Christian schools are seeing their prayers answered as taxpayer dollars fuel a push to open 5,000 schools

Keith Castello, a classical Christian school administrator, is actively scouting empty office parks, a shopping mall, and an old church for new Christian schools as demand surges. Texas recently introduced $1 billion in public funding for eligible families to put toward private education expenses, with Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country adopting similar programs over the past six years.

These programs have resulted in half of all school-age children in the U.S. being eligible to apply for state money to attend private schools. Most private schools are religious, and securing public money for them raises concerns over church-state separation, but it fulfills a long-standing goal for Christian conservatives. Keith Castello, who will launch three classical Christian schools this fall, is among those praying for these developments to come to fruition.

The Association of Classical Christian Schools (ACCS), co-founded by conservative Idaho pastor and writer Doug Wilson, is a prominent organization driving this push. ACCS schools offer a liberal arts education with a focus on virtue and a biblical worldview. A conference held in Atlanta recently celebrated the historic shift in school funding, fueling a conservative Christian push to remake the education landscape.

Critics warn that this expansion will drain public schools, which educate students of various religious backgrounds and political persuasions. Conservatives are collaborating to leverage this growing taxpayer-funded scholarship opportunity. Their goal is to establish or convert 5,000 new classical Christian schools within a decade, educating approximately 1.5 million students nationwide.