by Teri Ong
The Obama administration is dabbling in more than just health care and environmental concerns; it is also wanting to have total control over higher education. Perhaps you have seen articles or heard about changes coming which will nationalize student loan programs and put all accreditation under the federal government. Then again, you probably have not been made aware of those things. Nationalization of higher education is not on most people’s radar of pressing concerns.
But what we as a society don’t need is more cookie cutter education, and what the Christian church does not need is more students pressed into the mold of the world. These trends put Bible colleges like Chambers College in the unique position of being able to educate courageous Christian students against the tide of governmental control and secularism. How can this be?
1.Church-based colleges, like Chambers College, are the only ones that can operate legally and remain non-accredited because of “separation of church and state.”
Church-based colleges can remain free of governmental interference. At the present time in our state, the Colorado Commission on Higher Education keeps a record of our programs on file, but their policy is to leave church-based institutions alone because they don’t want to become embroiled in First Amendment lawsuits. By being registered with the CCHE, we can legally grant college degrees to those who complete our programs, without having to compromise our convictions and standards to comply with nationalized and secularized accreditation requirements.
In the past few days, a group of secularists has protested a prayer breakfast at the Air Force Academy on the grounds that having faculty members attend “might be seen as an 
endorsement of conservative Christianity.” [1] This is the problem that all schools under governmental regulation face. There can be no true academic freedom or freedom of conscience in institutions that are entangled with the state. Chambers College has no such entanglement.
2. Select schools can provide the kind of education that is necessary for world-changers.
Our world needs thinkers with the analytical and communications skills to challenge the false philosophies of our age. Unfortunately, the newest study on the effectiveness of higher education in America shows that a preponderance of students go through two to four years of schooling with no change in their ability to think critically. Forty-five percent of students show no gain in two years and thirty-six percent show no gain in four years.
The students who show the best gains in critical and analytical thinking are those who enroll in select programs emphasizing traditional arts and sciences (“liberal arts”), especially when they are required to read widely (at least 40 pages per course per week on average) and write extensively (at least 20 pages per semester). [2]
This perfectly describes our courses at Chambers College. We are able to have such rigorous requirements for our students because we have a small student body with an incredible student-teacher ratio of 4 to 1. Because the vision at Chambers College is one of intense Christian discipleship, students are personally challenged in every aspect of spiritual as well as intellectual development. It is not our goal to be a Christian trade school; it is our goal to raise up disciples for Christ who will be able to give an answer to those who challenge them and to work with excellence, no matter what field God calls them to serve in.
3. Colleges with Bible at the core can provide the tools for a new reformation.
The watch word of the great Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries was “sola scriptura,” scripture alone. God’s written revelation was to be the sole authority for the individual’s Christian walk as well as for the beliefs and practices of Christ’s church. The Reformers, such as Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and Tyndale, knew that the only way to overcome the corrupting effect of erroneous teachings and traditions of men was with the purity of the truth of God’s Word. Because of that understanding, colleges sprang up across Europe and later in America which emphasized the study of Biblical languages, exegesis of Scripture, and sound doctrine measured by God’s Word alone.
The moral and philosophical relativism that has tainted our culture since we effectively removed every last vestige of Biblical Christianity from American schools can only be fought by returning to the absolute standard of God’s Word. As L. Michael Morales in “A Bible College for Such a Time as This” (a defense of Ligonier Academy), writes:
As we consider the current state of our world, the dominant culture of our country, and the condition of our churches, the book of Acts challenges us to focus our prayers and kingdom-efforts upon the growth of the Word of God and the knowledge of the Lord that Word alone provides… Asked another way, how can the tide of postmodern relativism and pluralism, even within our churches, be turned? The answer: by a greater knowledge of God’s Word. [3]
At Chambers College, every course is infused with God’s Word. We seek to lay a Biblical foundation for every discipline of life so that students can effectively critique every aspect of modern culture. Through the ability to measure modern life against the absolute standard of God’s Word, they will be equipped to make godly decisions in important areas, such as family, government, law, medicine, education, etc., on a daily basis.
