Government schooling’s loss has been private Christian schools’ gain.
P ublic schools in the United States have lost over a million students in the past three years, according to the Wall Street Journal. Where these students went, and why they left, says a great deal about the future of American schooling.
Private Christian schools have absorbed many of these students. In the 2022–23 academic year, schools in the Association of Christian Schools International recorded 35 percent higher enrollment than at the start of the pandemic, according to a new ACSI study. Similar kinds of schools have also seen dramatic increases. For the 2021–22 school year, the National Catholic Educational Association reported a 3.8 percent nationwide enrollment increase, the largest in NCEA’s history. Charter-school enrollment increased by 7 percent during the first year of the pandemic and has held steady since, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. While homeschool “enrollment” doubled during the pandemic, no other form of education saw significant increases — especially not public schools.
Enrollment growth in Christian schools over the past three years reverses the trend in declining enrollment from the preceding years. And it was not just a pandemic-era trend. Attendance at private Christian schools continues to increase even as district public schools have reopened for in-person instruction, while the number of charter-school students and homeschooled students declined in 2022.
Why have private Christian schools benefited in this environment? One explanation is how they responded to students’ learning needs during the pandemic. Public schools that remained the most remote for the longest experienced the greatest enrollment losses, according to an American Enterprise Institute study. Meanwhile, 84 percent of Christian schools returned to in-person instruction “much sooner” than local district schools, according to the ACSI report. Christian schools that reopened earlier have added an average of around 80 students since the start of the pandemic.
Motivated by a desire to serve their families, Christian schools sought creative solutions for getting students back on campus. “Early on, it was clear from seeing our kids struggle emotionally, socially, and academically through distance learning that getting kids back on campus was critical,” said Brian Bell, head of school at Redlands Christian School in southern California. “It required us to be creative and brave with our solutions to get back in person.” Redlands Christian School now educates over 1,400 students, the highest level in its century-long existence.
The road back to in-person instruction was not always easy, of course. With reopening guidelines changing frequently alongside federal, state, and local guidance, leaders of private Christian schools became advanced contingency planners in the fall of 2020. “It was like we were building the plane while it was in the air,” said Elisa Carlson, head of school at Central Christian School, a pre-K–12 school in central Oregon, which has grown from 250 students to over 400 since the start of the pandemic.
The challenge was common on both coasts. “The government hadn’t said specifically what we were allowed to do,” said Jason Rachels, head of school at Calvary Christian Academy in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., which has grown by nearly 400 students across its two campuses. “Our leadership team had to make three separate plans for reopening that were contingent on changing pandemic practices,” Rachels added.
Thanks to the efforts of school leaders, Christian schools were among the first to safely reopen in the fall of 2020. Calvary Christian Academy in Florida made substantial investments in its facilities so quarantined students could stay in sync with their classmates. Redlands Christian School in California hired specialists tasked with handling the particular challenges of distance learning. Central Christian School used modular classrooms to create additional space for student learning.
But instructional mode is only part of the story. In addition to desire for in-person instruction, Christian-school leaders report two other reasons for enrollment growth: concerns over social issues in public schools and the desire for faith-based education. “Many of our new parents said they didn’t know what their kids were learning at public school until they heard it on Zoom,” Bell said.
The combination of newfound insights into public-school classrooms as well as the desire for an in-person mode of instruction made it imperative for many families to find a Christian school during the pandemic. “Many of the families that came to us had considered Christian education in the past, but remote learning and politicization of the public school system made them feel it was imperative to find a Christian school,” James Taylor, head of school at Hebron Christian Academy in Dacula, Ga., said. Hebron Christian Academy has grown by over 40 percent since the start of the pandemic and now educates nearly 1,300 students around the Atlanta area.
Face-to-face may have been one reason to switch, but faith has become a reason for families to stay. As a result, recent enrollment growth in Christian schools is holding steady, even as district public schools reopen for on-campus learning.
The enrollment trends in private Christian schools are indicative of a larger movement. School choice continues to be a winning policy position at the polls. Dozens of school-choice policies have been enacted or expanded in 2020, 2021, and 2022. The pandemic has created a nationwide appetite for educational freedom among parents. Policy-makers should respond to this appetite by, for example, retooling school funding to follow the student rather than the district, and following the successful example of Arizona’s education-savings accounts.
The responsiveness of private Christian schools and other choice schools to students’ learning needs during the pandemic demonstrates the importance of competitive pressures, which improve the overall educational market. Rising enrollments in choice schools, particularly in private schools, not only provide evidence of a continuing school-choice wave sweeping the country, but also demonstrate how these learning environments will continue to be an important part of the United States’ educational fabric.
Matthew Lee is director of research at the Association of Christian Schools International. Lynn Swaner serves as chief innovation and strategy officer at the Association of Christian Schools International.