Spiritual Reasons

"It is not a negative argument we wish to present...that public schools are not place for our children. It is understood that the responsibility of the Christian as a citizen places upon him the obligation to support the public school system. Nevertheless, the one consideration which we as Christians must at all times keep before us is this: to what school must I send my child for the kind of training that can be properly called Christian education or character training during the years when this must remain the essential thing? Into whose care do I dare commit my child? What do I owe to God, to whom the child properly belongs, in order that I may face him on that great day, assured that I have done what I could to fulfill my sacred obligation? What do I owe my child as the one great heritage he has a right to expect of me as his parent and servant of Christ? The answer must be: where character building is involved, where it is a matter of educating that child as a child of God and a member of the whole Christian Church, that school must be a Christian school. It is only in such a school that he can be educated in the full sense of the word and trained as one whose real home is heaven and whose great mission is to reflect the light which is of heaven." Excerpt from the Rev. S.C. Ylvisaker's speech during the 1945 Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Convention

Watch a video clip of Rev. Robert Clausen portraying Martin Luther explaining the need for Christian schools and a Christian education. Produced by Genesis Educational Resources, Inc, and used by permission.

Academic Reasons

Educational studies and census surveys consistently demonstrate private high schools (predominately Christian high schools) significantly outperform public high schools in graduation rates, the percentage of students attending college upon graduation, school safety, teacher contentment, SAT and ACT scores. Some of this data can be found by clicking on the links below:

U.S. Census data on private secondary schools

Private vs. Public School Data - (Council for American Private Education)