he meant by “rapid instructional experience,” but that can mean a sort of checklist approach—plowing through the material, cramming for standardized tests, and hitting every mandated topic. In that sense, he’s right. Many homeschoolers don’t get “rapid instruction” of this sort, but that’s not really education in the first place.

But what has me most concerned about the Secretary’s remarks is the classic “we know better than you” attitude so endemic among governmental elites—whether it’s telling us what kind of healthcare we need, or how to teach our young ones about the most intimate of human relations.

Let me be clear: The federal government’s ever-growing reach into our children’s education is a bi-partisan effort. The Department of Education was established by Jimmy Carter. George W. Bush signed the disastrous “No Child Left Behind” initiative into law. And Common Core, which many argue will leave kids unprepared for college, has both Republican and Democratic support.

But if the federal government really does know best, how is it, as Lindsey Burke of The Daily Signal notes, that “just one-third of all eighth-graders in public schools can read proficiently”? How is it that “Roughly two out of 10 students don’t graduate high school at all, [and]the United States ranks in the middle of the pack on international assessments?”

And while we’re at it, can we address this idea that homeschooled children don’t socialize well? That’s just nonsense. Some struggle, of course, but so do some public schoolers. And what does it mean for a child to be normally socialized anyway? If it’s activities, homeschooling author Joe Kelly observed recently that “Many home-schoolers play on athletic teams…” And “they’re also interactive with students of different ages… [having] more opportunity to get out into the world and engage with adults and teens alike.”

Now, I’m not trying to hammer public education. I grew up in Northern Virginia, home of some of the finest public school systems in the country that turn out highly educated, well prepared young people. And Colorado Springs, where I live now, is full of great teachers, and innovative charter schools.

But none of that changes the statistics. According to the National Home Education Research Institute, homeschoolers typically “score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests.” And they “score above average on achievement tests regardless of their parents’ level of formal education or their family’s household income.”

Homeschoolers are, according to U.S. News “ripe for college.” They receive an education tailored to their needs. And you know what? They’re well-socialized, too

Now am I saying you should homeschool your kids? Not necessarily. What I am saying is that you—not the Secretary of Education, the federal government, or anyone else—know what’s best for your children and your family.

We live in a nation where we are free to tailor our children’s education to their specific needs, whether that involves public, private, charter, or home schooling. Let’s be proactive in protecting and championing that freedom. For more information on homeschooling statistics, check out the links below.

Home-Schooled Teens Ripe for College
Kelsey Sheehy | USNews.com | June 1, 2012

Research Facts On Homeschooling
Brian D. Ray, Ph.D. | NHERI | March 23, 2016

What Obama’s Education Secretary Got Wrong About Homeschoolers
Lindsey Burke / The Daily Signal | September 21, 2016

This article was originally posted at BreakPoint.org

Written by Kirk Smith

We’ve learned several things since President Barack Obama dictatorially demanded that public school restrooms now be co-ed or risk federal funding. The first thing we learned is that in spite of well-intending parents saying their school is “different from all the other schools,” we now know they will all be the same with regard to restroom and locker rooms practices. Follow the money to D.C.

Second, regardless of how sincere Christian teachers are in their desire to bring Christ into the classroom, they are spiritual eunuchs, who were long ago emasculated and their message muted.  To give true testimony of Christ in their classroom is to suffer termination, a risk that is too great for most to take.

Third, local school boards are powerless as Washington D.C. controls every facet of education down to dictating bathroom policy.

Finally, Christian parents are in a showdown with the state with regard to whose will is absolute in the raising of their children, as they seek to answer, “How important is eternity for our children?”

One upset public school parent recently declared, “Obama’s mandate won’t stand!” Of course, this is the same sentiment embodies in an earlier claim that Christianity could not be taken out of the classroom, Obama could not get re-elected, and Mrs. Clinton had no real chance at the White House.  And here we are. Naïveté is a luxury we can no longer afford. The price is way too high.

The Scriptures make it undeniably plain: “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40). Statistics bear out this truth as the church is losing between 64% – 88% of her professing youth after their first year in college. Others studies reveal that the compromise which leads to this departure begins as early as junior high.

Public school students receive around 15,000 hours of indoctrination in the religion of secular humanism, while Christian parents seek to counteract this avalanche with pizza parties at youth meetings and a thirty-minute weekly sermon. Our children are leaving the faith by the tens of thousands, and we can’t figure out why?

Sadder yet, many will go into eternity unprepared. How long can we Christians elicit the grace of God for our children while sending our children into a culture that we know is spiritually destructive?

How much spiritual carnage do we have to witness before we say, “Enough is enough. This is the last straw. There must be an alternative!”

Not only is there an alternative, it’s been proven to work experientially, statistically, and historically.  It’s called homeschooling.

While homeschooling is not a silver bullet, 94% of homeschooled children do keep the faith of their parents, and 93% stay active in their local church after graduation. These numbers alone should motivate parents to train their impressionable children at home in accordance with Deuteronomy 6.

While many parents feel overwhelmed at the magnitude of this task, there are innumerable resources to help, not the least of which is God.  Ignorance and feelings of inadequacy are no longer justifiable excuses, especially since a parent’s level of education has been found to be a non-factor in their children’s academic success.

