Pastor Justin Walker of Salt and Light Baptist Church in La Grange, Kentucky, has opened a tuition-free school after a disturbing experience at a local public library. The incident occurred when Pastor Walker, who was trying to find books for his 11-year-old daughter, was confronted with a display of LGBTQ-themed literature being pushed by the library staff.
“I took my daughter to the library… and it was the 1st of June, and they’re pushing all of these LGBTQ books on my daughter,” Walker recalled. “I was so upset… they were trying to give her these books.” Walker took a picture of the books and posted it on Facebook, voicing his frustration with the library for promoting such content to children. “We won’t be back,” he wrote, sparking a heated online discussion.
This led Walker to consider the broader impact of public education on children, especially in light of his personal journey with homeschooling after his wife passed away. “There’s a mission field in our own backyard… 50 million American children are going to public schools every day where things like what just happened to my daughter in the library are happening all day long,” he said.
From this realization, Walker and his church launched a K-6 school, First Principal Academy, as an outreach ministry to provide an alternative to public education. What makes the school particularly unique is that it is entirely tuition-free. “We want this to be a ministry… we’re taking up donations to pay staff and buy curriculum,” Walker explained.
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First Principal Academy is open to the public, and while students do not have to sign a statement of faith, the school makes it clear that Christian teachings are central to its curriculum. “We want mom and dad to know, and we want students to know, that this is what we’re going to be teaching… our grand hope is that kids will hear the gospel in every class,” he said.
Walker sees this school as part of a larger mission to inspire other churches across America to do the same. “We want to be a light… we want to see the church at large recognize the need and get behind it,” Walker said, adding that other churches in Florida and Georgia have already been inspired by Salt and Light’s model.
Walker also acknowledged the challenges of opening a school quickly—Salt and Light launched the academy within six months of making the decision—but he remains committed to the cause. “We want to see this spread far and wide,” he said, calling on others to join in prayer for the church’s protection and the strength of the teachers and students as they pioneer this new effort.
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