CHRISTIAN
SCHOOLS FOR THE POOR AND MEEK?
By Mark Ellis
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, CALIFORNIA (ANS)
-- A procession of luxury-equipped SUVs and sleek
Mercedes sedans files slowly into St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in
South Orange County, California, where kindergarten runs over $13,000
per year and high school tuition exceeds $15,000. At Arcadia Christian
School on the periphery of L.A., 37 percent of the parents earn over
$100,000 annually—only 15 percent earn less than $50,000.
School officials at St. Margaret’s maintain their
tuition is one of the lowest in private schools, citing surveys
revealing comparable prep schools in the L.A. area charging over
$18,000 for high school tuition.
To be sure, affluent suburbs in Southern California don’t reflect
national averages for tuition. “That’s unique to that geographical
area,” says Tom Scott, with the Association of Christian Schools
International. Nationally, the average tuition is $4,000 to $6,000 for
high schools, but those numbers don’t always reflect the true cost of
running the schools. Yet even middle class families can find $5,000 per
year daunting—especially for those with several children.
Meeting the cost of Christian education is often about priorities. “We
have families at our school who only buy well-used cars and live in
condos and they don’t take extravagant vacations,” says Steve
Blankenship, principal at Arcadia Christian. “We have other families
who live in houses on the hill, drive $75,000 vehicles, and take
European vacations.”
To some, the notion that Christian education is becoming a privileged
enclave for a well-heeled elite is troubling—especially considering
Jesus’ ministry focus on the poor and meek. “We’ve been guilty of
taking an easy route,” Blankenship laments. “There is still a large
level of families for whom Christian education is not even a
possibility.”
Dr. June Hetzel, associate professor of education at Biola University,
grapples with the implications of this emerging pattern. Attending
school with “peers who are all from a higher socioeconomic class is not
normal,” Hetzel asserts. “The child misses out on the full strata and
richness of society,” she says. “Sometimes the students drive better
cars than the teachers themselves.”
A “materialistic creep” may assert itself, Hetzel believes, unless
school administrators take countermeasures. “They need to build into
their budgeting structure a system that will provide scholarships for
children from all walks of life,” she says.
While some might turn to vouchers as the answer, many administrators
are loath to entangle themselves with any form of state or federal
remedy. “The majority of Christian schools don’t want government
funding because they don’t want government control,” Hetzel says.
A novel alternative to vouchers first tried in Arizona is spreading to
several other states, thanks to the fervor of Rep. Trent Franks, who
first proposed the Arizona Scholarship Tax Credit in 1997 when he was a
state legislator.
“We beat our heads in on vouchers in Arizona and couldn’t get them
passed,” Franks says. “Sometimes the evangelical community would
testify against us. They said if we take government money, then along
with shekels will come shackles.”
At the time, Franks served on the board of a scholarship charity that
managed to raise about $100,000 a year for needy children to attend
private schools. Contributors to the 501 C-3 received a tax deduction.
While considering ways to expand the program, Franks had a flash of
inspiration. “What if we turn the deduction into a credit?” he thought.
“I call it divinely simple and the NEA calls it fiendishly clever,
because they’ve sued us several times,” he says. Since its passage in
1997, the Arizona program has funneled over $83.5 million in
scholarships to 47 nonprofit organizations, allowing thousands
of children to attend the school of their choice for the first
time. Currently 19,000 students are making use of the scholarships in
Arizona.
Donors to Arizona’s program receive a tax credit up to $625 for married
couples. “We went from raising $100,000 per year for one charity to 47
charities raising 25 million a year,” Franks reports. “It just went
crazy.”
“The problem we have is now we don’t have enough private schools to put
the kids,” he adds. “The Catholics for the first time in 30 years are
building schools in Arizona.” About 70 percent of the children
receiving scholarships are from low-income families, according to
Franks.
Florida and Pennsylvania passed their own versions of the
Arizona program, and last year Franks introduced a national
bill—“The Children’s Hope Act”—to encourage more states to follow suit.
His bill would provide a modest federal tax credit for states enacting
scholarship programs. Franks’ bill did not pass in 2004, but he plans
to reintroduce it next year.
Whether scholarships or vouchers become the favored course to alleviate
disparities, more efforts will need to be made to enlarge the reach
of Christian education to underprivileged children.
Mark Ellis is a Senior
Correspondent for ASSIST News Service. He is also an assistant pastor
in Laguna Beach, CA. Contact Ellis at marsalis@fea.net
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Friday, October 22, 2004
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