By Sharon Felton

How many public schools are in your town? How many public teachers and students are in your church?

Public schools do the heavy lifting when it comes to educating our children. The teachers, staff and administrators who love, nurture and educate our children are superheroes. Every day they go above and beyond to help our children become educated, kind citizens of this country.

Teachers sit in tiny chairs in kindergarten classrooms with barely a bathroom break during the day. They encourage children who are nonverbal to write their words and, before the year is over, those same children are reading to their classmates. They might give special Christmas gifts to a child who lost her mother earlier in the year. They sit with a student and teach him or her basic hygiene and how to chew with the mouth closed. They encourage passions and provide outlets for students to discover and practice their gifts and abilities. They take a high school class of kids who never liked reading and engage them in book clubs and discussions. They give them the tools and power to engage the text on their own and discover that they do love reading after all.

Public schools educate everyone. They are tiny glimpses of the Heavenly Kingdom Community, where all are welcome and given the opportunity to shine. Are they perfect? Not by a long shot. Are there struggles? Sure.

But just imagine what those incredibly gifted, creative, wise teachers and administrators could do if we fully funded public education! Why is it that schools must cut cereal box tops to buy computers or playground equipment? Why are teachers some of the most poorly compensated professionals, forced to get second or even third jobs to feed their families—particularly when all other professions depend on them? It’s outrageous!

Public schools are a central part of every community and represent the common good for all of us. These teachers are educating our future leaders: the future nurse who will care for you when you are sick or elderly; the attorney who will help you draw up your legal papers; the next generation of teachers who will teach your grandchildren; the agents who will determine if your food and water are safe.

Shouldn’t we want the best education for our future? Why do we continue to listen to misinformed people and groups who only want to tear our public schools down? Why do we allow outside corporate money groups to tell our teachers how to explain history and what should go in our libraries? We must support, encourage and protect our public schools and those who work and learn within their walls.

This week, make a commitment to advocate for your public schools and your children. Spend some time with the principal of your local school and listen to them brag on their teachers and students! Find out what their needs are and how you could potentially help. Then ask your church to partner with that school and care for those teachers and staff. (But don’t forget about the separation of church and state.) Provide for those children and families and stomp down the harmful, false rhetoric about failing public schools. Attend a school board meeting or contact your state legislators and advocate for more funding, higher wages and better support.

Advocacy takes many forms. Perhaps the best thing you can do is write a teacher an encouraging note or sit and listen to a first grader read. Whatever it looks like for you, let’s spend not only this week, but all those following, celebrating and honoring our public schools. Help your congregation become a champion for public schools and the children and families they serve!

Public Schools Week by the numbers:

There were 97,568 public schools in the United States in 2021, with the numbers only expected to grow.  In those schools, there are 3.8 million teachers currently employed for the 2023 school year.

According to the U.S. Census, in 2021 there were 65.1 million students enrolled in those schools. That’s 81.9 percent of students in the United States.

Sharon Felton serves CBF as the Congregational Advocacy Manager. Sharon works with congregations, states and regions to develop and enhance advocacy efforts within their communities.