Public education in America is under fire. Parents and taxpayers are aware of getting very little for all the effort and money put into state-run schools. I would postulate that public schools are not just a poor investment. They are, in fact, undermining the mental and moral health of students and their families.

What I’m sharing here comes from twenty-five years spent working in schools. I have been a classroom teacher, a consultant, a custodian, a maintenance man and a parent of three students. My wife was also a teacher. Our experiences
have led us to a sad observation: Public education is broken. It cannot be fixed with reasonable effort because it is built on a rotten, faulty foundation. It is time for parents to seek other solutions for their children.

If you don’t think that public education is fouled up beyond all recognition I challenge you to volunteer for one week in the state-run high school of your choice. Don’t go to an elementary school. The results of diseducation will not yet be evident. Watch the students in action. Is there discipline in the building? Watch the students interact with each other. Would you want your children to act like the students you’re watching?

I contend that state schools are built on non-Christian ideals which have led to the mess that we see today. Teaching our children at home, on the homestead, is one very logical solution to the failure of public education.


What’s Right with Homestead Schooling?

The Christian homesteading parent can base educational decisions on the Bible. Public educators sought from the very beginning to rid themselves of all godly influences. They have succeeded, with disastrous results. Here is the State’s educational premise boiled down to its essence: All children have the potential of goodness. They are not sinners. Children will learn and prosper if they are taken away from their homes (where there may be religious influences) and placed among their peers in large groups. Children should be taught, not by their parents who may believe in antiquated Bible stories, but by professionals who have been properly trained to avoid all things religious.

Let’s look at the State’s position through a Biblical lens. God tells us that we all are sinners. We have a potential for good only by submitting ourselves to Him. He gives us clear instructions for educating our children. You will see that God’s plan is diametrically opposed to the plan of public education.

1. God says that education is the responsibility of the parents, not the state. Speaking of the Ten Commandments, a good starting place for all learning, God says to parents in Deuteronomy 6:6+7: "These commandments that I (God) give to you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." Homesteaders have an opportunity to spend more time with their children. That is one of the reasons we homestead. We can keep our children by our sides and teach them.
2. God says that , "Folly is bound up in the heart of a child…" Proverbs22:15. Why would any sane person place 25 or 30 foolish children in a room with one adult and assume that the foolishness of the majority would not prevail? Indeed, we have seen that it does, as peer pressure becomes the guiding light of young adults who have spent their formative years in public schools.


I encourage all parents to take off the binders. Quit thinking that state-run schools will get better. They can not. They are built on a crumbling foundation that denied God. Those of you who are homeschooling are on a good and godly path. The personal costs of homeschooling are great. The rewards for your family and for the nation in the future are incalculable.