The High Cost of NOT Giving your Child a Christian Education

It is expensive to NOT give your child a Christian education. When I lived in Illinois in the early 90s, there was no such thing as tax credits. (They’re still not available in IL to this day.) Therefore, when parents were thinking of pulling out of the public schools, they were thinking of paying out of pocket for each child’s entire tuition without the hope of any help from possible tax credit scholarships!

As different families weighed this new option (private schools were rare in that day and homeschooling just as rare, if not considered illegal), they knew that this would only be possible through sacrifice. For some it meant delaying the purchase of a new vehicle. For others it meant somehow picking up additional income. For still others, they decided to be content in the home they now owned instead of upgrading. 

As families debated taking these steps, they started to hear the positive testimonies from those who had made the tough decision regardless of the cost. AND they heard stories from people who chose to stick with the free and easy public education. (After all, what could be easier than to load your kids up on the yellow bus at the stop near your home?) 

Those who had chosen free and easy had learned that there is no such thing as a free lunch in various ways:

1. Though their child had graduated, s/he lacked the skills needed to do well in college. 
2. Worse yet, s/he had not developed the character needed to do well in college. Work ethic was lacking, goals were unclear or not sufficient to get a degree that would support the student upon getting a bachelor’s degree, and other moral deficiencies prevented wise decision making once in college. (Many students like me, squandered their time on partying and other activities totally disconnected from academic training.) 
3. Finally and most important, there was no loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ. The student abandoned his/her faith during the next four years. 

Of course, this was not true across the board, but much too common to be a coincidence. Younger families who watched the fruit of these decisions, began to prepare better by saving up for private school tuition and keeping expenses low by modifying their lifestyle expectations. 

We are very thankful for the School Choice we enjoy in Arizona! We dare not take it for granted. The last few years we have only maintained a School Choice majority in the legislature by a slim margin. Even now, there is a school choice bill laboring away in the legislature.

A school choice friend of mine wrote this:
The bill we need help on right now is SB 1657: ESAs; STOs; Student Empowerment Fund, The biggest obstacles are Rep Michele Udall [email protected]  602 926-4856, Joel John [email protected] 602 926-3276  and Joanne Osborne [email protected] 602 926-3181. Please call and email them and urge them to vote yes.

In future years you can be involved with bills as they advance through legislative committee hearings. There is a system to Request to Speak online but you first have to register at the Capitol on a Kiosk in the House or Senate. There is also a kiosk in the State Building 400 E. Congress. For information:  https://www.azleg.gov/group/request-to-speak/ . All school choice bills have already been heard in committee so we should contact our representatives by phone and email to vote for the bills. If you or people you know want to register for the Request to Speak system, give me their names and emails and I’ll get them registered. For those of you who want to get involved at this level, let me know. 

The best way to stay abreast of school choice legislation is Center for Arizona Policy Bill Tracker: https://www.azpolicy.org/issues/bill-tracker/ under Marriage and Family. Paul Parisi with 4Tucson also posts alerts in his newsletters and on FaceBook 4Tucson Government Domain. https://www.facebook.com/4TucsonGov Please “Like” this page.

If school choice support in the legislature wanes, we may all be forced to dig deep to keep providing a great, Christ-centered education to our children. But it is much too expensive NOT to give such an education to your child(ren).

Sincerely,

Christopher
Family Ministries Director

P. S. One last thought… Each of us can make a difference for someone in our school without it costing a penny out of our pocket! Shockingly, I have heard that there are some parents in our school who do not make any tax credit donation to another student in the school or to Veritas itself! We have the power to direct our state tax money to something we clearly believe in. IBE, ACSTO and others have made it super easy to make these donations. If you have not done your state taxes yet, please make your donation now while there is still time. Help another family afford their Veritas education. Don’t know to whom you should give? Contact accounting@vatucson.com. We will give you a suggestion. If you need scholarship donations for your child, please let Britt Felix, our STO Coordinator, know that she has your permission to share your students’ names. Let’s help each of us become fully funded through tax credits!