Virginia private Christian schools are seeing record applications as public schools become more adversarial toward Christian worldviews.
QUICK FACTS:
- Church leaders in Virginia have seen record applications for Christian schools, prompting more schools to plan to open their doors in the coming years.
- According to the Christian Broadcasting Network, the areas around Loudoun County Virginia are considered the “Face of the nation’s culture war” with contention over school issues lasting for more than a year.
- Parents fighting for justice in sexual assault on campus and critical race and transgender policies have plagued the area, causing an increasing number of parents to find alternative ways of educating their children.
- E. Ray Moore, founder of the conservative Christian Education Initiative, calls the awakening of the need for Christian education a “Once in a 100-year moment.”
CHURCH LEADER’S STATEMENTS ABOUT THE NEED FOR MORE SCHOOLS:
- Teacher Tanner Cross, who was dismissed for not calling a student by their preferred pronoun became the final straw for Senior Pastor Gary Hamrick of Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, Virginia.
- “Our kids need an alternative; we have to ourselves as a church get engaged,” Hamrick said. “What can we do to help give a Christian-based, Christian biblical worldview education for our children?”
- Abbie Platt, whose three children were suspended for not wearing masks at school despite the state mandate being lifted, applied for Cornerstone Chapel’s coming Christian academy immediately.
- “LCPS has lost our trust and we really want our children to be in an environment where they can focus on literacy and learning instead of indoctrination,” said Platt. “By the end of the week, we had over 2500 students pre-registered. I got over 450 emails from teachers wanting employment,” Cornerstone’s representative said of the week they announced the school.
- “It awakened many people, Christian churches, and some pastors to recognize that it is our responsibility to provide the Christian education or our children, not the government,” said Moore of the Christian Education Initiative.
BACKGROUND:
- Christian school enrollment saw double-digit growth since the pandemic hit, according to the Association of Christian Schools International.
- According to recent statics, The Association of Classical Christian Schools has added around 10,000 students to it’s roster and the number of homeschoolers has doubled in addition to new Christian schools are popping up all over the country.
- “We’re seeing a resurgence of homeschool co-ops and hybrid homeschools and learning pods. Churches and communities and cul-de-sacs of people are becoming very creative in what is a good quality Christian value-based education,” said Darrell Jones, president of the Herzog Foundation.
