In Defense of Private Schools
“Education is a complex and many-sided culture to meet a complex and many-sided world.” – G.K. Chesterton
School choice is a hot topic in certain parts of the country at the moment, Illinois included. Focusing on an adjacent issue, Emily Gill, Caterpillar Professor of Political Science Emerita, recently wrote about the dilemma of religion in public schools for the independent Peoria paper Community Word.
Professor Gill uses several examples of legislation throughout various states that strives to push religion, particularly elements of the Christian faith, into public school districts. In Louisiana, there was a law that attempted to have the Ten Commandments displayed in classrooms. The law was opposed by a federal judge. In Texas, “a Bible-based elementary school curriculum for reading and language arts” was approved for use. While not mandatory, it includes financial perks to motivate districts to adopt the program.
Are such moves fair to citizens in light of the American ideal of religious freedom? I think there’s a strong case for the answer “No,” the response toward which Gill leans. Just as I would not want pornographic material to be part of a mandatory curriculum for my own child, I can understand why a parent who does not agree with the Ten Commandments, building blocks of civilization though they be, would not want their child to have to look at them every day at school. People who think there is a real right and wrong seek to uphold the integrity of personal belief.
Those who favor the Texas Bible curriculum “say that knowledge of the Golden Rule and the Prodigal Son, for instance, is necessary for cultural literacy.” But if we’re going to use “cultural literacy” to argue for biblical truths to be taught in a public school, I can just as easily argue for Homer’s Odyssey, Jewish Midrash, or Indigenous creation myths to be included for the same reason. My point is not that a study of such literature should be neglected, but that “cultural literacy” is not going to justify this sort of preeminence.
In fact, when we study art or history or politics, we are faced with a cacophony of ideologies and competing voices. Mature students should become familiar with them, but when they are taught in the classroom, ideologies should be spoken of as the beliefs of others, not preached as indisputable truths. For this same reason, gender ideology, when it is pushed upon students as something to explore and develop in their own lives, has no place in the classroom.
“Gender theory” and “sexual orientation” are rooted in someone else’s idea of sexuality. At least ten states mandate inclusive sexual orientation. This goes beyond teaching kids about how their bodies work and instead informs them of different ways in which they could feel or act on a sexual level. When this happens, sex ed oversteps its appropriate bounds. It steps outside the parameters of public education and into the realm of proselytizing.
In her education and religious rights article, Professor Gill states, “A broader definition [of separation of church and state] equates separation with nonpreferentialism, or the stance that the government may aid religion as long as it does not prefer some religions over others.” This is the view which I hold. It applies likewise to all ideologies and philosophies. It would seem most appropriate if the public school system avoided fads and fancies and focused on facts.
Considering factors like ideology, morality, acuity, and safety leads some parents to favor private education, either within or outside of the home. Such potential gives school choice its liberating luster.
There’s a veritable boon of private schools less than a 10-minute drive from our home including a parochial school, the IQRA Islamic school, and the Montessori Private Academy. All offer elementary education. The first is attached to our parish where my wife and I attend Mass. The second provides a Muslim education and focuses on “a small student to teacher ratio,” allowing a more personalized education for each pupil. The last of the three touts that they do not discriminate against any race, creed, or nationality. Indeed, the Montessori approach involves getting your hands dirty while you learn. It seeks to prepare the student not just for further education but for life as a whole. This mentality shares something in common with the classical liberal arts method that seeks to prepare the student to live a good life as determined by reason, ethics, and even faith.
The classical liberal arts approach is always at risk of becoming too metaphysical and not practical enough. Sometimes they rely predominantly on the humanities, although the Chesterton Network schools try to remedy that with a rigorous math and science curriculum.
But I mean that the classical schools sometimes fail to provide real-world applicability in their classrooms, especially in regards to job preparedness and knowledge of current or emergent technology. Thankfully, not all private classical schools are guilty of this. Those with sufficient means offer robotics and code-writing classes. On the level of higher education, schools that will combine learning a trade with learning the Great Books, such as San Damiano College for the Trades, look promising.
If we return to our local outlook and expand the commute we’re willing to take, we find other private operations like Rockford Christian, Boylan, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Academy, and Veritas Christi Hybrid Academy. These represent a few of the Christian and Roman Catholic alternatives in the area that accommodate high schoolers. All this to say that the private school sector is alive and kicking in my neck of the woods.
Private schools, like their public counterparts, are not without dangers and flaws. Shootings at private schools are less common, but that can be explained, in part, by the fact that private schools themselves are less common than public. A recent tragedy that made national headlines was the shooting at Abundant Life Christian School, a private school in Madison. Being a private organization does not suspend the possibility of dangers brought on by mental illness.
Still, from the parental perspective, it seems safer than the bullies, gangs, and related violence witnessed in public schools. Moreover, as addressed above, it is often religious or ideological views that give the private schools their charm. A parent might wish their child to be safe in mind, body, and soul — and every one of these is a legitimate concern. They might also want their child to not feel like the odd person out and deem that their child might find closer friends in a community of like-minded individuals.
Despite being important to a large portion of Americans, one of the nation’s two leading political parties expressed its unabashed opposition to private schools in the last election. According to their Party Platform:
We oppose the use of private-school vouchers, tuition tax credits, opportunity scholarships, and other schemes that divert taxpayer-funded resources away from public education.
Many agree that public schools could be better; the whole business of education is built upon growing and learning from past experience. But while the public schools are being improved, why should my child go through this system which I feel to be flawed? For whatever reason a parent has, he or she deserves access to private education options.
Vouchers allow parents to rearrange public funds for a child’s education and put that money toward tuition for a private school. Tax-credit scholarships are available through nonprofits to which individuals and companies donate funds. There are also educational savings accounts, or ESAs, into which a state places funds that can be used by the parents of participating students to cover approved expenses. Tuition may count as one of these education expenses.
There are a lot of options, but one group of politicians dismisses school choice. Mr. Trump, on the other hand, ran on a platform that included support for “Universal School Choice.” The platform also tells constituents:
We will expand 529 Education Savings Accounts and support Homeschooling Families equally.
The fact that school choice made it onto one of the two major parties’ platforms means officials deemed it a big issue that had the potential to gain people’s votes. According to a poll, most Muslim Americans voted for the Green Party’s candidate in this last election. 20% voted for Harris, and a smidgen more, 21%, voted for Trump. Yet with possibly close to four million Muslims in the country, that 1% margin still amounts to thousands. While the Green Party also opposes the privatization of education, I can’t help but wonder whether some of the Muslim Americans voting for Trump did so in view of their desire to send their kids to a private school.
At the day’s end, private schools are simply different from their public counterparts. So long as they can match the STEM fundamentals, necessary humanities, and career preparedness of their public peers, private schools are a worthy alternative. In a world that often applauds a diversity of opinions, the public education system remains a monolithic monument to ideological conformity and uniformity. Please excuse me if I find myself thinking differently than you.
