A survey revealed that Christian schools outperformed public schools during the pandemic in line with parent satisfaction.
Faithwire said that the recently-released survey by Herzog Foundation, a Missouri-based academic institution providing K-12 Christ-centered education, showed that parents whose children are enrolled in private schools turned out to be "more satisfied with their school experience" from the closures brought by the pandemic.
Herzog Foundation Executive Director Jacob Hawkins posted the results of the WPAI study in Twitter on Friday. WPAI, a political intelligence provider since 1998, sent the survey results to Herzog Foundation on August 4.
"Christian schools vastly outperforming public schools during COVID-19, according to new survey of parents by @HerzogEducation & @WPAIntel," Hawkins announced.
According to WPAI, the study was conducted "to understand the impact of current events on parents of children in public schools and parents of children in Christian schools." WPAI stressed that survey results have clearly shown parents in Christian schools are more satisfied than those in public schools.
"Clearly, parents of children Christian schools are far more satisfied with their child's education during COVID and their children are in a better position going forward," WPAi said.
The study particularly showed that four out of five parents of children in Christian schools or 80% are satisfied with their child's education during COVID. While 55% or a "slight majority" of parents of children in public schools are satisfied as against only 41% or almost half "of parents with children in public schools are unsatisfied with their child's education during COVID."
In addition, the study also revealed that 26% or a quarter of parents with children in a Christian school did not experience school closures during the pandemic. This in contrast to the 8% or "less than one-in-ten" of parents of children in public schools that did not have closures during the pandemic. This shows a "large discrepancy in how much Christian schools versus public schools closed during the pandemic according to the parents."
Hawkins explained that Christian parents appreciated their schools being open as against public schools that were closed during the pandemic. They appreciated this because it made it easier for them to manage their children's learning experience.
The lockdowns, Hawkins stressed, would provide parents an opportunity to give Christian education a second look since the "data is unmistakable." In particular, the data provides parents in Christian schools a far better experience for them and their children over public schools "in a panicked, trying year."
"The survey found that during the pandemic, Christian school parents found it easier to manage their child's time, communicate with teachers, manage their child's assignments, and were better able to keep up their child's morale than the parents of children in public schools. As a result, while just over half of public school parents reported being satisfied with their child's education in 2020, fully 80 percent of Christian school parents were," Hawkins highlighted.
Hawkins said that the findings offer "hope on several fronts" because it also revealed parents are "expressing growing anxiety" in the teaching of critical race theory in school with 70% disagreeing it should be taught at all. While an 80% agree that racial justice could not be achieved by teaching children to discriminate against white people and that the "central tenets of critical race theory should not be in the classroom."
These teachings on CRT and the lockdowns show that school systems "seem more eager to cater to adults than children," which was most especially shown in the past year when "public school unions fought both science and reason to keeps schools closed" making "union bosses empowered and politicians cowed."
"These findings are powerful for those who oversee Christian schools and for those parents making tough decisions about their children's education," he stressed, "parents ought to consider a broader set of options-including Christian schools whose parents report more satisfaction and more attention to students than their public counterparts."
