Variable Tuition & The Cost of Christian Education

My wife and I send three of our five children to Eastern Christian School. As a pastor, I'm often extra conscious of the schooling choices that we select for our children. I recognize that there is no "one-size-fits-all" and try hard not to make someone else feel that they have to make the same decision that we've made; in fact, even before I arrived at my church, which strongly supports the Christian school, this was one of the values that was inherent in the culture–the Pastor wouldn't have to send their children to the Christian School unless he chose to. Yet we recognize that any schooling decision that we make for our children will be scrutinized and potentially followed by the people in our church and in our community.

Not long ago I was meeting with a group of pastor's and the school administration and we raised the question that many of us pastor's had confronted at times within our own congregation. The assumption that people had was that we all had received "sweetheart deals" because of our position. That is, because we were pastors, the school had treated us differently than it would any other family who wanted to attend EC. To be honest, most of the pastor's there weren't really sure if that was true, so we asked the administration.

They said, unequivocally, "no". The conviction of the administration was that they would work with any family who has a desire to attend Eastern Christian and was serious about their commitment.

Fast forward a year or so, and our school has just announced what they are calling "Variable Tuition". In short, everyone who has a serious commitment and desire to attend the school will pay what they can afford, up to 80% of the tuition. That 80% is correct, by the way. No student at the school pays 100% of the cost of tuition because of the endowment, financial gifts, and other ways that the school raises money to reduce the cost of tuition across the board.

This isn't a post on why Christian Education is the right choice for your child. As I mentioned, I don't think there is one solution that is correct for everyone. What this is about, however, is why I believe Eastern Christian is doing all that they can to remove finances from the equation when you are making the educational choice for your children.

THE EQUATION OF SCHOOL

In my experience the greatest hurdle towards people considering Christian education is the finances. I talk to Christian School graduates who know what the school offers, who look positively on their experience, who are considering schooling options for their children, and yet, the number one thing standing in their way is the finances. I get it. Christian school ain't cheap.

The assumption here is that there is a Christian school option available to you in your area, that it is a decent school, that it is a part of your consideration, and that you would seriously consider sending your children there if the finances really weren't an issue. In other words, I'm making the assumption that you already agree with me that Christian education is a good idea, if you can afford it. I'm not trying to convince the unconvinced, I'm trying to encourage the convinced. You can do this! And here's why.

First, Christian School is not the same as private school

Okay, okay. It is a private school. I get that. But it's not a private school the way that private schools are private. You with me?

I graduated from a Christian School in Miami and our athletic league consisted mostly of other private schools in the area. When we went to those schools, there was a distinctly different vibe. The vibe was, "we are an exclusive club. We pay to be here." The parking lot looked like a luxury car dealership. The thing is, no one argued that there was a benefit to those schools or that they would like to send their kids there if they could. That stuff was assumed. But you could only access it if you could pay for it, or if you had a special talent or ability that the school deemed worthy of a scholarship. It remained an elite school because it was only for the elite.

And that's the chief difference between a Christian school and every other private school.

If a Christian school is an elite school that only some people can afford, then it's functionally a private school that has bible classes. It's not a Christian school. If it's a Christian School, that believe that the Gospel is relevant to every area of our life, and that there truly is "no square inch" of the universe that God does not control, then it also has to assume that it has value to every Christian parent and every Christian student. It must also gladly operate under the assumption that every student should have the opportunity to learn in an environment that upholds God as the Sovereign Creator and Jesus as the Savior and King.

I'm reminded of the quote, perhaps by Abraham Kuyper, that no education is religiously neutral. That is, your education will either come from the perspective that God exists–even when studying things like evolution or sub-atomic particles–or it will come from the perspective that God does not exist. The content ought to be the same, but the perspective matters.

If Christian School is important, we must be of the conviction that it is important for all Christians. And if it is important for all Christians, then it must be accessible to all Christians.

This is what distinguishes Christian School from other private school options. I know of no other private school that believes that it ought to be universally accessible. Christian school, and Eastern Christian in particular, does believe that

In fact, this is the belief that makes variable tuition possible. Variable tuition only works when we believe that Christian education is valuable and should be accessible to all Christian parents.

