OPINION:
A just-released report from the Association of Christian Schools International that surveyed 730 faith-based facilities about their COVID-19 responses found that “the vast majority of Christian schools delivered on their promise to reopen in person [this fall] and to do so safely and comprehensively.”
That should be cause for cheer — maybe even cause for public school mimicking. But that really makes Christian schools the left’s Public Enemy No. 1.
Democrats and their funding friends in the education unions have long held private and Christian schools in utter disregard, mostly because a child educated outside the public system is a child that escapes collectivist indoctrination. And the leftists in politics and the unions can’t have that, not at any cost.
But now, amid COVID-19 continued crackdowns and closures — amid a national scene that has left students suffering the subpar teachings of online, long-distance faces — the fact that Christian schools have by and large remained open, and safely so, is a slap in the socialist-loving faces of union chiefs, bureaucratic scientists and pro-lockdown pinheads. It shows the fallacies of lockdowns and points out the nonsensical “science” that’s being pushed to justify the ridiculous lockdowns.
And to inflame the left even further, it shows the competence of Christians in the face of incompetent secularists. After all, if Christian administrators and teachers and staffers can safely safeguard students from COVID-19 while keeping open classes for in-person study, why can’t the largely secular public schools and their largely secularized staffers and administrators and teachers?
“The current findings clearly support those of [ACSI’s previous two] surveys, which suggest that Christian schools continue to respond nimbly and adapt creatively in the face of ongoing and unprecedented challenge to the educational sector,” read the report, titled “2020-2021 School Year Profile, December 2020.”
Maybe this is why parents who care about their kids are fighting tooth and nail to get them enrolled in local faith-based schools. And private schools. These non-publicly operated facilities don’t have to listen as much to government as the union-driven ones. When the government says jump, private and faith-based schools don’t have to immediately ask, “how high?”
“Coronavirus: Why families are jumping to private schools,” CNBC reported in early November. “As the pandemic drags on, more families are seeking out schools that are fully in-person rather than remote. In many cases, that means switching from public to private institutions, despite the cost.”
Yes.
And that makes these schools the next in-line target of the Democrats. Prepare for the crackdown; prepare for the additional scrutiny. Government, on a COVID-19-laced power play, cannot stand for any dissent. And with the exit of religious freedom protectionist President Donald Trump and entry of union-backed, union-loved Joe Biden and his socialist sidekick Kamala Harris, religious institutions — religious schools, places of worship, church-based schools, Christian facilities — are poised for double-down persecution. It is the way of the left.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
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