Morales asserts again:
Some of our students, young Christian men and women, may go on to other schools to become doctors or bankers. But whether as musicians, homeschooling housewives, or lawyers, their rigorous training… will ensure mature knowledge of Scripture and a discerning engagement with the world. Someone may ask: is it advisable for, say, a future engineer first to be thoroughly grounded in and equipped by rigorous study of Scripture in a Bible college setting? If we are truly kingdom-minded, understanding our purpose throughout this fleeting age, the answer must be yes. [4]
4. Non-traditional schools with no fixed costs are best positioned to remain unentangled from federal loan programs and to keep students financially free through low costs.
With state governments making drastic cut-backs in higher education, the cost to students for state-run university programs has sky-rocketed. Prices have also gone up proportionally in private colleges and universities which have large infrastructures and full-time faculties to support. One of the reasons the federal government is keen on controlling student loan programs is because students are finding it increasingly difficult to repay the astronomical sums they are borrowing to get through a four-year degree program. Public universities average $15,000 to $20,000 per year and many private schools are at least twice that amount. [5] Students coming out of school now, during a time of 9 to 10% unemployment, are defaulting in record numbers.
Following the money trail leads, at least in part, to why the federal government also wants to clamp down on accreditation. They want to, in their typical bureaucratic way, ensure that students are not going deeply into debt for substandard products. Financial managers of education moneys will soon be demanding proof of “marketable job skills.” [6] But we all know how well the government does when they try to measure and manage these types of issues. One size does not fit all, but that is the only way bureaucracies know how to work.
The problem is high overhead and fixed costs associated with brick-and-mortar campuses with large full time, tenured faculty who may only teach a handful of students in highly specialized programs. We propose a practical alternative. We know it is practical because we have operated effectively outside the box since 1998.
Chambers College has no “campus” overhead because we are a ministry of Reformation Baptist Church. The church facility, which carries no debt load, is adequate for all of the academic activities of the college. Chambers College pays for its own operating expenses and support staff through nominal semester service fees. Our faculty members are paid on a per student/per course basis. They all love to teach students in their specialty fields because they all have a calling to pass their faith as well as their expertise to the next generation. All of our faculty salary is covered by the per hour fee for our courses. The cost for a semester at Chambers College is roughly $1300 to $1800– one-tenth the average price at a traditional university.
In an essay entitled “Education in a Free Society,” economist Dr. Ben Rogge argues persuasively for true freedom of choice in education:
Let each family, using its own resources or resources voluntarily made available to it by others, pay for such educational programs for its children as it sees fit– whether that which is purchased be a book, a television set, or four years at Harvard College. Let each adult, again using funds acquired by peaceful exchange or gift, make his or her educational decisions, acting on them in the educational marketplace. If freedom of choice is desirable for individuals in most aspects of their lives, why is it not imperative that freedom of choice be granted to them in one of the most important aspects of their lives: their growth in understanding of themselves and of the world around them? To the collectivists we say, if you insist on controlling something, make it the peanut butter or hula hoop industries, but for God’s sake, leave education alone! [7]
If you want to be the best you can be as a disciple of Christ, one who can turn the world upside down as the first century disciples did, and if you are willing to look outside the world’s box for your education, consider Chambers College.
References:
[1] News item reported on KNUS AM 710 (Denver, Colorado), Feb. 7, 2011.
[2]Richard Arum and Josipa Roska, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.
[3] Michael L. Morales, “A Bible College for Such a Time as This,” Tabletalk, November 2010, pp.80-91.
[4] Ibid.
[5]Richard Laliberte, “Do Kids Need College?” Family Circle Magazine, March 2011, pp. 54-60.
[6]Donald E. Graham, “Avoiding Disaster for Low-Income Students,” Wall Street Journal, Jan. 14, 2011, A15.
[7]Ben Rogge, A Maverick’s Defense of Freedom. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2010, p. 116.