Most people know that some–maybe even most–families at Eastern Christian receive some sort of scholarship. What Eastern Christian is doing is just calling it for what it is. Some people pay more than others. That disparity is justified, as long as we recognize that everyone has a different financial capacity, and that Christian school should be accessible to anyone who values it and wants to commit to it with their family.

If we really value Christian education and believe it should be accessible to all, then variable tuition is the obvious choice.

Which leads me to a final point.

Variable tuition only works when everyone is being legit about what they can afford.

The truth is that if you believe that Christian education is valuable and should be accessible to all, and you are committed to it, you will make the necessary sacrifices. But how do you know?

This is one of the reasons that Eastern Christian uses a third party to help determine how much someone can actually afford. The application, if it's the same as in past years, includes questions about what kind of cars you drive, credit card debt, etc. It's a basic financial application, but it's the same across the board. That third party is processing everyone's request and making determinations about what they think you should be able to afford. Sometimes that may work for your family, other times you may need more assistance than they suggest, but it helps to provide some sort of metric.

It would be easy for those who pay full tuition–and those who don't–to wonder about their respective sacrifices. There are times when I show up in my old vehicles and someone else shows up in their new vehicles and I think to myself, this is harder for me than it is for him. But my guess is, he might feel the same way, knowing that I probably get a scholarship and he doesn't. 

Variable tuition, especially as monitored by a third party, removes that second-guessing from the equation. Instead, it allows us to say to one another that...

My tuition and your tuition may be different, but our sacrifice is the same.

My tuition and your tuition may be different, but we value the same thing.

My tuition and your tuition may be different, but we need each other.

If you are seriously considering Christian Education for your children, do not let finances stand in your way. There may be good reason to choose a different path, but "the money" is no longer one of them.

Winning

In my <sarcasm>free time</sarcasm> I am a JV basketball coach, which means that I directly coach the JV team and assist with the Varsity. The head coach and I took over two years ago and were tasked with turning around the entire basketball program, which had wallowed in recent years. (I regularly point out to the team the basketball banner on the wall which lists my team as the last team to be "league champs"...there are no dates listed after 1996.) 

Turning around a program is tough, particularly if it's been down for a while. "Losing" becomes a cultural attitude. At the beginning of this season, even, one of the kids said they had a good game because they only lost by six. As a competitor, that kind of attitude drives me nuts. Yes, they played well. Yes, that was an improvement. But we're not, and shouldn't be, playing to keep it close. We're playing to win. And a loss is still a loss.

Attitude shifts are one thing, but patience is another. Short of recruiting the next All-American basketball star, this is a building effort, and not an overnight effort. That means that over the last two years, we've lost a lot. Varsity has fared a bit better than JV, but they haven't been setting the world on fire.

This year, things improved substantially for the team. The Varsity players are a year older; another year under their belts getting acclimated to coaches offensive and defensive schemes. A year of playing basketball just so they can learn how to play the actual game of basketball, and not a PE/playground game that looks like basketball.

Unfortunately, as our team aged up a year, it left a gap on the JV. We don't have a huge roster of guys who can play basketball. In fact, there were a handful of guys who came out to play this year who had never played the game before. We made the choice to keep them, because they work hard and they have a good attitude, and without them, our numbers might not be able to support a JV team at all.

Long story short, we made some changes as the season progressed and have used more "swing players" in our lineup on JV. This is guy who is on the Varsity Roster, but may not see much playing time. He is allowed to play a few quarters in the JV game, but no more than 5 quarters total for the day. This has substantially improved our chances, and has allowed us to compete in games that would have been blowouts early in the season.

Still, there was a lot of basketball to be learned. Basic things like how to break a press, how to make a good pass, how not to let everyone on the court know that you are about to pass the ball across the court and they should get themselves in place and steal it, how to make a layup under pressure, how to keep your wits about you. All of those things were things we were working on, preaching, teaching, in practice and on game days.

Last night it all clicked. The guys played their style of basketball. Three things I say every week, from the beginning, even when we were playing with those guys who hadn't played before: Play hard, have fun, slow down. I've asked over and over: how do you break a press? "Middle, opposite". (You pass to the middle of the floor and hit the opposite guard...works every time as long as you make good passes.) What are the three things we need to do today? "Defense, box out, protect the ball." 

