It’s not that Americans don’t have faith; they just trust in the wrong things. While we, as a nation, drift away from our Biblical roots, we provide substitute gods that we hope will save our society. I spend a lot of time and space commenting on our misplaced confidence in the government to give meaning to life and to ensure we are all taken care of. A corollary to our supposed omnipotent government is our vaunted education system.
Despite all indications to the contrary, we continue to put our faith in a “public” system that fails continually. First, let’s deal with a few myths:
- Public education is free—hardly. Check out sometime just how many of your state tax dollars go for education. I think you’ll be surprised by the percentage.
- No one will get educated without this system—have you noticed how few are getting educated with it? Oh, I know they are in school, but that’s not the same thing.
- Public education is for everyone; private education is for the elite rich—a couple of points here: private education educates the public also; most private schools are church-related and don’t cater to the rich.
It’s time to wake up from this dream world and see what’s really happening:
My comments are not meant to disparage all those teachers who work hard to help their students. I’m particularly proud (in the right sense of that term) of Christians who see their teaching in the public schools as a ministry. God will use them. Yet that doesn’t change my estimation of the system itself. It is a god that fails. And whenever anyone attempts to highlight that failure, this is the type of response often received:
Government never was intended to direct education; that’s not one of its legitimate functions. The consequences are numerous: bloated bureaucracy; out-of-control spending; control of subject matter; and relegation of Christian beliefs to the sidelines at best. It’s time to take off the blinders and support real choice in education.