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Kentucky has a state pension “nightmare”.  The report is that the state workers retirement fund is forty-one billion dollars in the hole.  To give you an idea how bad that is for my home state:  Kentucky’s state government budget is only about twelve billion a year.  Previous administrations have, in my opinion, defrauded Kentucky’s people.

So shouldn’t we address this problem at its root instead of just trying to temporarily change the fruit out on the limb?  To do that, we have to go to the Bible to find the real answers.  What is the purpose of education; and who is to do it?  Those hard questions must be answered truthfully.  If a system comes from God, we have both a standard by which to operate it, as well as a basis for expecting His help in correcting it if it gets off track.

So why does God say we’re to educate children?  Here is His answer:

“That thou mayst fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command thee; thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life…” (Deuteronomy 6:2)

Then He says we are to:  “…teach them diligently to thy children…” so that they will institute and obey His “statutes”, which is God’s civil law; and so they will obey His “commandments”, which is God’s moral law.  The purpose of all this is so nations around them would see that God’s way of living in this earth is the best way, and thus those nations would turn to the true God Who created them (Deuteronomy 4:4-8).  God is constantly about advancing His kingdom into the hearts of men—and nations—everywhere.

So who is responsible for teaching children God’s moral law and His civil law?  The New Testament answers this question in Ephesians 6:4; it states,

“And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”

Thus, God gives the responsibility to educate children to parents, not the state.  In history, all state education systems became, after a while, the tool of elitists to control the thinking of a nation and prepare them to bow down to the elitists dictators.

Thus, tax-supported education for God’s people is not found anywhere in the Bible.  Moses’ state education had to be removed by forty years in the desert, while God renewed his mind to think as God thought.  Daniel’s education as a Jew was in stark contrast to Babylon’s system of state education.

So, even if we were willing to admit that tax-supported education was wrong, what do we do in Kentucky to fix the retirement fund of teachers and other state workers?

Number one, we pray for God’s wisdom to do this.  We don’t look to more gambling or legalize marijuana for tax revenue.  We bite the bullet and either raise taxes temporarily to fix it, or we ask state workers to temporarily take less in their retirement—or we do both—in order to let the pension fund grow.  There are no easy fixes for this.  And most importantly, we start moving our education system back into its Christian base which God gave to it.  We got into this mess by “progressively” ignoring God and His Word in our government and in tax-supported schools.  The way out is the reverse of the way in.  It’s that simple.

Noah Webster, the Father of America’s original education method, said:

“Education is useless without the Bible.”

(Webster, Noah. “Our Christian Heritage”, Letter from Plymouth Rock Foundation (Plymouth, MA: The Plymouth Rock Foundation), p. 5.)

Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children!  And you won’t like what that brings to you.  I’m Don Pinson; this has been Think About It.