A Christian perspective on the Labour VAT policy (part 2)

Steve Beegoo is the Head of Education at Christian Concern and the CEO of The Christian Schools’ Trust. He was a teacher in state schools for 17 years, a church pastor and is the former Headteacher of The King’s School Witney. This is an opinion piece offering an alternative perspective to Sam Brown’s previous article. It reflects the author’s views and does not represent an official ACT stance.

Christians are wonderfully engaged as salt and light in the educational ecosystem of our country. Salt. Small salty grains, permeating, preserving, flavouring, the larger material it is placed in. Light. Bright, shiny, uncompromising, different, intense and standing out to make visible any darkness. I see Christian teachers in state funded schools doing a wonderful role as salt. I see Christ-centred private schools, with only Christian teachers and all aspects of the school explicitly submitted to God, as light.

I am delighted that there are excellent Christian ethos state schools, often with Christian teachers and leaders at their heart. I myself served for 17 years in such state schools. It is important to realise however that there is also validity in a ‘Light’ based approach. There is a clear difference between what a small private Christ-centred school can provide, compared to that of any school which obtains state funding. This is why there is a legal case being made to protect these schools and their children regarding VAT. It is important to maintain both salt and light in the educational ecosystem.

So what is this “Light” and why should it be preserved?

One key element of difference is that private Christian schools are able to have a genuine occupational requirement that all teachers and leaders are committed Christians. Freedom from state finance still allows them to do so. This is seen as essential for these schools because teachers are seen as part of a discipleship culture, where, for example, prayer is not something which happens in assembly alone. Additionally, having teachers who have a personal commitment to the truth of the biblical narrative is necessary for communicating the content of curriculum with integrity and in the efforts towards developing a biblical pedagogy. This kind of school culture, embodied by the family of Christian teachers surrounding the children, means that all subjects can be taught well from a Christ-centred and biblical perspective. Christ, his spirit and his word, are not erased from Art or Science, but are the foundation for Music or Maths, and are eagerly, regularly and explicitly discussed not just in Religious Education and Relationships Education but in subjects such as English Literature and History.

It is important to understand that the small nature of these schools is part of their ethos. They are by no means small because they haven’t grown yet; they are small by design. Jesus had a class size of twelve for three years for a reason. These schools believe that the large Victorian factory system, which is all our state taxes will ever be likely to afford, will rarely be able to provide a Christ-centred approach where there is time for every child to be known, loved, prayed with, and daily encouraged in their faith and God-given talents by teachers who are in loco parentis. In the small private schools, Christian teachers and leaders sacrificially working for salaries much lower than state salaried teachers, are the foundation of these cost-effective and yet small settings.

Although some have feared that such an education, possible only in private settings, might produce narrow minded and unintegrated young people, the evidence shows the exact opposite as Dr Sylvia Baker’s research on the Christian Schools’ Trust schools has demonstrated. They become excellent citizens, contributing to society. The schools regularly pass the state inspections with flying colours. The evidence also shows that it is the majority of their past pupils who continue to hold the Christian faith of their parents as they become young adults. I have yet to see any convincing evidence that this is broadly true for most UK state schools which have a Christian ethos, despite the wonderful and persevering efforts of their Christian teachers.

It is generally accepted that Christian parents are not succeeding in passing on a vibrant Christian faith to the majority of their children here in the UK. It should be also recognised that some are succeeding however, even without a supportive Christian school, which may not be an option, and it is a comfort to know that by far the biggest factor in whether children of Christian parents follow Christ is that the parents themselves are active and committed followers of Christ. One of the ways the parents show this by getting regularly and actively involved in their child’s education and specifically in their school.

Owning the title of ‘Christian’ by our children is of course not the goal, because of those that say they are Christians, their faith can often be partitioned into a private, spiritual, part-time pursuit, disconnected from their work and social life. Children are leaving the church in droves when they reach their teenage years, as they don’t see Christ and his word as relevant, except perhaps briefly on a Sunday, in the ‘assembly’. Understandably so if that is what has been modelled to them at their school. They are becoming what sociologist Christian Smith describes as ‘Moralistic Therapeutic Deists’ at best.

Many suspect that an education which allows for explicit Christian thought to only be presented in the assembly, with a broadly state, secular, humanistic, approach being used in all other subjects, and usually taught by non-Christian teachers, will not effectively support parents and churches in addressing the Great Commission’s discipleship mandate in our increasingly post-Christian culture. Jesus, God incarnate, taught twelve teenage disciples intensely in all aspects of life, not just in the synagogue. What did he expect his church to do, when he said to go and make disciples of all nations? Were their children top of the list for those to be discipled? While I’m certain we must maintain efforts for Christian teachers to be salt in the system, and for there to be schools with a strong Christian ethos where they can especially minister and be welcomed, these institutions are sadly far from the norm. Even state schools which have the Christian or Church label can be welcoming progressive activists and so-called ‘inclusive’ ideologies which are in polar opposition to the traditional teachings of the bible. This was shown in the recent ACT survey.

It is important for all Christian teachers to understand why small, low-cost, private, Christ-centred schools should be protected. The lawyers at the Christian Legal Centre will argue in the potential judicial review that there is indirect discrimination which results from the new Labour policies, in the taxing, for the first time, certain forms of education. The new financial legislation has the effect of creating a significant detriment to Christian parents who wish to have their children educated as described above. Christian teachers who want to work on low salaries in these schools, in order to be ‘light’, will also suffer detriment.

The many small Christ-centred schools that exist reflect the historic freedoms that the laws and policies of this nation have provided to parents and churches. Many countries such as Australia, The Netherlands and Germany help fund these schools from parents’ taxes, rather than tax parents for choosing education where they have to pay a fee to support the teacher who teaches them. Our educational landscape is changing rapidly, and is at a new point of transition under a new government. The novel tax on private education will disproportionately affect those Christian parents who, especially for reasons of faith, take steps to educate their children in these small, precious and uniquely Christian schools. ‘Light’ schools. This is why it is a Christian freedoms and human rights issue to defend these schools and their teachers, and to protect the parents and their children.

I pray that all Christian teachers will understand each other’s challenges, and pray that together we can grow in being effective Salt and Light in our land.

Steve Beegoo