You could tell it clicked. Maybe for one night only, but it clicked. They were down by ten, down by four, down by eight, but never let the game get away from them. Suddenly, middle of the fourth quarter, they are winning by one, then three.

Two and a half minutes left. "Two things you don't need right now. You don't need to score. You don't need to turn the ball over." Protect the ball, we win the game. Simple as that.

Run a delay offense. Burn a minute and a half before turning the ball over! Defensive stand, we get the rebound, we're fouled.

At this point, there are 28 seconds to go in the game. At some point in the play, one of their players got hit in the face and began screaming in pain, blood coming out of his nose onto the floor. I still have no idea how it happened, but the kid is writhing around like he has a broken nose, or worse. Takes about five minutes to clean the blood off the floor and calm everyone down.

Free throw time. Make the two free throws. Up by five.

The other team comes down and scores. Leading by three. Ball out of bounds. Press is on! Call timeout.

"Here is our press break. Get the ball inbounds. They will foul. Do not turn the ball over. If you get scared, we have one timeout left. Use it."

Press break, ball in bounds. Fouled. Misses both free throws. Timeout called by the other team.

"We're up by three. Do exactly what you've done all game. Don't worry about stopping only the three. Just play defense."

Other team scores. Other team calls timeout.

"Get the ball inbounds. They will foul. Do not turn the ball over. If you get scared, we have one timeout left. Use it."

Ball inbounds. Fouled. 13 seconds left.

Two free throws made. Up by three. Ball inbounds. Timeout called by the other team. Ball at mid-court. One play left. 6 seconds to go.

"Pick up your man as soon as you get on the court. (We had played zone all night but I told them to be ready for this.) Face guard. Do not miss your assignment. This is the most important play of the night."

(Side note, one game last year we were up by three with seconds to go, and someone missed their read. Their player made an unbelievable fallaway jumper three at the buzzer to go into overtime, and we lost. The memory haunts me.)

Shot goes up, ball tipped, headed out of bounds, buzzer sounds. 

Game over, we win.

That's about as close to the details of the game as I remember. Here's the thing: they did what I told them to do, and we won. Just the basics. Play defense. Box out. Don't turn the ball over. And at the end of the day, it resulted in a win over a pretty good team. 

Winning feels good after so many losses. 

Overbooked & Self-Editing

One of the problems with posting in an open forum is that I have to balance and self-edit some of what I want to say. The issue isn't that what I might say would offend anyone or be somehow crude or inappropriate, but is typically because it might relate to a semi-private situation or that it might relate to something I'm currently involved in, and as a result, could cause confusion or offense.

Case in point: My schedule is severely overbooked. I could explain which things on my schedule probably need to go, but then those organizations or groups that I'm involved with could read that a certain way and take offense, or be hurt, or whatever. I don't want that. Obviously, I think that everything I'm involved in is valuable and important. But sometimes, the perfect storm hits, and this is one of those weeks. When that happens it almost always causes me to take a closer look at what I'm involved with, and begin to decide which things have to go.

This coming weekend, I'm leading a youth retreat for a group of churches that asked me to speak. I've been looking forward to it for a while. I haven't done any youth-type stuff in a while, and the retreat is at one of my favorite locations in upstate New York. My entire family gets to with me, to boot, so we'll have a good weekend away (in February, in upstate New York...that will either sound delightful to you, or absolutely terrible.)

Unfortunately, I also have three basketball games this week (each with a JV and Varsity game), two church meetings, and a board meeting for the non-profit that I'm a part of. I'm overbooked.

The problem, of course, is that the things that really are a priority–my family, my own health physically, spiritually, and mentally, and my job-all take a backseat to just getting things done. Everyone has a limit to the things that they can achieve or reasonably accomplish. I'm certainly doing more than my limit.

Then there are other implications to being overbooked. One is that you have no flex time for other people. I forget where I heard the term flex-time in relation to this concept, (or maybe I made it up!), but essentially it's the idea that you would schedule in unscheduled time in your calendar. So each week, you'd schedule in time where you knew that you had nothing scheduled. This is different than "free time". It's different than "scheduled time". It's "flex-time". It's time that you scheduled in to use, if necessary, that doesn't make you overly-booked or overly-free. In essence, it's a schedule buffer. If things get tight, you aren't stealing from your family or your free time, you are borrowing "flex-time". 

