As a business school professor, I tend to think in terms if return on investment, or ROI in my world. So when my wife, Tara, and I considered shifting our four elementary-age kids from public school to Christian school, one of my first thoughts was, "What's the return on investing in a Christian school education?"

Perhaps you think that way as well. What's the real value of a Christian-based education? Should we spend money today that we could earmark for college? Is a Christian school really worth the price tag?

In our case, the price tag was daunting. When we did the math, we were deep into a six-figure expense through twelfth grade-about the price of a couple college educations...or the principal on our mortgage!

Most business professors don't get paid like the executives we teach, so I admit that it was tempting at that point to stay with the status quo, especially since the public schools in our district were pretty decent. Compared to our local Christian school, there wasn't a huge gap in SAT scores or college entrance rates. So why not just save the money and rely on home and church for values education?

Frankly, we concluded, values education through home and church would simply not be enough for us. Kids, like adults, often adopt the values of their peers and teachers, and we saw signs that this was already starting to happen. We were diligently pouring ourselves into our kids' lives at home, training them up in faith and virtue to the best of our ability. But seven hours a day, five days a week, they were being subtly re-educated, marinated in a secular worldview that was competing for their precious, malleable minds.

Like so many parents, Tara and I want our kids in a safe, nurturing, small-class, academically-challenging environment. That's certainly a big part of the ROI for Christian education. But the other bottom line in Christian schools is character development, renewing children's minds so that they're God-centered rather than self-centered when making choices.

Someday-someday too soon-our four kids will be making those choices without consulting us. Tara and I want to help them to choose wisely throughout their lives by shaping their hearts today to love God. It's the most important responsibility that God has entrusted to us, so we can use all the help we can get, seven hours a day, five days a week.

That's why we've now selected a Christian school, Hershey Christian, for our kids. It's a school with caring, experienced teachers, a school with terrific facilities, a school with small classes and a big commitment to academic excellence, and most of all, a school that nurtures our kids' spiritual lives without being legalistic about it. Though the financial pressure is sometimes great, the return on that investment-well-educated kids who genuinely love God and neighbor-is far greater.

Michael Zigarelli
Associate Professor of Management
Messiah College