18 How Do Christian & Public Schools Relate?

The dismissive comments Benny and his wife heard their child’s former school officials make about their child’s new Christian school disappointed them. Benny and his wife gave the negative comments no credence. They instead knew the heartening qualities and strong programs of their child’s new Christian school. Benny and his wife also knew the competitive stance and negative views of their faith that fueled the school officials’ negative comments and attitudes. But Benny and his wife needed their child to have access to the former school’s continued services in certain respects, as was their child’s legal right. And so Benny and his wife just smiled calmly, while ignoring the comments. In the end, all that mattered was their beloved child’s legal rights and best interests. 

Relations

When parents consider enrolling their child in a private Christian school rather than the local public school, their deliberations naturally invoke a comparison and contrast of the schools and their personnel, programs, policies, and commitments. The prior chapters should have helped you discern some of the public and private school similarities and differences, as this chapter may make further apparent. Parent deliberations over public or private school for their children can also raise the question of the relationship between a private Christian school and local public school. If the child is already enrolled in the public school but the parents decide to move their child to the Christian school, the parents must arrange and navigate the child’s transfer. Understanding the relationship of public to private Christian schools can help the parents accomplish that move. Parents may also wish to rely or need to rely on programs or services from both public and private schools at once, to the extent that the schools permit it. This chapter helps you understand the opportunities.

Interests

Public schools and private Christian schools share similar interests, while also having differing interests. Both public schools and private Christian schools wish to maintain sufficient student enrollment to carry out their educational programs and broader missions, as each system or school discerns and defines their mission. Public and private school teachers, administrators, and leaders generally want the best for students, even if their views of what constitutes the best differ in some respects, especially around religion, faith, and spirituality. Both public and private schools need safe and secure facilities, qualified and committed staff, a stable and sufficient budget, the support of public safety and other government officials, and good community relations including the respect of the local citizenry. Members of the public school community and private Christian school community generally recognize their similar interests, refrain from interfering with the other school’s interests, and at times actively support the other school’s interests. Public and private schools are not naturally at odds. They are instead naturally aligned in their educational missions. You need not feel as if your family is crossing a deep divide when moving your child from the public school to the Christian school. You are simply choosing what you know to be the better school for your child. 

Commonality

The natural alignment of public school and private Christian school interests can at times lead to members of the two school communities sharing common facilities, functions, seminars, programs, and events. Public and private schools may both participate in local parades, festivals, and community fairs. They may send their teachers and administrators to the same state training on new program requirements affecting both public and private schools, where they may not just receive training together but also socialize as well-known and valued acquaintances but also as neighbors and friends. Public and private school principals may also advocate together with one another, lobbying local officials on local public safety, ordinance enforcement, zoning, planning, road maintenance, and other public services and measures. Public and private school principals or administrators may even communicate with one another regarding weather closures, security measures, technology solutions, and other common points of interest, simply as professionals in any sector might support one another. The common and overlapping activities of public and private schools and their staff prove again that your choice of a private Christian school over a public school is not a betrayal of one system for another but instead your informed judgment of what is best for your child. 

Coordination

Public schools and private Christian schools also coordinate for some activities and services. The above chapters have previously mentioned that federal laws require public school districts to provide private schools in their district, including Christian schools, with certain federally funded services for special needs students. Your child’s private Christian school may, for instance, send its students to the local public school district’s professionals for disability evaluation, speech and language therapy, and other services, while the Christian school simultaneously instructs the student in its own religious and academic curriculum. State law may also require the local public school district to provide some transportation services to students attending private schools, including Christian schools, within the district. Your child may be able to ride a public school bus to and from Christian school, within certain program limitations. Depending on state law and athletic association rules, private Christian school students may also be able to participate on the local public school’s sports teams if, for instance, the Christian school does not participate in that sport. Public and private school sports teams also share sports leagues and, in doing so, share sports facilities. The coordination of public and private school programs and services once again shows that no deep divide necessarily exists between the two schools, that should in any way affect your child’s attendance of one school or another. 

Competition

Local public schools do, though, compete with private Christian schools for student enrollment. When a public school student decides to attend Christian school instead, the public school loses the state’s annual per-pupil funding for that student, unless the annual count date has already passed, in which case the public school will lose that student’s state funding the next year, assuming that the student remains in Christian school. Thus, public school officials can see each student lost to Christian school as a loss of several thousand dollars out of their annual state taxpayer-funded budget. Christian schools have a similar financial interest in student enrollment. Properly, the competing financial interests of the public and private schools lead to nothing more than good-spirited, old-fashioned American competition, and let the best school win. Public and private schools compete for student enrollment by offering special facilities, programs, and other positive incentives. Respect the competition of public and private schools for student enrollment. That competition may be making both public and private schools better for students. 

