The State of Christian Education

Mr. Matthew Tuckey
Administrator (Carlisle Christian Academy, PA)


We find ourselves today in very turbulent times. Our president-elect prepares to assume a historic national debt, a reeling economy, and fragile national security. Our faith faces increased skepticism fueled by divisiveness among believers, conformity to pluralism, and litigation that reaches beyond the separation of church and state to the exclusion of Christianity among reason. Among the entanglement of our world, we have hope. As I type this, Jack Bauer has returned and redemption is to be found in another twenty-four hours!

Our educational system also faces a turning point. The system is failing as measured by most national and international benchmarks. Money isn’t the issue as per student expenditures continue to rise with assessments failing to follow the upward trend. Many studies show high school graduates in the United States ill prepared to successfully engage in a global marketplace. This isn’t an insult to the many fine, qualified professionals in public education. Some of my closest friends are in public education, and I respect them greatly. The incompetency of public education is not because of the individuals involved, but rather it is due to a broken system. Increased bureaucracy or even more public money has not and will not bring resolution. This is why, for the first time in memory, we had presidential candidates calling for the dissolution of the Department of Education. It’s too heavy and is sinking under the weight of itself.

At the same time, the “product” of Christian education has also seemingly become less desirable as measured by overall enrollment. The perception of what Christian education entails varies greatly, and the spiraling economy makes discretionary money more difficult to cultivate. These two factors, among others, have contributed to an average decrease in enrollment of 12% in Pennsylvania in Christian schools over the past five years. In most markets, select Christian schools thrive, while the majority face downsizing.

In contrast, alternative educational options are skyrocketing. Home schooling is becoming more organized, supported, networked, and in turn more prevalent. Cyberschool and other distance learning formats are becoming more widespread.

So what does this mean? It’s my belief that the free market system would be a catalyst for significant, positive changes in the world of education. Even without true educational choice, parents are increasingly dissatisfied with public schooling as their mandated option and are intensively seeking other choices as shown in the expanding alternative education market. Lobbyists for school choice are gaining merit as initiatives across the nation are showing encouraging results.

Where does Christian education find itself in this evolving educational landscape? The aforementioned statistics support a theory that quality, diverse, focused Christian schools are positioned to experience significant growth while schools vying to survive simply because of the “Christian” label that they carry will fail. Parents seek choice, including non-public, religious schools; however, they will not sacrifice quality academics for thinly veiled dogma. The “church school” with a prayerful heart but with unqualified teachers, a loose curriculum, and an unstructured organizational approach will attract only the parents seeking to hide and protect their children from the evils of the world. (Warning: The humanness of the fallen world permeates the walls of these schools as well, so the protectionist mindset will be unsatisfied, leaving these schools to die on the vine).

With 85% of people in the U.S. considering them “Christians,” parents carry that belief forward as they seek educational options wherein their children develop worldview through the lens of faith. Certainly for the devout Christian, an educational option that integrates academics with faith parallels God’s call for parents to train their children in the way of the Lord. In surveys, this option is even attractive for nonpracticing “Christian” parents as they seek a holistic educational choice that incorporates the mind, body, and spirit into the instruction for their child.

It’s my belief that those schools that are able to construct themselves on the fundamental truths of the one true God while providing diverse, quality academics will continue to flourish. This means providing a consistent, moldable curriculum based on clearly stated objectives. This means benchmarking academic offerings against the leading public and non-public schools, adapting what works and remodeling what doesn’t. This means meeting students where they are at in their faith, catering to the student who has known Christ for years while equally supporting the student who is uncommitted or skeptical about a relationship with Jesus. This means tearing down denominational barriers and inviting healthy, intelligent discussion about the Christian faith. This means being authentic and transparent about our faith journeys, showing hearts that seek a dynamic relationship with Jesus as opposed to doctrinal mandates. This means loving, serving, and forgiving in a way that is softening hearts as opposed to force-feeding evangelism that is hardening hearts.

Christian schools were at their heyday in the 1980’s. Enrollments reached peak levels, and new schools opened regularly. We now see a generation that came through these schools making educational choices for their children. Too often, these alumni are apathetic to the difference that Christian school made in their lives or worse, are jaded by the experience. The negativity is due to a myriad of reasons, but is most predominantly rooted in legalism and hypocrisy.

However, like Jack Bauer, we have a new “24.” As a Christian school, we have a new opportunity to define ourselves, not by what the world calls for but by what God calls us to be. At Carlisle Christian Academy, we believe that we are called to be an educational community that seeks to know, love, and serve God. We believe that we are to pursue excellence, trying to serve our students more effectively and more efficiently tomorrow than we did today. We believe that separating academic knowledge and spiritual truth is ineffective as they are not mutually exclusive. We believe that God has called us individually to be at this school to collectively learn and grow in and through Him. We will attempt to walk alongside parents as they work to train their children up in the way that they should go. I believe that in our new “24,” parents will continue to see the inherent value in this.

So what does this mean for Christian educators worldwide?

• Embrace today like you first did when you felt God’s call to this vocation.
• Teach with passion.
• Work with parents to support their children.
• Go deeper into the student world to find what might motivate them.
• Be open to let God change and transform you so that you might have a greater impact on the impressionable lives of your students.
• Think of the most difficult parent, student, and co-worker and consider how you might change yourself or your approach to strengthen those relationships.
• Forgive instead of judge.
• Be real instead of pretending.
• Commit or recommit to being completely disposable to God in allowing Him to make your school place a true “city on a hill,” a light in your community that cannot be hidden.