I was a public school teacher as was my wife. When we started to homeschool twenty years ago, I shared that I was not anti-public schooling, just pro-homeschooling. That is no longer the case. I know far too much. The public school system is not broken. On the contrary, it is doing exactly what it was designed to do: indoctrinate the next generation into a socialist perspective of voluntary slavery. Consider what educational leader John Dewey wrote:

The moral responsibility of the school and of those who conduct it is to society. [A]part from participation in social life, the school has no moral end or aim. [In religious terminology] the moral trinity of the school [is] the demand for social intelligence, social power, and social interests.

Can the point be made any clearer than that?

I call on all parents who profess the name of Christ to reevaluate their decision to send their children to government schools. We will each stand before God Almighty and have to give an account for the stewardship of our children’s souls. What will we say on that day when we knowingly sent them into a system that rejects His name and teaches doctrines that are diametrically opposed to His Word?

For those of you who feel this tug but don’t know where to start, I want to personally invite you to attend the Illinois Christian Home Educators’ Annual Convention in Naperville, June 2-4. For the past 17 years, my wife and I have made the five-hour trip north in order to be encouraged, instructed, and equipped to raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. For more information and to register, go to www.iche.org and click on the convention icon.

Kirk and Joely Smith have been married since 1991. Kirk graduated from Greenville College, teaching and coaching for two years at the high school level before founding the House of Prayer church in Albion, IL, which he pastored for almost 25 years. Joely graduated from the University of Southern Indiana and taught first grade for two years before the birth of their first child after which she stayed home. 

The Smith family live in southeastern Illinois with their 11 children who range in age from toddler to young adult.  They are looking forward to building new relationships and spreading the home discipleship vision of ICHE to all corners of Illinois.

Senator Maloney has heard your concerns and has tabled the bill which means it’s dead for the session!

Take ACTION: Click HERE to contact Senator Maloney to thank him for hearing your concerns. You can also call his district office at 773-881-4180.

Background

In a show of strength, an estimated 4000 homeschoolers descended on the Illinois Capitol Tuesday morning to demonstrate their opposition to SB 136, the proposal to mandate the registration of homeschool students with state bureaucrats.

During the Senate Education Committee hearing on the matter, proponents of the bill made it abundantly clear that registration isn’t all they were interested in. During testimony, downstate Truancy Officer Bill Reynolds told the committee that he wanted to “help” homeschoolers in his area, but didn’t necessarily know where to find them. This reminded me of Ronald Reagan’s words: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.'”

And at various points during the hearing, both Senators Kimberly Lightford (D-Chicago) and Iris Martinez (D-Chicago) wondered what role government should have in trying to help those homeschooling students who were “falling through the cracks.” Apparently they failed to see the irony in requiring homeschooling parents to register their children in a system that has allowed scores of students to fall through the cracks for decades.

An email from Illinois Christian Home Educators (ICHE) pointed out:

Some senators worried about homeschoolers “falling through the cracks.” But if “falling through the cracks” means kids ending high school without a diploma, without being able to read, without being able to enter college without remedial classes, and with a juvenile justice record, then “falling through the cracks” is quite common in public schools. The sad truth is that the public schools do not have the solution to “falling through the cracks!” Why should the least effective system of education supervise the most effective system?

One of the more alarming comments from the committee came from Senator Lightford, who wondered about homeschool teacher qualification and certification, which reveals the true intent of some government employees and points to the inevitable “slippery slope from registration to regulation” that IFI’s Laurie Higgins wrote about in her original article about this ominous bill.

If you are not convinced, please consider this exchange between Committee Member Senator David Luechtefeld (R-Okawville) and Truancy Officer Bill Reynolds:

Senator Luechtefeld: “If they register – will you go to any house and see if you can help?”

Truancy Officer: “Yes, sir.”

Senator Luechtefeld: “Even those that are doing a really good job?”

Truancy Officer: “That’s right. And I’ll know very quickly as I knock on the door; the ones that are doing a great job won’t let me go. They’ll want me to come in. The ones that say we don’t want you around I’ll know to take further action.”

Senator Luechtefeld: “I still don’t see how this changes things just because they register.”

Truancy Officer: “It gives me the name and opportunity.”

In other words, Mr. Reynolds is admitting that this bill is a solution looking for a problem! This bill will give him job security as he and other Truancy Officers harass homeschooling families and demand proof of academic success. So much for innocent until proven guilty. This is a standard not even required of public school teachers and administrators. IFI lobbyist Ralph Rivera pointed out the fact that existing truancy laws are adequate and that homeschoolers are accountable to them.

Opponents of this bill, including attorney Scott Woodruff from HSLDA, pointed out that this bill will turn peaceful, ordinary citizens “into political activists” — a fact driven home by a packed hearing room that overflowed into the hallways of the second and third floors. While waiting for the hearing to start, the crowd in the hallways began to sing. Strains of “America the Beautiful,” “God Bless America,” “Amazing Grace,” and “The Star-Spangled Banner” drifted into the committee room. This huge, orderly, and deeply passionate crowd singing beautifully made a powerful statement and played an invaluable part in seeing SB 136 defeated so quickly.

Other great Youtube links:

National Anthem in the halls of the Capitol

Another view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXi0feUQcSA

America the Beautiful by homeschoolers opposing SB 136

WMAY Report on Hearing