Enrollment

Enrollment trends can indeed affect local public and private schools, and their relations. Schools with growing enrollment are generally financially healthy schools. Increasing enrollment may require gradually adding staff or even expanding facilities and programs. Yet on the whole, enrollment growth is a good, not a bad, problem. On the other hand, decreasing enrollment can cause significant budgetary strain. Costs are generally much harder to cut in schools than to add. Enrollment losses can lead to painful layoffs of dedicated teachers and staff members, and to program cuts and school consolidation and closures. Those issues are not your family’s problem. But be mindful of public school administrators’ budgetary concerns, if you are moving your child from the public school to a local Christian school during a time of significant public school enrollment decreases. Your child’s new Christian school is not to blame for public school budgetary issues but may nonetheless be public school administrators’ scapegoat target. 

Conflict

Unfortunately, the competitive interests of public and private schools can, in the worst instance, lead to conflicts between schools or their students, families, and officials. Conflicts between public and private schools are seldom, if ever, direct and open. They tend instead to resolve themselves in relative obscurity and silence. You should not, for instance, expect to see any exchange of harsh words or rude written communications between school officials, in any way involving your choice to send your child to either school or to move your child from one school to the other. Just appreciate that not every public school official may be entirely gracious with respect to your family’s interests and decisions, entirely supportive of your child’s needs, or fully respectful of the programs and personnel of the private Christian school you have chosen. Contrarily, you have every right and reason to expect full grace, support, and respect from the Christian school and its representatives, no matter your decisions. Members of Christian school communities hold themselves and one another to the highest standards. 

Curriculum

Local public schools and private Christian schools generally face little to no issue helping students who move from one school to the other adjust to their relative curricula. As already addressed in an above chapter, Christian schools generally teach the same core academic subjects as the public schools. The Christian school’s integration of a biblical worldview along with the academic subject’s instruction should not affect your child’s ability to follow, adapt to, and learn either curriculum. You should find your child’s transfer into Christian school to be seamless from an academic standpoint. The school’s academic team should ensure that it is so. Both Christian schools and public schools often offer both basic and advanced instruction in the same course, class, and subject. Evaluating your student’s learning and getting your student up to speed and on the better track may take only a little patience and some small adjustments. 

Transfer

The prior chapter on enrollment already indicated the cooperation necessary between the local public school and private Christian school, with respect to a transfer of enrollment from one school to the other. With parent authorization, the receiving school must request transcripts and records from the dispatching school. The dispatching school should respond with a disclosure of the records in a timely manner. The two school’s registrars or principals can generally promptly resolve any issues or questions, without any other, more-difficult financial or legal requirements necessary. Your child’s personal and social adjustment should be your greater or only concern, not administrative issues, which are relatively simple and straightforward. 

Reputations

Public schools and private Christian schools can have distinctly different public reputations in their locale. The overlapping academic missions of a public school and private Christian school make some public comparisons and contrasts relatively easy. The public may be able to easily tell which school, out of a local public school and competing private Christian school, has the higher academic profile, reputation, and standing. The distinct religious mission of a private Christian school can also make it easy for the public to tell which school is safer, more secure, and has better student character and behavior. Yet public views, perspectives, and opinions diverge on every conceivable matter, even on whether the sun will rise in the east or west tomorrow morning. And public reputation can be an unreliable indicator for the actual quality of a school, just as for the actual quality of any other organization or individual having a public reputation. Thus, try to make your own judgments about the quality of your child’s new Christian school and its students, staff, and other community members. And don’t bash the public schools when you enroll your child in Christian school. Both public and private schools deserve respect for fulfilling important missions.

Reflection

Have you experienced or do you anticipate any strain in relationships, in moving your child from public school to private Christian school? If so, what was, or do you believe will be, the cause? Can your child’s new Christian school principal or administrators help you ease the strain? Do you believe your child could benefit from public school disability services, transportation services, or sports team participation, after your child’s move to Christian school? Did you notice any signs of competition between the public school and your child’s new Christian school for your child’s enrollment? Has either school, public or Christian, faced a significant enrollment decline or increase recently? If so, have you noticed whether that change is affecting either school or the relationship between the schools? Have you had any problem getting your child’s school records transferred to your child’s new Christian school? 

Key Points

• Public school and private Christian school relations are generally good.

• Public schools and private Christian schools share common interests.

• Public and private schools share common facilities and activities.

• Public and private schools further coordinate school services.

• Public and private schools compete fairly for student enrollment.

• Enrollment decreases can add budgetary stress affecting relations.

• Public and private schools are rarely in conflict, almost never openly.

• Similar public and private school curricula ease student transfers.

• Public and private schools cooperate in sharing records for transfers.

• Public and private school reputations vary and may be unreliable.

Read Chapter 19.