Poston: In defense of public schools

OPINION • 7:01 p.m. June 2, 2025

Editor's note: This opinion piece appears in the June 4 edition of the Moore County Observer.

CALEB POSTON
Moore County High School Teacher

I have spent the past few years almost completely removed from both political and religious discourses – and by choice. I’ve had a few private conversations, but I typically avoid these topics in public because nothing is more divisive than politics and religion.

Alas, here I am, called out of retirement and back in the middle of it – the last place I want to be. What choice do I have? When a sitting councilman, someone with actual power, publishes an opinion piece in which he poses for the dismantling of the institution in which I serve – with skewed data and flawed ideology – silence is nothing more than complicity.

What we specifically do in Moore County Schools, every day, is serve every child who walks through the door – regardless of their family’s income, intellectual ability, or worldview. If a child uses a wheelchair, we teach them. If a child is nonverbal, we teach them. If a child comes from generational poverty, we teach them. There is no entrance exam, no tuition (unless you choose to come here from out-of-county, and even then, it’s dirt cheap), and no gatekeeping.

In Robert Bracewell’s words, that is radical. It is also deeply Christian – if we’re going to bring that into the conversation, though I’m a firm believer in the separation of church and state.

Mr. Bracewell asks whether we should even have a public school in the county. Does he really believe that we could abolish public schools? Most likely not.

However, to even bring it up reveals to his audience where he truly stands in the conversation: He believes that public education is some kind of state-sponsored mind control designed to turn children into statists.

This idea is common in far-right and Libertarian ideology. And like all who have come before, he fails to offer viability to this perspective.

So let’s look at the history of education in the U.S. and how public education filled the gaps:

• In 1970, over 1 million children with disabilities were excluded from public school in the U.S. – until the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. Before public education stepped up, these children did not go through the educational process with their peers and were unprepared for the world.

• In many Southern rural areas (like ours), literacy rates were under 50% until the 20th century. It was public education that led the charge.

• Before Title I and federal feeding programs, such as the National School Lunch Program (1946) and School Breakfast Program (1966), millions of children came to school hungry and unable to focus – or didn’t come at all. These programs were expanded and permanently authorized in 1975, which has drastically decreased hunger across the country, in both rural and urban communities.

Teachers and other school employees know that parents often fail to care for their children in the most basic ways. Public schools step up to the plate when children’s plates are empty.

When I think about Christian values, I often go to Matthew 25, specifically this passage: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me … Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me” (Mt. 25:35-6, 40, ESV).

Public education – often imperfect and under attack – is one of the clearest ways our society has ever fulfilled the command of Jesus in Matthew 25 to care for “the least of these.”

You want to talk about Christian values? Look at a cafeteria worker who secretly buys a student’s lunch out of her paycheck. Look at a bus driver who makes sure a kindergartener gets safely to the right stop because the mom couldn’t be there. Look at the special ed aide who works with nonverbal children and celebrates progress like it’s a graduation. These people aren’t trying to manipulate children or turn them into state-worshipping robots – they’re trying to serve and guide them to their fullest potential.

Mr. Bracewell criticizes teacher salaries and vacation days, comparing them to county income statistics as if we’re all just coasting on tax dollars. But here’s the reality: Moore County Schools has the lowest salary schedule of any school system around us.

For example:
• Teachers with a bachelor’s degree and two years’ experience earn an average of $2,465 less at MC than schools around us;
• Teachers with a master’s degree and 6 years’ experience earn an average of $4,230 less;
• Teachers with an EdS or two master’s degrees and 8 years’ experience (like myself) earn an average of $4,288 less;
• Teachers with a master’s degree +30 additional hours of grad work and 8 years’ experience earn $5,646 less.
• MC teachers also receive lower health insurance benefits than other county employees.

Moore County schools boast, in my opinion, the best group of teachers out of all area school systems – our test scores, graduation rates, scholarship awards, and career placements rival or surpass any school around us; however, we cannot afford to widen the gap even more if we are to retain the quality of teachers we have.

Teachers, like anybody else, have mouths to feed and bills to pay. Unfortunately, an exodus could happen if we do not get ahead of the state-mandated salaries.