If there is no flex-time, then inevitably something is going to give in one of the important areas that you typically don't schedule. In my case, a temporary addition of coaching basketball means I give up a lot of family time; if church gets busy, that eats up any additional time I might have had; if there are pastoral concerns that arise, it eats up free time; next thing you know, my own health and my family health have been squeezed out, and things are in bad shape.

In pre-marital counseling, we ask couples to consider what they want to do in the future before making choices today. You can't always predict what those things will be, but when you can, you can make wiser choices now to make sure that the important things aren't squeezed out in the future. For example, if you want to have one parent stay home with the children, then don't buy a house before having kids that requires two salaries to support. The choice you make today squeezes out the choice you want to make tomorrow, before you have even made it.

Such is the case with scheduling. If you want to have time for people, and your own health, and your family, and to do the things you really love, don't overbook yourself. You don't have to feel bad about saying no to something; you do have to count the cost of it before you say yes.

Perhaps I should have taken my own advice.

Life

I came into the ol' orifice today (Michael Scott reference), which I have been doing less frequently as of late. Sometimes, I find the office comforting. Other times I find it lonely, so I stay away. One of the great advantages of being at a large church–and the great disadvantages of being at a small church–is that at a large church, there are other people around all the time. Other staff that you work with; probably other pastors. Other people just walking through the office! Even for introverts, having people around is typically a comforting thing, even if you don't want to necessarily engage them. I don't know the statistics but I wouldn't be surprised if the burnout rate for pastor's of small churches is far higher than the rate of burnout for pastors at larger churches. Some of that has to do with unrealistic expectations of what one person can accomplish, but I also think it has to do, at least a little, with the loneliness. If burnout isn't higher, I bet you depression is.

In any event, I don't feel burnt out or depressed, which I am thankful for, but that wasn't why I started writing in the first place. The reason I was writing was the stack of very old sermon manuscripts on my desk from some Pastor I've never met, and the wind howling past the window, and the radiator that bangs when the heat comes on and then never really heats up quite as well as I wish it would, and the carpet that is falling apart so that little carpet balls form that look like little fabric tumble weeds that get kicked across my office floor, or the half-empty cup of water and the Dunkin' Donut's cup that was left in here this past weekend by someone–a teenager? someone on the worship team?–who was using my office, and the broken furniture and the many, many books I will never have time to read that are nevertheless on my shelves so that, in the event of an argument, I can simply wave my hand at the bookshelf and, without lying, give the subtle reminder that I may have actually acquired all this knowledge, and if so, perhaps it would be silly to argue with me after all.

It's just life.

Life that has ups and down and joy and depression and answers and usually more questions than we care to admit. Life that sometimes seems like it makes sense and other times seems like there is no rhyme or reason; life where some people prefer platitudes and others people prefer to just sit in the silence and wait it out. Life where some people try to escape, and others try to engage it, and in the end, we're all just doing the same thing: trying to make sense of life.

There are those who view life through the lens of meaninglessness; those who view all situations as if they are predetermined by a cold and uncaring biological steamroller. The heat, broken as it might be, is nevertheless an accomplishment of man that keeps us from the cold wind outside; it's a testament, at least, to how far we've come and how much we can get done and how much better life is because we, the human, the biological marvel and miracle that we are, have evolved not just to give ourselves heat in the cold but to actually sit and wonder about having heat in the cold.

Others view life through the lens of God; my pastor-friend I have never met was one of those men. Here he is, writing sermon after sermon year after year, telling whoever will listen that there is more hope than they may see now, that there is another way to make sense of things, another way to interpret the events of the times, another moment that we can look forward to that will make sense of all of the moments that don't make sense. He preaches that sermon, and then finds, many years later, that the same sermon he once preached is apt again. "The times", "the events that are unfolding", the "wonders", the "mysteries"...a decade later, they are still the same. Different on the surface, but the same underneath. The same struggles, the same need for hope.

Life.