Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us!

Assumptions

• The classical school movement is entering maturity.
  • St. John’s, Thomas Aquinas, Torrey Honors College, and others have done at the collegiate level what Doug Wilson (Logos) did for homeschoolers, k-12, and eventually a national network of private schools.
  • The ACCS is large and growing — they do accreditation, research (the Good Soil report), support, conferences, etc. They are mostly Protestant though they have some Catholic and Orthodox schools.
• Orthodox Parish schools are hard to maintain — but doable.
  • The Catholics did it with all the money in the world and the parochial schools. They're closed or went private, and most of the private ones went worldly, woke or broke. Mass adoption and submission to authority, but not enough whistle blowers…
  • The Protestants could not organize it, The funds were there but lack of leadership. And lack of humility and submission to authority. DIY homeschooling do-it-yourself, that's the American way.
  • The Greek Orthodox have a ton of k-8s. No demand for high schools because that's where the opportunities for money and scholarships and sports scholarships and sports begins. So they go out of business or they go worldly.
  • The Antiochian arts diocese has about a quarter of the people of the Greeks. In less than a quarter of the money. They started two schools St. Constantine in St. Andrew, that are not Greek. Saint John maximovitch is very Russian. It's either going to go broke, go worldly, or stay small. The Antiochians if we had the money maybe still need the leadership. If we have the leadership we still need the money. Local schools can't do it without national support, but national support brings with it bureaucracy and threats.
  • An alliance with the Coptics makes sense — also small enough to band together with.
  • It takes a few wealthy backers to create endowments for each parish school, or a national Orthodox Christian education foundation.
  • It takes tuition dollars from the parents / families of school-age children
• We need repentance.
  • We need Orthodox education to be increasing piety restoring the faithful. It’s not just about education but organizing school life around the altar — saving our youth requires saving ourselves.
  • Charter schools (Great Hearts, etc.) are as classical as you like but it's fundamentally areligious. They aren't "woke" (anti-traditional, revolutionary) but they aren't forming children to be pious. Maybe that's exactly what parents want. But that's not what Orthodox Christians can abide.
• We already have some good schools!
  • Saint Andrew Academy (Riverside, CA)
  • St. John of San Francisco Orthodox Academy (San Francisco, CA)
  • Saint Constantine School (Sugarland TX)
  • St. John Chrysostom Academy (Bethlehem, PA)
  • The Saint Constantine School (coming in 2024)
  • Christ the Savior Academy (Wichita)
  • Mt Tabor School of Liberal Arts (Missouri)
  • St. Raphael School (Online)
• There exists a spectrum of models.
  • Homeschool and online can be done with a few families, 1-10 students.
  • Homeschool co-op or hybrid models can be done with a few dozen families, 10-50 students.
  • Parish schools can be done with 30+ families, 50-200 students. They grow out of the life of an Orthodox church parish, with Orthodox leadership, teachers, and families. They tend to be smaller in budgets and enrollment, and greater focus on the Liturgical calendar and parish life.
  • Private Orthodox schools that serve the community at large can be done with 300-600 students. Community schools are multi-parish and "mere Christian," with Orthodox leadership but Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox teachers and families. They tend to have bigger budgets, larger enrollment, and less focus on the Liturgical calendar and parish life.
• We must modify and multiply.
  • Schools that are working need to multiply; schools that are struggling need to modify; schools that don’t quite fit the “mold” of St. Constantine or St. Andrew need to create a custom model that fits their situation on the ground.
  • That's where an NOUS comes in (National Orthodox Unified Schools)
  • We are creating new schools, supporting or acquiring existing schools
  • We are collaborating with NAOS, OCSA, Great Hearts, ACCS, SCL, and SCS whenever possible

Long-Term Vision

Paying for Orthodox Education: Financial Models

• How much do schools cost?

  • Public
    • $14,000 per student (CA)
    • $12,000 per student (OK)
    • Charters(?)
  • Private
    • $6000-$35,000(!) per student
    • Varies widely on services and auxiliaries
    • Full “community” school, 5-day, 30+ families
    • 1-day, 3-day, “parochial” school, 5-30 families
  • Homeschool
    • $200-2,000 per student
    • No salaries, just supplies
    • 1-5 families

• Some examples: Plain Jane Church Academy

  • 200 students
  • $7,500 sticker price, MSRP
  • $1,500,000 nominal budget
    • $400,000 in scholarships distributed, discounts, teacher kids,
    • +$1,100,000 actually collected
    • +$100,000 annual fundraising
    • + $0 endowment income
    • =$1,200,000 actual budget

  $6,000 per student

  actually spent

• Some examples: Fancy Private School Academy

• Some examples: Bootstrap Homeschool Academy

• Some examples: Patron-blessed Academy

Next Steps