Homeschoolers are finding educational partners in area churches. Here’s why the concept works so well

Erika Serrano knew she had to get her daughter out of her Massachusetts public school – even though it was the only educational experience she had ever known.

“I grew up in the public school system,” Serrano said. “I raised my daughter mostly in the public school system. That’s all I knew, but I knew I needed to shift. I was so scared because you think this is the only way, right? But then I said, ‘Wait a minute, there are so many other ways that our kids could be educated.’”

For Serrano’s family, the solution came with the GROW Christian Learning Center – a homeschool program hosted by a predominantly Hispanic Christian church, explains Kerry McDonald for the Foundation for Economic Education.

“These centers are inspiring not just the parents to engage more in the education of their children, but grandma and grandpa and auntie and uncle,” said Michael King, CEO of the Massachusetts Family Institute helping launch these centers. “The church is truly rallying together the family to raise up the children.” 

An estimated 600 students in Massachusetts attend 15 of these centers to receive a more tailored, faith-based approach to education – and the model is gaining nationwide attention as well. 

‘Low-cost, church-based learning centers’ 

Massachusetts follows a nationwide trend of explosive homeschool growth, where at least 19 states have reported an increase in the 2023-24 school year compared to the previous year. 

While analysts are still searching for reasons driving this surge, McDonald attributes part of it to “the creation of low-cost, church-based learning centers like GROW.” 

Other churches around the nation are paying attention.  

As previously reported by The Lion, Dalena Wallace founded the Heartland Education Reformation Organization (HERO) in Kansas to help churches foster “creative Christian learning environments” with Wichita-based micro and hybrid schools. 

“I’ve been working with other (microschool) founders for three years, but in my work with visiting them and learning their story, I just realized so many of them were Christians and they were starting this because it was their ministry and they felt called to it,” she said. 

“They were stepping out in faith, just walking in obedience to what the Lord asked them to do, but they didn’t know that anyone else was doing it.” 

Wallace cited many benefits to her model, including decreased startup costs and “bridging the gap” between churches and Christian school founders. 

“A lot of times churches may think that to start a private Christian school it has to be a traditional ‘brick and mortar’ school and really expensive, but it doesn’t have to be,” she explained. “You can have a one-room schoolhouse. You can open your fellowship hall. You can use your Sunday school rooms. There are so many ways to do it.” 

Today Serrano’s 11th-grade daughter and 2nd-grade son are enrolled full time in the Massachusetts GROW program, and her three-year-old daughter attends part time. 

“She has flourished into such a beautiful, kind young woman since she’s been going to GROW,” she said of her oldest daughter, who had experienced negative peer pressure at her public school. “Words can’t even express how thankful I am. This has been such a great opportunity for us.”