By Dave Parish, Founding ECS Board Chairman

How important should it be to you that your child’s teacher be “state certified” or that your child’s school be “state accredited?” What do we usually assume when something is certified or accredited? We assume it is quality controlled (and we assume a good quality)! But, we tend to forget that it also means some level of control by whoever certifies it. When something is certified, it means it has been evaluated and is subject to further evaluation. To evaluate something, there must be certain conditions and standards. Both are important. Remember, the “certified” public schools in this country are graduating students who cannot read, or succeed in college. Are you happy with their standards? Are you happy with the conditions that students are subjected to in public schools (no curriculum about God, evolution is taught as truth and creation science is scoffed at, there is actual physical danger, crime, permissive sex education, sexual equality, immorality, and unrighteous peer influences, to name a few conditions)? We are not happy with their standards and that is one reason why we have ECS.

So, let’s get back to the question. Is it important that your child’s school be accredited by the state? Hopefully, you agree that the answer is NO! So, why would we want that at ECS? We don’t. But, is it important that ECS be accredited by someone? YES, at least eventually, but only by some institution that will hold us accountable to something we want to be. We do not agree with the state standards nor do we want to subject our students to their conditions; but, at ECS we are seeking accreditation and teacher certification from Christian school associations such as the Association of Classical Christian Schools (ACCS). This is an institution that holds its member schools accountable. Accountability means helping someone be what he says he wants to be and not stopping short because of laziness, sloppiness, or his own sinful nature. Accountability is also one of the reasons for having a school board and a school that advertises and stresses that parents are the ones responsible. Parents and the school board (made up of mostly school parents) will help hold the administration and teachers accountable to do what they agreed to do. Personal accountability is similar to this kind of accountability. It can be very good to have someone in our lives to do this. Accountability can sometimes mean holding us to something we don’t want to be, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It may mean we are not in line with where we should be. But, the standards or lack of standards against what we are measured are very important. Public schools like to advertise their neutrality in regards to faith and religion when there is, in fact, no neutrality when one of the standards is to exclude God from mention. Another is to not require certain positive standards of belief and conduct for the teachers or the students from a Christian viewpoint. To exclude those standards takes away any neutrality (Matt 12:30). On the other hand, ACCS subscribes to the same Christian standards and conditions that we do. It also subscribes to outstanding academic standards as well (higher than public school).

Now, this accreditation process takes time. None of these associations will accredit a school until it has been in operation for a number of years. There is not an accrediting association that we know of that accredits an educational institution in its very first year and how could they? A school produces students and there has never been a product!

At ECS we have hired some teachers who are state certified, but not all. We don’t disdain state teacher certification or experience, we just don’t require it. However, all our teachers except one (who is working toward her degree) have at least a bachelor’s degree as well as a strong desire to teach children not only academic subjects, but in the way of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In other words, all our teachers meet the qualifications for certification required by the accrediting association we have affiliated with, and which we at ECS intend to be “accredited” by, as soon as possible, and certainly by the time our first student graduates.