Take a casual drive down a country road on a sunny day, and you will most likely see a barn, once beautiful and useful, now gray as weathered boards hold the sides in place while the roof waits for one final storm to complete its inward collapse. The barn is in a state of entropy. Physical examples are easily spotted, but non-physical structures require more observation, like America’s traditional education. In physics, it’s known as the Second Law of Thermodynamics. America’s education system is in a state of entropy as more money and resources are required to maintain our public schools than the benefits the school system brings to our students and our nation.

School is starting all across the nation and God is calling us to pray. For the past six months or more, God has been impressing upon the IFA staff the vital necessity of praying for the public schools: students, Christian educators, and the many legal Christian ministries at work in the public schools. Don’t miss this critical time of prayer for our nation’s most important mission field and our nation’s most critical missionaries. Call (712)775-7430 (no code needed), or join us on Facebook LIVE or Zoom webcast.

Entropy means a structure, or in our case, a system, is prime for a change, not just a simple change, but a complete overhaul. Here are a few indicators of entropy in education:

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• Low achievement tests—The amount of money to maintain the system increases as output decreases. America spends $12,509 (www.ed.gov) per student each year. The US spends more than any other nation in the world, yet, of the 72 nations who participate in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test the US ranks #25th. Twenty-eight percent of those who graduate from our high schools read below grade level, Sixty percent of high school graduates who go on to college must take remedial classes to prepare them to have the basic knowledge to survive in college-level courses.

• US National Department of Education—With an annual budget of $69 Billion, the Department of Education may be an unconstitutional expense. Since the U.S. Constitution does not mention the Department of Education, many constitutionalists argue the department of education has no basis for existence. Currently, the Department of Education’s emphasis is to promote social issues rather than academics. That’s a lot of taxpayer money for a department that may not be legal or academically useful.

• Excessive Overhead—The amount of money required to run the public school system is staggering and growing every year. Seldom are school budgets trimmed, schools consolidated, or education budgets audited. It is not uncommon to have clerks to assist clerks in schools, nor is it uncommon for a state to have excessive school districts.
• Labor Union Control — The largest labor union in America, is the National Education Association. The NEA sponsors a liberal agenda in our schools and is one of the major forces of resistance to change.
• Outdated Teaching Methods—Methods of instruction have not changed as most schools use the same techniques as were employed during the Industrial Revolution (1770-1840) as factories sprung up across our country and our schools were required to train students as potential factory workers. Today we need education for America’s technology-based economy.

• Reliance on Outside Consultants—Once a system enters into a state of entropy, the tendency is to bring in new administrators to try and implement in a new school what worked successfully somewhere else. Consultants are hired to help teachers and administrators be more effective. It is not uncommon to pay a consultant $1000 a day. These consultants may or may not be educators, but they are telling educators how to run schools.

About the Author: Nancy Huff is an educator with a mission to equip believers to pray strategically for the Cultural Mountain of Education. She has authored Taking the Mountain of Education: A Strategic Prayer Guide to Transform America’s Schools. She leads prayer groups to pray at key educational locations across the US. Currently, Nancy serves as the Heartland Apostolic Prayer Network (HAPN) Lead Prayer Coordinator for the Mountain of Education. For additional information go to: https://takingthemountainofeducation.com/author/nancyahuff/