Dade Christian $chool

I was enrolled in Dade Christian School in the fifth grade, fresh out of public school and a newbie in to the deep, sheltered bubble of private school. In the eight years that followed I began a journey that would lead me here to this very chair where I am sitting. It was at DCS that I came to Christ, it is here where I was educated, and it was here where I met my closest friends. I cannot deny that this place helped make me who I am, the person God wanted me to be. Dade Christian School has always been a sort of fixture in the local community. But in the past few years, DCS has been steadily declining from what it once was back when I was attending to what it is now.

I have always had my gripes with Dade Christian and New Testament Baptist Church as a whole. Both philosophically (we’ll save that for another day) and financially. Even in my high school years, the lack of transparency in every aspect of the school’s financial operations was apparent. The school’s resources (textbooks, computers, furniture, sports equipment etc.) were dated, as was the over all appearance of the campus. While we were students there, we and our parents were promised the world. A pool, an air conditioned gym, a nice weight room, and I think at one time even a new wing and some tennis courts? That never happened. Tuition rates were high then, but it seemed as though very little was being put back in to the school. Small renovations and SMART Boards would come by every now and then, but nothing too overwhelming.

Soon after our class graduated, the school’s teachers started to jump ship. These were teachers I would have been honored to have my children learn from, and who seemed to enjoy doing what they did in an environment such as that one. Something must be wrong. I understand private school teachers make less than their public school counterparts, but at Dade Christian it seems to be significantly less. People working there constantly tell me that they could “spend their lives working there and never see a single cent more than what they make yearly”. In fact, teachers this year didn’t even see a Christmas bonus, which I am sure given the current state of the economy they would have appreciated. I am a firm believer that if you take care of your employees they will ultimately take care of you. Instead higher ups continue to communicate to it’s staff that the school is facing  a massive financial crisis. The school is starting to lay off large groups of personnel in order to cope. But why?

Normally I would pass these claims off as being economic woes, but according to dadechristian.org, current monthly tuition rates for student from Pre-K to 12th grade vary from $500 to $900 (not including fees and additional expeditures) depending on grade level and are steadily rising, with no change in services or curriculum provided. On top of that, according to a few parents and faculty I have spoken to, DCS has acquired a organization that schools at-risk youth. Though admirable, its incorperation in to DCS has led to an increase in violent behavior and misconduct. As a result paying parents have removed their children from the school. One has to ask themselves, where the money is going to?

Sadly, DCS/NTBC defenders will dismiss what I have said here because I have listed no sources by name. Frankly, I don’t care. This isn’t a forum to do so, nor do I want to start some sort of witch hunt. This is an Op-Ed blog and I am giving my opinion based on what I know and what I have been told. If you blindly defend this place you aren’t doing it any good. My goal with this post wasn’t to bring down institutions or rattle sabres as an act of defiance. My goal was to bring a moderate amount of attention to a growing problem. To get decision makers and church leaders to say “Hey this time it’s a blogger on a small website, next time it might be someone bigger.” To get people who work hard at making our kids functional, educated members of society the compensation they deserve. Dade Christian was once a great place to learn, but now that’s not the case.

I think organizations that people pay to educate their children should have a certain amounts of transparency in their day to day finances. Parents are ultimately investing in places like Dade Christian, hoping that by handing their child over to them for a few hours a day, investing their money and time they can recieve an well educated, Christ-minded individual in return. A church is a business much like Best Buy is a business. A church is selling a good and service, in this case that good is salvation, and that service is the community of the church. For a church to be successful it must manage itself like a business. Parents shouldn’t be seen as customers, they should be seen as investors. They are not only investing their money but they are also investing their children. Not to sound like some politician, but children are our biggest investment. Maybe they should open their finances, much like a publicly traded company, so that everyone can see the cash flow.

As parents complain about the declining curriculum and higher tution rates, it comes as no surprise to me that enrollment is low. That, however, isn’t a sign of a bad economy. That is a sign of a company who couldn’t anticipate a downturn, got caught with their pants down and is now desperately cutting corners to maximize profits. And those corners contain the quality that DCS once possessed. Whether that’s due to poor management, or some sort of unknown, money devouring endeavor is beyond me or anyone that I know. But all I know is that cutting costs and bringing down quality won’t get students to come back through the doors like they used to.