A former Methodist minister turned Baptist pastor named Evan Dhu Cameron was the first state superintendent in the newly formed state of Oklahoma.
In 1908, he wrote: “It is true that our public-school system is ‘the spring from whence all our liberties flow,’ and these rural schools come nearer constituting the real source and life-giving power of the outflowing stream of liberty than all of the other departments of the public school system put together.”
At that point, the majority of rural children never received an education. Urban children had schools, but rural communities, with their lack of transportation options and widely scattered populations, did not offer rural kids similar opportunities.
That all changed as a new wind rose within the fledgling state of Oklahoma. New voices called for all children to receive the taste of liberty and freedom that comes with the life-giving power of education.
Cameron would work to establish thousands of schools across the state at the expense of taxpayers where all the children could be educated. Reading through his early writings, one gets the sense that most Oklahomans understood that an educated state would lead to greater prosperity and security for everyone.
Surely there were naysayers, but a majority opinion won out that we should want similar opportunities for our neighbors that our children received. Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves appears to have been part of the cultural values of the time.
Today, a few loud but persistent extremist voices that are well-funded by billionaires have completely trashed these traditional values so core to our identity as a people. They push school vouchers and plans to privatize public education – in a sense returning us to pre-1907 statehood where an education looked more like the Hunger Games. Truly, education was every child for themselves. And rural children suffered the most.
Today, churches seem to have a renewed sense of the value of education for every child, no matter if they live in urban, suburban or rural contexts. More and more churches and pastors are standing up to the billionaire class that just wants a tax break instead of paying their fair share into public school systems.
Several churches across rural Oklahoma this summer used their Vacation Bible Schools’ mission offerings to support their local public school fine arts or special education departments.
This compassionate desire to see these types of programs thrive in public schools strikes at the very core of the matter.
Rural communities see the fallout when their schools suffer from chronic underfunding. Much more than a spreadsheet or financial statement, rural communities feel this lack up close and personal.
Their friends and family will suffer if programs like these are allowed to fail and close due to some bureaucrat at the state capitol shortchanging their local school.
So, churches lean in to shoulder the burden when the state fails to do its constitutional duty to fully fund the public school system. They purchase food, clothing, instruments, athletic uniforms and school supplies for their community’s children.
When politicians abuse the good and holy work of public school teachers for political influence and power, the quiet work of local fellowships of Christ followers supporting their schools has been awe-inspiring.
Churches of all sizes and contexts are waking up to the reality that for far too long the church has been known for what we oppose. When we support public school teachers and the children they educate, we lay the groundwork to be known by what we are for instead.
Evan Dhu Cameron made it clear that public schools offer a spring of learning to our thirsty people. Local churches would do well to work hard at clearing a path for that liberty to flow throughout the communities we serve.
Editor’s note: This article is part of a series this week focused on public education. The previous articles in the series are:
It Takes a Community | Kristina Collins
Why You Should Send Your Children to Public School | Cameron Vickrey
Religious Liberty in Public Schools Requires Looking out for Students and Teachers | Jennifer Hawks
A local church pastor for 22 years, he serves as executive director of Pastors for Oklahoma Kids — a non-denominational coalition of Oklahoma pastors he helped cofound that advocates for public school children.
