The Evil of Public Education in America

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The public school system in America is admittedly in disarray.  Academic mediocrity is the norm and moral degeneration is rampant.  

Recent statistics reveal:

68% of eighth graders can’t read proficiently, and most will never catch up. 

8.7 million secondary-school students tested were unable to read and comprehend the material in their textbooks (that’s one in four). 

10% of all boys and 5% of all girls in public schools report being threatened with a weapon. 

Between the years 1993 and 2007, studies reveal nearly 12% of boys and 4% of girls reported carrying a weapon to school in the previous 30 days.

9% of American students (6th - 12th grades) report being bullied to the point of injury at school. 

Since prayer was removed from public schools in 1962 violent crime has risen 560%, teen pregnancy or illegitimate births have risen 419%, divorce rates have quadrupled, teen suicide has risen 200%, and SAT scores have dropped nearly 80 points. 

The American government has time and again used every legal means to eliminate God, His Word, and His influence from its state sponsored educational system:

In 1962 the Supreme Court ruled that public schools cannot sponsor prayer. 

In 1963 the Supreme Court banned school-sponsored Bible reading in public schools.   

In 1965 the Supreme Court ruled that children may pray silently if no one knows they are praying.

In 1980 the Supreme Court ruled that the Ten Commandments cannot be posted in classrooms for they may, “induce school children to read, meditate upon, (and) perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments”.   

In 1985 the Supreme Court struck down Alabama law requiring schools to have a moment of silent meditation at the beginning of the day.   

In 1987 the Supreme Court overturned a State Law requiring a balanced treatment of Creation Science and Evolution.   

In 1992 the Supreme Court ruled even clergy cannot offer prayer at graduation ceremonies. 

In 2000 the Supreme Court ruled student initiated or student led prayer at football  games is unconstitutional.  

What about the origins and fundamental motivations for public schooling? The following quotes, made by the founders and proponents of government education, unveil the very spirit behind the godless institution of state-sponsored instruction...

“[Our] great object was to get rid of Christianity, and to convert our churches into halls of science. The plan was not to make open attacks on religion...but to establish a system of state - we said national - schools, from which all religion was to be excluded...and to which all parents were to be compelled by law to send their children. For this purpose, a secret society was formed and the whole country was to be organized.”   ―Orestes Brownson, 1803-1876

“What the church has been for medieval man, the public school must become for democratic and rational man. God would be replaced by the concept of the public good.”  ―Horace Mann, 1796-1858

“...the traditional approach in which the tools of learning [reading, writing, and arithmetic] were first mastered was not appropriate for the new age of social consciousness…apart from the thought of participation in social life, the school has no end or aim.  There is no God and there is no soul. Hence, there are no needs for the props of traditional religion. With dogma and creed excluded, then immutable truth is also dead and buried. There is no room for fixed natural law or moral absolutes.”  

―John Dewey, 1859-1952

“Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism, and every American school is a school of humanism. What can theistic Sunday School’s meeting for an hour once a week and teaching only a fraction of the children do to stem the tide of the five-day program of humanistic teaching?” 

―Charles F. Potter, Humanism: A New Religion, 1930

“We must ask how we can kill the [G]od of Christianity. We need only insure that our schools teach only secular knowledge. If we could achieve this, [G]od would indeed be shortly due for a funeral service.”  ―G. Richard Bozarth, American Atheist, Nov. 1977

“I am convinced that the battle for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity...These teachers must embody the same selfless dedication as the most rabid fundamentalist preachers, for they will be ministers of another sort, utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit to convey humanist values in whatever subject they teach, regardless of the educational level - preschool day care or a large state university. The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and new - the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism, resplendent in its promise of a world in which the never-realized Christian ideal of “love thy neighbor” will finally be achieved.” ―John J. Dunphy, The Humanist, January/February 1983 

“Every child in America entering school at the age of five is mentally ill, because he comes to school with certain allegiances toward his founding fathers, toward our elected officials, toward his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural being, toward the sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity. It is up to you teachers to make all of these sick children well by creating the international children of the future.”

― In the keynote address to the Association for Childhood Education International, Chester M. Pierce, Professor of Education and Psychiatry in the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University, April 1972  

“Today, our state supported “public” schools are humanistic schools. Actually, they are religious institutions teaching, with public funds, an alien faith. The public schools are an establishment of religion: the religion of humanism...No Christian children should be required to attend a public school.” 

