Reasons for faith-based education

The Religious Alternative to Public and Mainstream Private Education

Stuart Salazar, M.Ed.

Continental Director for Latin America Association of Christian Schools International

Reasons for faith-based education

The Religious Alternative to Public and Mainstream Private Education UNESCO and the EFA objectives
On November 16-17 of 2004, the Education Regional Office of UNESCO and Religions for Peace in Santiago, Chile, called for a meeting involving representatives of the major religious educational organizations in the hemisphere to discuss the contribution of our schools to the promotion of peace and other goals. Catholics, Evangelicals, Jews, Muslims along with representatives from the indigenous ethnic groups met for two days. UNESCOs Maria Luisa Juregui and Paz Portales affirmed the role that religious educational institutions play in the fulfillment of the 2015 Education For All goals1.

We are tired to deal with Ministries of Education in the region. Not all of them are cooperating to fulfill the Education for All objectives. We know that private education is in better position to improve the quality of education and thats why you are here

Public versus Private Education

Reasons for faith-based education | Stuart Salazar, M.Ed. | November 2012

After their accomplishments with acceptable levels of education coverage, Ministries of Education are trying to focus on the other objectives of EFA, specifically the 6th related to quality of education. They have found in accreditation the ideal instrument to define and enforce standards to be met by both public and private education institutions. The way in which different governments are enforcing accreditation process vary but leftist governments are using it to strangle mediocre private education and just secure the existence of elite-oriented private education that can be affordable for a few privileged ones only. Everybody else will have to be educated by state-owned and state-run schools. What is true for Latin America fortunately is not true in other parts of the world. A study conducted by James Tooley from the Cato Institute2 in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and India testifies that there are countries where private education is welcome and even subsidized by the governments. Contrary to what some affirm, in these countries private schools are not servicing the needs of a small minority of wealthy parents only, but serving the poor. In three of the studied countries, less than 35% of the schools are government schools. The rest are privately owned and managed. Guatemala is another proof of the strategic role private education plays in the national educational scenario of a developing country. While the government takes care of the educational needs of most of the student population at the primary level, the secondary level follows the same pattern than those African and Asian countries: two out of three secondary students in Guatemala attend a private school.

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/education-for-all/efa-goals/ Tooley, James. Private Education is Good for the Poor (2005). Washington, Cato Institute.

According to CAPE3, 25% of all US schools are private with 10% of all US students in attendance4. This represents a savings of about 50 billion dollars every year for the US government. Out of their 33,000 member schools, more than a half are religious schools with Catholics and Christian being the majority of them. Most private school students (80 percent) in the US attend religiously-affiliated schools. 5 ACSI , the largest association of Christian Evangelical schools in the world claims to have over 23,000 member schools worldwide. Religious educational institutions are a significant portion of private schools in many countries.

D ISTINCTIVES OF CHRISTIAN SCHOOL EDUCATION (ACSIS TICPO) TRUTH: Scripture is the revealed Word of God and is taught as truth, and that truth is integrated into the learning experience. All truth is Gods Truth. INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT: The Christian mind should be the best mind, being enlightened by the mind of Christ and having integrated Gods principles with academic pursuits. CHRISTIAN EDUCATORS: The Christian school must have a board, administration, faculty, and staff who are committed followers of Christ, teaching and leading from a biblically integrated perspective. POTENTIAL IN CHRIST: Every learning experience aims to engage students toward their full potential in Christ. OPERATIONAL INTEGRITY: The schools day-to-day operational practices are a consistent model of integrity, efficiency, and accountability.

Reason # 1: Faith-based education cares for the integral child

Education is a preeminently academic endeavor. However, people of faith including educators, are aware of the importance to nurture the whole child. Christian schooling emphasizes spiritual formation along with academic achievement. In many religious schools serving the poor you will see medical clinics and breakfast programs that care for the physical needs of the students and many times those of their families as well.
Reasons for faith-based education | Stuart Salazar, M.Ed.

Reason # 2: Faith-based education does not necessarily spell proselytizing

We understand separation of church and state. The reality is that confessional schools existed long before public school education, which is a relatively modern invention. Before the government thought about taking charge of peoples education, churches, mosques and synagogues were getting the job done. It is just right that modern-day governments acknowledge the contribution religious schools do to the public good. Government subsidies or at least certain tax exemptions would help us do a better job. All we wish for is some government funding with no strings attached. When governments like the USA decide to support faith-based organizations (through the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships), there are specific restrictions that they have to meet in order to get access to government funds. Charter schools in the US are a good example of that cooperation. Latin America governments like those in the Southern Cone do not hesitate to support Christian schools that demonstrate they are doing a good job academically. The Fe y Alegria movement (with over 1,000 schools in the Spanish-speaking world) gets substantial government funding in spite of their proselytizing efforts.
3 4

Council for American Private Education: http://www.capenet.org http://www.capenet.org/facts.html 5 Association of Christian Schools International: http://www.acsi.org

Certainly most religious educational endeavors are seeking to gain converts, but the point is that there are places where they are opening schools that no other school is available, neither public or private. It takes people of faith to decide to open a school where there is no easy access, where your love for God and your neighbor is the only thing that motivates a teacher to travel long distances to teach a group of students that no one else will educate.

Reason # 3: Faith-based education does not put financial profit as the main drive to run a school
Common sense shows that the world of private school education is ruled by market rules, where nobody does anything that does not return some kind of profit. Contrasting with greedy educational entrepreneurs (or merchants of education as I like to call them), confessional schools are usually non-profits where all profit is reinvested in the development of the school itself. This is a general rule of thumb and I cannot speak for all confessional schools here, but as of Christian schools in Latin America is concerned I have observed over the past twenty years a high level of ethics and accountability in the management of school funds. Even proprietary schools, not sponsored by churches or ministries, are managed very effectively. The owner is most interested in making the best out of his investment, so does whatever it takes to make his educational enterprise a successful one. The reinvestment rate is always higher than the personal profit. This highly contrast with the usual corruption you find in developing countries public school education.

Reason # 4: Faith-based education, specifically Christian schools in the Global South, is on the rise
Reasons for faith-based education | Stuart Salazar, M.Ed. | November 2012

While the northern hemisphere and developed countries going through or into a post-Christian era are experiencing a declining in the number of Christian Schools, Asia, Africa and Latin America are witnessing and explosion of new schools, most of them established in the past 25 years. Latin America accounts over three thousand Christian schools and in Africa a single country: the Democratic Republic of Congo has affiliated more than 17,000 schools to ACSI last year.

Reason # 5: Faith-based education is an important ally for the achievement of UNESCOs EFA goals
Even that UNESCO tailor-made these goals for public education, the more enthusiasts embracing them have been private schools, including confessional schools. They dont have a problem aiming for better quality of education, equity access and the other benchmarks of EFA 2015. That is the reason why UNESCO is looking for our schools to meet their goals. And we are willing to cooperate.