Despite the dilemma public schools face nowadays regarding morals and values, kids in America continue to learn about Jesus because of innovative program efforts initiated by Christians.
Bible2School Innovative Program In Public Schools
Public schools worry many parents in America. Especially since there has been an “ongoing debate over morals and values in public schools today,” according to CBN News.
Aaron Burden. (Photographer). (2020). Bible, Retrieved April 20, 2023 from: https://unsplash.com/photos/4uX_r8OhJ_o
But even with that, Christians aren’t just going to stay sit around and do nothing. In fact, a Christian organization called Bible2School created a program to “to bring Jesus to public school kids each and every week.” Today, the program has been running across public schools in Pennsylvania.
In an interview with CBN News, the CEO of Bible2School, Kori Pennypacker, shared their mission with the innovative program.
“Bible2School is a 40-year-old nonprofit organization,” he said. “And we equip parents, moms, dads, grandparents to teach the Bible to public school kids during their school day..”
Teaching Kids About The Bible
Through the program, the public school allows the facilitators to bus the students “to churches or other locations to learn Bible lessons.” They do this “over lunch and recess.” They then head back to the public school before the class starts.
“It’s amazing because most of the kids we reach in the public schools have no church at home,” Kori said. “There’s a very high percentage – 60 percent of our kids, over 60 percent of our kids – have no church home. So, we’re teaching them about Jesus for the very first time, many times.”
CDC. (Photographer). (2020). Back To School, Retrieved April 20, 2023 from: https://unsplash.com/photos/GDokEYnOfnE
Time Rulings
The CEO also explained how the Christian program had been allowed in public schools. It goes back to 1914 when the Bible was still “a reader in school.” But during the early 1800 or 1900, “they took the Bible out of school.”
At that point, they still considered the importance of teaching the Bible to kids. So, they came up with a “released time” ruling instead.
“They had these release time rulings that said you can release kids from school, maybe one hour a day; different in different states, at different times,” Kori said. “But you can release kids from school. They have to be offsite, they have to have parental permission, and it has to cost a taxpayer no money, so no tax dollars.”
As a result, the public schools across Pennsylvania allowed the Bible2school program to teach the students about Jesus and the Bible. And the efforts have impacted many kids and parents.
A volunteer, Erica Ringler remarked, “My husband and I just loved that there were other Christian, caring adults that were pouring into our kids. You know, parenting is really hard, and as they get older, just knowing that there were other adults that were reinforcing the same truths that we were teaching at home and that they were hearing that again at church and at Bible2School.”
Reference | CBN News
Header Image: CDC. (Photographer). (2020). Back To School, Retrieved April 20, 2023 from: https://unsplash.com/photos/GDokEYnOfnE