Death of a Vision

This will be my first real rant in this blog. If you thought I came close to ranting before, you haven't heard anything yet.

In the spring time when new life is all around us, I witnessed the death of a vision last night, and it didn't have to happen. Five years ago two families whose children could not find space in the private school of their choice, asked a young teacher from that school to tutor their children. That homeschooling cooperative effort became a campus-based day school two years later, with over twenty children. Offering an incredible quality classical Christian education, Alethia Academy has been housed for three years at Rincon Mountain Church (though not sponsored by the church) and has been supported by sacrifical parents and teachers foregoing lots of other choices of what to do with their money. But even small schools need a "critical mass" in order to survive, so last summer the Alethia school board set some reasonable enrollment goals for the 2009-2010 school year in order to maintain viability. When you only have eleven families, and three are moving out of town this summer, that's a big hit on enrollment. Last night the board made the difficult decision to let the dream, at least in its current form, die.

This is in spite of the fact that:
...it has a better than 1:5 teacher student ratio;
...its five teachers include two doctorates and two teachers who have taught internationally, for a combined teaching experience of over sixty years in both public and private schools;
...its students score very well above average on nationally normed achievement tests;
...all the students who are not moving away are very pleased with the school and want to stay there;
...its tuition is in line with other private schools in the area;
...virtually every family who has actually visited the classrooms has decided to enroll their child;
...the school is debt-free; however, the teachers receive very small salaries.

At Open House, the Christmas program, and Grandparents Day, these remarkable students have demonstrated that
...kindergarteners can be taught to read, spell, and memorize engaging poetry;
...second and third graders can recite volumes of facts from the history of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as well as parse (analyze) sentences grammatically, down to every part of speech and sentence function;
...fifth and sixth graders can translate difficult passages in Latin, recite facts about composers and key events in music history, and answer challenging theological questions.

In spite of all these accomplishments, Alethia will close this May. It is simply dying because of the inability to attract new enrollments, even though new forms of advertising have been budgeted for and undertaken, preschools in its vicinity have been visited, its website has been revamped, Open Houses and informational desserts have been held regularly, and there are no dissatisfied customers.

This rant is not directed at any family who has children EXCEPT

...those who claim to be Christian, claim to have a Christian worldview, live anywhere in the eastern half of Tucson, are not on food stamps, are able to solicit a few relatives and friends to contribute tax credit scholarships for their child's education, and do not already homeschool or send their children to Christian school.

That would be:
...eastern half of Tucson proper, 525,529, = 262,764.5
...times percentage of school age children = 69,369.7
...times those claiming to be Evangelical Christians = 18,244.2
...minus those who homeschool or already send their children to Christian schools = 15,872.5
...times the percentage typcially receiving tution assistance = 13,135.8 potential students.

The number that would have kept Alethia Academy open was twenty-four, and only eleven have enrolled for next year.

Of the families of these 13,124.8 children who fit the demographic but have NOT enrolled at Alethia for next year, what might be the reason? (Here comes the rant).

Do they believe that government schools dedicated to non-supernatural casuality and multi-philosophical relativism really equip their children with the Christian world view they need to make Biblical life choices in the twenty-first century?

Do they believe that entertainment-based children's ministries and culturally ambiguous youth groups can compensate in a couple of hours per week for the thirty plus hours per week their child sits in the hands of strangers who, by law, must deny that the Christian faith has any relevance to the education they need?

Do they believe that the new jet skis, home entertainment system, or extensive vacation is better stewardship of what God has provided them with than Christo-classical education in the hands of trustworthy fellow believers?

I rant, but not because it will save Alethia Academy. I rant because, like all Christians, I believe in redemption and resurrection. These follow repentance. I call on Tucson Christian families to repent of willful ignorance of what their children are being taught as well as ignorance of the available alternatives, to repent of misplaced values, and to repent of gross unconcern for the next generation of the church. When this has happened, good schools like Alethia may be redeemed and resurrected.