―Rousas J. Rushdoony, The World’s Second Oldest Religion, 1981

In spite of these disturbing facts, many professing Christians continue to send their children to public school.  Even though the Scriptures clearly charge parents with the responsibility of educating their own children (Gen 18:19; Deut 4:9-10; 6:7-9; Eph 6:4), many cite pragmatic motives like lack of finances and convenience as reasons why they continue to expose their children to the humanistic and satanic influence of government schools.  Others wax spiritual, pointing to the Great Commission, claiming children of unbelievers cannot be evangelized apart from submitting their children to the public school system.  What is the answer?  Is it really that complex?  Is a public education a valid Christian option? To aid in answering these important questions, please consider the illustration below and take the simple quiz that follows…

Suppose you often allowed your next-door neighbor to baby-sit your children. Of course, as a Christian, you were mindful of what your children were exposed to, so you just didn't leave them with anyone. At your neighbor's home, your children were well cared for and often engaged in profitable spiritual conversation. However, over time the atmosphere at your neighbor's home began to change. They removed every Bible from the house. Both the Scriptures and the Ten Commandments, which were once proudly displayed on your neighbor's wall, were taken down and thrown into the garbage. Shockingly, you learned your neighbors refused to even mention the name of 'Jesus' at all, except in a negative way. They once opened the day with prayer, but now audible prayer was strictly forbidden. Whereas before, they had a Biblical worldview, they now began boldly teaching humanism, atheism, and evolution. Your neighbors also began unashamedly discussing sexual matters and adopted a very liberal sexual agenda. They approved of masturbation, fornication, and even sodomy. They even chided your children with the accusation of being 'bigoted' because they refused to agree with their approval of 'gay marriage'. It was rumored they often encouraged young people to experiment sexually and sexual deviates and homosexuals were said to often frequent their home. The most grievous aspect of the entire ordeal was the fact that it was irrefutably proven that children had been molested, and in some cases, even murdered in your neighbor's home. And finally, every attempt to reform your neighbor's moral degeneration was met with the utmost disapproval and resistance.

Considering these radical changes in the atmosphere in your neighbor’s home, please honestly answer the following questions:

Would you still allow your next-door neighbor to baby-sit your children?

If not, would money or convenience alter your decision in any way? 

Would you consider it unloving and irresponsible to expose your children to such potential dangers?

Is the refusal to lovingly protect your children sinful?

Is moral irresponsibility, endangering the spiritual well-being of another (especially a child), a sin?

Would it be absolutely necessary to allow your neighbors to babysit your children to evangelize them?

I cannot fathom any parent, much less a Christian parent, answering these questions in any other way than:

#1―NO (absolutely not!)

#2―NO

#3―YES

#4―YES

#5―YES

#6―NO

The application is obvious…

It has been well publicized that the government school system in America displays all of the moral problems of our ‘neighbors’ cited in the analogy above...

Strict anti-God atmosphere.

Open prayer forbidden.

A refusal to display the 'Ten Commandments'.

A stifling atmosphere for anyone standing for God.

Rampant satanic and anti-Christ indoctrination.

Sexual perversion and promiscuity encouraged.

Exposure to potential violence.

Almost any parent, especially if they are Christians, would be deeply alarmed if literally presented with the scenario in the above illustration. Hence, if we can clearly discern such neighbors are unfit to oversee our children, even for a few hours, then we must also acknowledge that submitting our children to the government schools for 18 years is grossly inappropriate, unwise, and demonstrably a breach of parental responsibility (note: public education demands approximately 1600 hours a year for 12 years, which equals roughly 2.5 to 3 full years).  These issues are only a small part of what is wrong with government schools. However, these are issues that everyone is aware of and no one can deny.  What else does someone have to know to act in protection of their children?

According to the civil code in America, no government school, regardless of whatever good and noble intentions the educators may possess, can make God and His Word the center of their education. I know of no public school in America that can teach Jesus Christ is the Son of the One and True God.  No public schools teach Jesus is the only way to obtain eternal life, that men must repent and turn from all sin, and make Him Lord or they will perish in hell-fire. There is not one public school in America that can make the Scriptures their primary text book and teach the truths of God's Word to its pupils. True, there may be some Christian teachers in the midst attempting to covertly reach out to the lost and share Scriptural truth (thank God, may they continue if they can, with God's blessing, to be missionaries in a dark and pagan institution). However, the very essence of modern public education is, at the root, anti-Christ because God and His Word are unwelcome by the institution itself (of course, this excludes any Christian teachers, but it doesn't change the reality of the situation). Anyone with Biblical faith and moral discernment acknowledges this absolute.

This and this alone undermines the very essence of what the Bible teaches us about real education. When God is rejected, refused, and expelled, foolishness, chaos, disorder and sin will always follow.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” ―Proverbs 9:10

Regardless of what reasoning we may employ, if we believe the Scriptures, we must admit, there can be no wisdom or understanding apart from the exaltation of Jesus Christ―none.  In conclusion, for Christian parents to know these facts, yet place their children in the humanistic public school anyway, is indeed sinful. 

“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”― James 4:17

-Pastor Britt Williams