Published by: Frontline Ministries, Inc. | Christian Education Initiative (https://ChristEdu.Org/) Nov.22, 2022
REVISED 6.13.24
INTRODUCTION
E.Ray Moore, Lt. Col., USAR(ret) This pamphlet is a series of short articles by experienced Christian educators, policy analysts, authors and attorneys alerting conservatives and Christians not to accept the “School choice” model with tax-funded vouchers as the mechanism to advance private, Christian and home education going forward. The use of tax-funded vouchers has been debated and advocated in some conservative circles for several decades, but not seen as a realistic proposal. These conservative policy analysts and GOP leaders were in favor of vouchers as they assumed the extra funds would enable private, Christian schools and homeschools to grow given that the financial issues would be solved with government funding.
Now, with the sudden rise of large numbers of new K-12 private, Christian and homeschool families in the millions, this could become a serious policy proposal for conservatives. It must be said that most of the informed homeschool leadership as represented by HSLDA have not supported the voucher believing it would threaten the autonomy of private and home education. Also, many leaders in private Christian school organizations with a prime example being the Association of Classical Christian Schools also oppose the voucher.
This debate over tax-funded vouchers for K-12 private education is fast approaching and some conservative and GOP candidates are running on this platform now. When the legislatures convene in Jan 2023, this will be a main topic in many states, especially the Red states. This is an odd policy dilemma for many Christian school and homeschool families and leaders, as we have more to fear from our usual policy and political allies than from the Left. The Left oppose vouchers because they think, wrongly so, that they will threaten the monopoly of the state-sponsored public school system. Conservatives, such as myself, oppose vouchers because they threaten the autonomy of the private, Christian and homeschool movement. Vouchers not only are a threat to the autonomy of private education but could be an existential threat to our K-12 Christian education movement as well. This fact is incontrovertible, and the following articles will demonstrate this.
It is important that true conservative, Christian and free-market educators are vigorous today to defend the autonomy of private education. We must build a firewall against the larger fire that could burn through our Christian and homeschool families tempted by the lure of “free” money. When we reach for the money, the handcuffs go on.