It’s not doom or gloom – it’s boom!
Across the nation, Christian education is expanding: enrollments are up, new schools are launching and current schools are expanding.
The growth of Christian schools accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic as parents began rejecting the liberal, secular agenda in public schools and began seeking help raising their children up in the Christian faith.
Some parents were even inspired to start schools.
Amber Kaspar and her husband Matt launched Kalos Academy in Kansas City last year with eight students, and they expect enrollment to double for the 2024-2025 school year.
“We’ve been inundated with inquires,” Amber told The Lion. “Our goal is to grow sustainably. After one year, people are starting to find us on Google. We’re in the infant stages of people discovering what we have.”
Kalos is a classical Christian school that uses principles from British educator Charlotte Mason to meet the needs of its students. It includes a full-time grammar school and part-time high school that homeschoolers can also participate in.
“We wish we could get information in the hands of (more) Christian parents,” Kaspar says. “Many are unaware of what’s happening in public schools. They think they can’t afford to put their children in Christian school but they can’t afford not to; they’re just not aware of it yet.”
Elsewhere in Kansas City, Matt Harper and his wife also launched a school, Refine KC, with the help of another couple. The school started in 2022 with 15 students, then grew to 32 the next year. Enrollment will be “even more than that” this year, Harper told The Lion.
“I was in public school. I saw our kids being exposed to a new normal that wasn’t biblical,” said Harper, who quit his job of 28 years in public education to teach at Refine. “I wasn’t OK with that.”
The school has grown so quickly it moved to a second church building with more space.
Harper says gaining the support of churches is key to Christian schools’ growth.
“There’s a difficulty of getting churches to see the importance of it,” he says. “My wife and I are products of public school. Sometimes people think the product’s still OK. What you see in our world is what you see in our schools. And it’s not just in the metro areas; it’s filtering out into the smaller schools as well.”
Although the pandemic caused a dramatic spike in Christian school enrollment, Harper and Todd Clingman, head of North Cobb Christian School outside Atlanta, are now troubled by the prospect of waning urgency.
“As an American people, we have short memories,” Clingman told The Lion. “We forgot about 9-11. And I kind of sense a little bit of people already getting comfortable with the agenda of government schools, even though the agenda of government schools hasn’t changed. It’s like the frog in the pot.”
North Cobb has added nearly 300 students since COVID and now enrolls 1280. Clingman expects many Christian schools, like his, will keep growing, although he notes one area of concern: there’s been some softening in the economy in the last three or four months.
Still, North Cobb is about to complete its second large-scale building project of the last four years, adding science labs, a new dining hall and academic space. The first project, completed in 2021, added 40,000 square feet for classrooms and administration.
Christian school leaders report that finances are often the top concern parents raise about enrolling their children. COVID pushed many families that were “kicking our tires” over the edge, Clingman says, and the choice for private Christian school is still “worth the investment.”
“There’s untold scores of families for us over a 40-year period that I can point to where those parents would say, ‘Hey, we might not have had the vacation home, we might have had to sell the boat, we might not have gone on the vacations that we would have otherwise, but it’s the most worthwhile investment I’ve ever made for my family.’”
Even with so many new and growing schools, these leaders welcome more.
“We’re all on the same team – education can be Christ-centered,” says Michael Harrelson, who is helping start Calvary Christian School in Alton, Illinois, this fall.
He likens picking a Christian school to choosing between KFC and Chick-Fil-A: “They’re both great chicken.”
Calvary’s flavor is classical, and fall enrollment is already over 20 for grades K-12. The school has received great support from Calvary Baptist Church, where it will meet.
“We have a lot of families that are signed up,” Harrelson says. “We will see who God’s going to bring us.”
These school leaders, and the parents who entrust their children to them, all agree that the hard work and financial sacrifices are worth it to build up the next generation in the Christian faith.
“I think all Christian schools need to share that what we’re doing is important,” says Harper, of Refine KC. “We need to equip our generation. We can’t continue to be complacent as Christians. We have to take a stand.”
Originally published by The Lion. Republished with permission.
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