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Kathy dreaded the meeting with Brian's teacher. She wanted to try once more to end the almost daily bullying her 9-year-old son endured. Yet in their past meetings on the issue, the teacher seemed not to recognize the behavior as bullying. Instead, she treated these as "normal" schoolyard fights, punishing both boys equally. She interpreted Brian's withdrawal and sullenness as defiance, rather than as symptoms of depression and fear. Kathy prayed that this time the teacher would listen and take steps to protect Brian.

A group of parents in Marin County, California, had an entirely different problem. Their elementary-age children, some as young as 7, had been taken to a series of school dramas advocating acceptance of homosexuality and transsexuality. The school officials had chosen to disregard the forms parents had signed "opting out" of such instruction, and the school district is now being sued.

Across the country, whether goaded by episodes like these, by the numerous school shootings, or by the pathetic academic performance of many schools, parents are saying enough is enough and pulling their children out of public schools. Homeschooling now accounts for almost 2,000,000 children, up exponentially from 40,000 just a generation ago, while Christian schools and private schools have also experienced similar enrollment increases.

Parents who enroll their children in public schools can easily feel besieged. At church, they face close friends who have pulled their children out of the system, leaving the unspoken accusation that sending kids to public schools is akin to throwing them to the wolves.

Yet most Christian parents still opt for public education. Some parents do so because they believe it is the best way to influence those around them for Christ and to ensure their kids don't grow up in a Christian cocoon. Other parents believe part of their calling is to make the schools better for all children—something they feel is hard to accomplish if the "good" families jump ship. Finally, some beleaguered parents keep their children in the public system only reluctantly because they don't have access to or the finances for other options. No matter what your reasons are for having children in the public system, you can take steps to make sure their education is as beneficial—and as safe—as possible. Here's how:

When the national test scores are announced, many of us long to bury our heads in the sand. In 2000, The National Assessment of Educational Progress exams (NAEP) found that only 26% of fourth graders had mastered the math skills for their grade level, 32% the reading skills, and 17% the history skills. Regardless of the causes of this abysmal performance, the simple fact is that most children do not have an adequate grasp of important concepts, a situation that will only worsen as they move through subsequent grades where new skills are stressed regardless of how well the previous skills have been learned.

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