A word to the tired homeschool parent who's been told the charter school would pay for all of this

October is when it usually hits. The summer energy starts to fade. Somebody's crying over long division, and it might be you. And into that exhaustion comes a friend at church or a post in a Facebook group: "You know the charter would pay for all of this, right? We still use our Christian curriculum. The money just covers sports and music."

I think most of us know that pull. I'm not writing to shame anyone who feels it. Money and time are both real, and homeschooling on one income while holding down a job is hard. So let's not pretend the offer isn't attractive. It is, and that's exactly why it deserves a hard look.

By our own definition, it isn't homeschooling

Heritage defines homeschooling plainly: parent-directed, home-based, privately funded education, with parents in complete control of how, when, where, and what their children learn.

Now read a "homeschool" charter against that. Your child becomes a public school student. Not sort of. Legally. A credentialed teacher assigned by the charter reviews your work samples. Your child is enrolled in the state's testing. The funds can't touch anything Christian, so the Bible curriculum still comes out of your pocket. Publicly funded, state-directed, with someone else signing off. That's a public school that meets at your kitchen table, with you supplying the labor. Nobody's cheating you; it's just worth naming what you'd be agreeing to.

Abraham faced a version of this offer. He'd just won a battle; the spoils were his by every custom, and the king of Sodom told him to keep the goods. Abraham refused down to a sandal strap, so that no one could ever say, “I have made Abram rich” (Gen. 14:23). It was legitimate money, but he said no because of what it would attach his household to. Four chapters later, God explains why He chose Abraham in the first place: “that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD” (Gen. 18:19). The whole point of Abraham's calling was the education of his children, and he'd already decided Sodom wasn't going to fund it.

Scripture isn't against a king paying for God's work, either. Cyrus paid for the temple, and so did Darius and Artaxerxes. But their money came with a decree to build a house for the God of heaven, and Sacramento's comes with a decree that it not be. That's the whole difference.

"But we still teach Christian curriculum"

I know. A lot of families do. You buy the Christian history and science yourself, submit the secular samples to your education specialist, and spend the state's money on soccer, piano, and classes. Some charters look the other way. And the state doesn't look too hard, because every enrolled student is funding for the system.

As a friend, let me say three things about that arrangement.

It's an education with two sets of books. There's the education you're giving and the education you're reporting, and your kids know which is which. They watch you decide what goes in the file. They learn that the real thing, the part with God in it, is the part that has to be kept out of view. You'd never teach that on purpose; the structure teaches it for you. Jesus said, “Everyone, when he is fully trained, will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40). What's the training here?

Christians shouldn't need a wink. When the decree came down in Babylon, Daniel went home and prayed as he always had, windows open toward Jerusalem (Dan. 6:10). The text is careful to show that he didn't stage a protest. He just refused the one option the decree left him: keep the faith, but close the shutters. He understood that a faith you have to hide in order to keep is already half gone. Nobody's decreeing anything against you. I'm only asking what the open window looks like in your house, and whether your kids can see it.

And the wink can be taken back. What a charter permits informally, it can withdraw the day an auditor asks. Charters have been under real scrutiny in this state since the A3 fraud case in 2019, and Sacramento has been rewriting the rules ever since. And the wink isn't universal. Families in one Southern California charter were penalized for using Christian curriculum and submitting faith-based work samples, and a federal appeals court sided with the charter last year. That case is now headed to the Supreme Court. When the tolerance ends, and it probably will, the choice you avoided comes back. Except now your kids are older, the team is their team, and the family budget has been built around the stipend for three years. The pull will be much stronger then than it is now.

God gave the children to you

Scripture is not vague about whose job this is. “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deut. 6:7). Fathers are to bring up their children “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). That's not a Bible slot after math, and it's not a curriculum you teach quietly on the side. It's the whole day, out loud, with nothing to hide.

Jesus told us to count the cost before we build (Luke 14:28). So count it. Yes, doing this privately costs money and time you don't have to spare, but count the other side. What's the going rate for teaching your kids that the truest part of their education is the part that stays off the record? There isn't one.

Driven by parents, centered on Christ

This is why Heritage exists. We're a private school registered with the state under our own affidavit, and we enroll families, not just students. You choose the curriculum, all of it, and nobody reviews it for religious content. Testing is optional, and the scores are for your information, not the state's. You get the records, the transcripts, the academic advising, and the community: co-op class days, academies, sports, clubs, a graduation that I think far surpasses any traditional school. One set of books, and a clear conscience.

Yes, it costs something, and it should. Nobody ever raised children well for free. The Reformers we remember at the end of this month knew that. Luther pleaded with the city councils of Germany to build Christian schools. Calvin founded an academy in Geneva. They knew the next generation is formed or lost in the classroom.

If you're tired, that's not a sign you're doing it wrong; it's a sign you're doing it. And you were never supposed to be enough. God gives the children, God gives the command, and God gives the grace. Lean on Him, lean on the families around you, and get help from the HCS community when you need it.

The state will gladly count your child as its student. It just can't tell him who he is or Whose he is. That job is yours. Keep it, and keep it in the open.

by Brian Hendry, HCS Board Member