Christians begin with the belief that children belong to the Lord and are a stewardship to the parents, not the state. Psalm 127:1 says, “Behold, children are a gift of the Lord.” There are numerous texts to support this belief, such as Deuteronomy 6:1-9, Proverbs 22:6 and Ephesians 6:1-4. Nowhere in Scripture does a reference exist in which God delegates to the state the authority to educate children. It was the universal custom in ancient Israel and the church for two millennia that families be responsible for the education of youth with assistance from the synagogue or the church. There are no examples of government education for the people of God, as the ideal pattern, found in the Bible.

This was also the exclusive pattern in American history in the early days when all education had a strong Christian flavor. The Christian character of education has been steadily eroded from the time when the humanism of Mann-Dewey began to permeate education practice up to the present day. Currently, except for an occasional pocket of resistance, Christianity has been consistently eradicated from public education. Government education, as it is known today, is a recent education experiment, and a failed one at that.