Unfortunately, the state funding model is not beneficial for rural school systems like ours. So, in Mr. Bracewell’s words, we are forced to “figure it out” – though he and others do not like it when we do figure it out.

Still, we show up because we love our kids. We believe in what we’re doing and know that no one else is lining up to take our place if we walk away.

The proposed property tax increase – the one Mr. Bracewell and others are railing against –would still keep our rates significantly lower than surrounding counties.

He mentions “the citizens of this county who consistently speak about how much more they are paying in taxes than they used to, where almost half of their money is being spent.” I’m sorry, but I don’t buy it. I lived in Bedford County for a while – do you want to compare tax bills?

Moore County property taxes are among the lowest in the state. Also, our residents earn more on average than surrounding county residents, so the tax increase won’t break the bank (or put much of a dent in it), but it will enable us to retain good teachers, fund the basics, and keep serving children with the level of care and support we’ve always strived to provide.

That’s not bloated government; that’s the kind of responsibility that says, “We owe our kids more than the bare minimum.”

Mr. Bracewell claims that the school system is a “cultural idol.” He mocks it as a “religion” with “priestesses” at the altar. He states that government is at its best when it’s living out Christian values and operating on the Christian God’s behalf.

But … who does he think the school system is comprised of? Look at the school board and faculty of the schools. Ask them where they go to church. Very few will say they are not devout Christians who do everything in life with their faith in mind. So he makes a strange claim, since this county is 98% Christian.

Therefore, it is more accurate to say that he is attacking something that reflects the very moral values he says he supports – because it doesn’t serve his political ideology.

As teachers who are primarily Christians, we aren’t asking for reverence. We are asking for resources to use to better serve the students we’ve been called to serve.

So, in a county that is already overwhelmingly Christian – full of Christian parents, Christian teachers, Christian students, Christian school board members, Christian council members – this isn’t about rescuing a system from secularism; this is about using our school system as a means to a political end.

This is about gutting it and then blaming its failures on the very people who’ve kept it alive – for the most part, Christian people. It is the same playbook being used by state and federal educational officials right now.

Mr. Bracewell believes there’s no such thing as neutrality in education – that every lesson must either point to Christ or to chaos. I strongly disagree. As a public school teacher, I’m not here to indoctrinate your child – with either religion or politics. I’m here to teach them how to read, to reason, to write, and to think. No, that’s not neutral; that’s powerful.

We’re literally reading The Lord of the Rings, a “fundamentally Catholic work,” according to Tolkien, and Dune, a science fiction novel, in my class. How could I possibly indoctrinate students with that? If anything, what they learn leaves room for their beliefs to grow, not be dictated or completely removed.

And please share with me ways in which Coach B’s economics class, JB’s history class, Mrs. Hise’s health class, Mrs. Henshaw’s algebra class, Mr. Shultz’s personal finance class, or Mr. Kuhar’s physical science class could possibly indoctrinate students – I’ll wait …

So if we must bring faith and religious worldview into this conversation – though I believe it should not be in this conversation and that our public institutions should serve all people, not just the faithful and religious – let’s at least bring the right kind of faith.

Not the kind of faith that controls, but the kind of faith that cares. Not the kind of faith that strips away opportunity in the name of “fiscal conservatism,” but the kind of faith that sacrifices to give others a chance.

That’s the kind of faith that is exemplified by the faculty and staff of Moore County’s public schools. Mr. Bracewell, you are fighting against the very values you claim to espouse. What you are wanting? That’s what we’re already providing.

In Moore County, public education looks a lot like what you say you want in education: rooted in faith-filled homes, supported by committed educators, and focused on helping kids succeed. If you’re attacking that, you’re not attacking a system – you’re attacking your neighbors.

If there is anything holy in what we do in Moore County, it’s this: we keep showing up – for every child, every day. We show up even while being scapegoated by the very people who claim to follow the God who said, “Let the little children come to me” – and, as I’m sure Jesus would agree, even if a half-full bus brings them here.

Caleb Poston is a Moore County resident and teacher. He also is the Observer’s Assignment Editor.