The Reformation of Adventist Education
by Sydney Freeman Jr., Ph.D.
I’m frustrated and upset. I know I’m in dangerous territory when I say this in an official Adventist periodical, but I know I am not alone and no longer can keep silent. The state of the NAD’s educational system from pre-k through graduate school is in crisis. Faculty, staff, and administrators are underpaid. Many students of Adventist families do not desire to attend our schools because they perceive the educational offerings are not equivalent to other academic school choices. And some congregants are unclear why they need to continue to make our schools a top priority in light of other competing church financial obligations. It seems that solutions are needed to ensure that our schools become the preeminent educational institutions that they can be. They should be the competitive schools of choice for every potential Adventist affiliated student of any age.
While it is clear that our system has many excellent and dedicated faculty, staff, and administrators that selflessly commit to preparing “an army of workers as our youth, rightly trained” to carry the gospel throughout the world. Our system has some areas of improvement that it must attend to that can’t be addressed by educators alone. Church administrators and local church pastors must be in partnership with our educational system for it to survive and thrive.
In his “Beyond Vietnam” sermon of April 1967, given at Riverside Church in New York City. Dr. King proclaimed that the failure to heed the fierce urgency of now related to stopping the Vietnam War would lead to devastating consequences of death for the Vietnamese people and the American military. While in the case of our system we are not talking about physical human casualties, we do risk the mass death of spiritual influence on future generations of our children, their families, and communities. There are some potential members of our Adventist family that would possibly never set foot in our sanctuaries, but might send their children to our schools if we offered curricula and facilities that rival and exceed the quality of our academic peers. We must move with a fierce urgency to ensure that our educational system in the NAD thrives and flourishes until Jesus comes.
What makes me credible to speak on this issue? I am a pre-k through undergraduate degree product of Seventh-day Adventist Christian education. I have lived in three regions of the United States, the Northeast, Southeast, and Pacific Northwest (each for at least a decade). And in each region, I have either been educated or sat on boards affiliated with our institutions. Not only do I have a vested interest in this topic because of my experience as a student and school board member. I have earned graduate degrees in educational administration and higher education leadership, and served as a higher education administrator and tenured faculty member. This combination of experiences informs my assessment of this situation.
The harsh reality is the United States is experiencing declining birthrates which is affecting the potential pool of students now and into the future. Our schools are not immune or insulated from these factors. Given the current enrollment cliff (shrinking number of potential students) due to these declining birth rates, I believe that the Adventist Church will need to adjust its educational funding model. I posit that the General Conference and the North American Division should readjust its budgets for the next decade so that our schools are not tuition-dependent; pre-k through graduate school.
Why is ensuring our schools not be tuition-dependent so critical? In 2022, I served as a visiting scholar in the office of the provost at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). During that time, I was asked to facilitate a symposium for ivy league institutions regarding strategies to better support mid-career and senior faculty of color. When I initially proposed potential speakers, I came up with a list of individuals in my network that were not necessarily prominent but believed could speak to the topic. When I presented the names to the team, the person I was assigned to gently suggested that I go back and consider additional names without concern of speaker cost. It made me realize that subconsciously I was limiting potential options because I generally have to think of resource constraints when making decisions. I have been associated/worked for under-resourced and state-funded institutions throughout my career and educational experiences. The experience at UPenn helped me see the power of decision making with limited cumbrance. I believe our administrators, faculty, and staff deserve such an environment to serve our students in.
Given the current educational climate, people will not continue to pay for and send their children to under-resourced schools and universities. We must ensure that our schools are viewed as best-in-class institutions of excellence. Therefore, we probably will need to prioritize funding based on the growth of locations (cities with growing populations) and institutions (colleges and universities) that provide unique/cutting-edge academic offerings and serve growing populations. The church has the money, but they will have to reprioritize resources. That will mean making hard decisions about school closures.
Education would need to be viewed as our primary evangelistic thrust. Every child/grandchild of a tithe paying congregant would not have to pay for tuition, but for room and board at our boarding academies and higher education institutions.
Congregants would have to be resocialized to understand that education in the church is not just a side ministry but a foundational pillar of the denomination. If the church keeps its same tuition driven approach I believe a large percentage of our schools will no longer exist in the next 10 years.
While we can continue to celebrate the strides made by the NAD schools based on the results of the Cognitive Genesis and Value Genesis studies. Are we okay just celebrating their results without critical analysis regarding overall school closure data. What about these schools being under resourced and faculty being underpaid in comparison to their peers.
This is something that can’t wait. We are in a state of emergency. I attended two elementary and middle Adventist schools in New Jersey and now they are closed. My older cousin attended two others, Delaware Junior Academy and Garden State Academy and they are also now closed.
So, what can church administrators and local pastors do?
Begin educating parishioners through sermons, Sabbath school quarterlies, other periodicals, and religious events about the historical and current role and importance of Adventist Education.
Educate yourself through books, videos, and other educational resources about the current state and trends related to private religiously affiliated educational institutions.
Talk to educators in our system about their hopes, needs, and aspirations for our schools. Particularly, providing space for them to dream about what could be.
Lastly, advocate to denominational leaders about restructuring the way in which they support our schools. Specifically, funding our schools to the point that they are not tuition dependent for the next decade.
I know I am not the first to come up with such ideas, but I want to add my name to the chorus. I don’t think such a complex issue has a simple answer. But we must rethink our current direction and strategy. If we don’t heed the call of the fierce urgency of now, maybe it’s time for the North American Division education system to go the way of the Adventist Health system and only be affiliated with the church, not operated by it.
Sydney Freeman, Jr. serves as the Founder and Director of the Liberation Movement, Inc., and Professor of Leadership at the University of Idaho.
