As we have turned our sights on moving home to Kansas, the natural thing has been to start researching schools for the kids to attend. Of course, being the graduate of a Christian school, and REALLY loving my Alma Mater, loving my thirteen years there, believing in the mission of Christian schools, and being changed by the influence of my teachers, it was a no brainer to look there. Then I cried. Mark and I spent a whole evening calculating the cost of tuition if we were to send all of our children to a Christian school until they graduated, with the sibling tuition break, and calculating NO increase of tuition for the next 18 years... The total?.... drum roll please... 310,000 (if you calculate in the percentage of increase of tuition over the last 10 tears, over the 18 years we would pay tuition, then you would arrive at around 500,000). That is just tuition. Not lunches, not supplies, not sports trips, music trips, class trips, etc.. A half a million dollars for a high school diploma. I cried again. For all four of our kids to attend ONE MONTH of elementary school, it would cost over 2000 dollars.
They average income of families sending their children to Christian schools in Kansas City is 250,000. When I graduated eleven years ago, I would say only a handful of kids were coming from homes that made that kind of salary. I graduated with kids whose dads were professors, engineers, police officers, firefighters, insurance salesman, and pastors. Pretty sure those careers are not offering 250,000 a year. Most of us drove big pieces of junk to school, we bought our clothes from Wal-Mart and Target, and we all worked in the summer. At the age of ten, I started helping our family cleaning business clean banks to pay for our tuition. Not because we wanted to, but we HAD to. I didn't graduate with a bunch a rich kids from Blue Valley. I graduated with a bunch a really down to earth kids, who knew what hard work was, and what doing without looked like. I am SO proud of my the people I graduated with.
I would LOVE for my kids to attend my Alma Mater! I would love for my teachers to teach my kids. I would love for a man with a hairy beard to teach my kids how to play bomb-bard-ment, or how to run track, or speak spanish, or say the pledge of allegiance in lightning speed form. I would love for them to walk down the dungeon stairs into the bomb shelter for lunch. I would love for them to take impossible 7th grade life science tests in the freezing cold science lab. I would love for them to open and close the impossible latches on the windows. I want them to sit in an english room were you can smell the black top burning in the August sun. I want them to be educated by people who care about their hearts more than their GPA's. I want them to befriend people who will stay by their side for their whole life. Christian schools are powerful!
I just wish the numbers were wrong.
~s
School choice is never an easy one and SO many opinions on all sides. After much prayer, we chose the public school route... turned out many of our kids teachers (and even our principal) ended up going to our church. We choose to be a light in an often dark place. Yes, we have to deprogram after school - but what GREAT conversations we've had. We do have to work harder at learning "bible class" at home and I'm glad we live in a place that has good schools. There's pluses and minuses to every choice. Another thing that played into our choice was ~some~ of the screwed up "christian" school kids that I attended college with (they were the hardest partiers). I think it comes down to my relationship w/ Christ and how to pass that on to my kids so that they can go out into the world and make good choices. All that to say: many of the things you mention above can still happen at a public school but no matter the choice, God has to be the one driving your decision :) as you well know and appreciate. Lov eyour blog, I'm signing up - Christine (Hess) Laplante :)
ReplyDeleteWow. That is...insane. I read your blog so regularly i thought it'd be about time for me to actually comment on it, since i like it so much :) It might not be the route that God is directing you all down, but i can also advocate that public school did *so* much for me in my relationship & walk with the Lord. Not saying it's an always-good choice, because it always varies from kid to kid, but I was challenged early to know what i believe early on & establish it. I didn't go around proselytizing, but there were quite a few opportunities where God opened up doors for me to pray with my friends in awful situations & speak truth most of them had never heard into their lives when they needed it the most. God also provided an AMAZING mentor in the form of my theatre teacher who is also a youth minister with an amazing testimony & drive to love on the unloved in the public school system. all of that being said, public school might not be where God is leading you, as i said before or it might not be the right fit for your kids. But if you're not sure as of yet & are exploring options that arent going to cost you a half a mil for *high school* diplomas (still cannot get over that!!) i just thought i'd put a good word in for my experience in public school & to let you know that i have been and will continue to pray for your situation with the move to Kansas, as well as this...God is faithful & will move you at the exact time that is right for His plans & purposes, but i know that waiting is enough to make a heart immensely weary. Just promise when you do move, you'll come back to visit from time to time if you can manage it ;o)
ReplyDeleteOh, I feel sick just thinking about that black top smell! And, the smell from the science lab...ew...:)
ReplyDeletePS I think every cent my mom made went towards our tuition there. Maybe you could send the kids to one of the great public schools in the area and then save up for high school! PS This private school in Africa is $30,000 PER YEAR PER KID!!! (Glad we're not paying for it!)
OMG, the bomb shelter lunch room! Even I remember that. :) (I, who moved after 3rd grade with Mrs. Thompson.)
ReplyDeleteMy husband is a pastor and my kids have always attended public school. And they've always been loved by their teachers (who quite often have also been Christians). Your family can have a great impact on other families and teachers by being involved in the public school system. We feel that it's a part of our family's mission.
ReplyDeleteI'm new to your blog.
ReplyDeleteI send my kids to a Christian school in JoCo Kansas.
I promise you we are not rich. My husband is a letter carrier and I'm a SAHM. We have 3 kids. Yes the sacrifice is HUGE.
But the blessings far outweigh the sacrifice. And I'm extremely suspicious of the $250,00 income you quoted as I look around at my sons classmates and the cars in the parking lot. Yes, some are wealthy but MOST are just trying to make it like we are.
Frankly I think it has much more to do with were we live, rather than Christian school. JoCo is extremely wealthy in most pockets of the city. If you plan on sending your child to a Blue Valley school you can be assured of dealing with affluence and superficiality on many levels.
I understand the sticker shock, I really do.
Thankful that our school offers scholarships and has an inner-city program that allows students who wouldn't get the opportunity to attended that privilege.
Just know that IF the Lord has put Christian education in your heart, He and He alone will make the way possible.
Every kid is different, I was homeschooled K-12 and loved all my free time. I was able to pursue a lot of skills and hobbies, get a lot of reading done, when I would never have had time to do that in public or private school (and I graduated magna cum laude from college). I think that I probably would have enjoyed public or private school a lot too, because I am very social. What I'd like to do with my kids (if I ever have any!) is keep them at home for the first few grades when they need to run around and explore a lot (esp little boys!). Then if they want to, we can try a year at public school. I would ask around and make sure its not horrible first. If they don't do well, you can check into Christian school. It is just tough for me to think of paying for school twice (property taxes for life) and why not save the money for college?
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