True School Reform?

I met with the principal of Fremont School (K-8) last Friday, and was struck by her desire to want to create a better learning environment for the students but plagued by an aging campus and limited budget. We had a good chat about possibilities local congregations in Fremont's school boundaries could partner to help out.


I know enough of my Christian peers with young kids who are considering or have moved to a better school district, chosen homeschooling, or are putting their kids in private Christian schooling. I had one co-worker from another city  tell me that sacrificing his kid's education to a bad school was not on the list of things he wanted to sacrifice anymore (and his family sacrifices a lot for the good of their city).

I don't want to judge my friends who have made all of the above choices. I would feel ambivalence too if I didn't already live in the "best" K-8 school in our district (not planned, just worked out that way). I can't say I wouldn't have done the same if given the chance and resources. And I know many also made their decisions because they feel that their faith will not be supported in the public school system.

But I wonder if our choices as a whole become another form of capitulation by the Church to reinforcing the sacred-secular split in our society. The local school becomes irrelevant, competition, even the enemy in some ways.

If the Kingdom of God in Christ is the best, brightest hope we have in the world, it must permeate all sectors of our society, especially our institutions and including our local schools. Even if we've made the best choice for our own kids, should the Church abandon the rest who can't do the same? If we believe that true school reform will somehow be wrapped in who Jesus is and his mission to the world, we must realize that it will take more than even the greatest individual Christian teachers, administrators, parents, students who faithfully slug it out in an often challenging environment--the  Church community must be there as well.