How the Herzog Foundation Is Strengthening Christian Education

Nathan Sanders: Welcome back to Sunday School Choice. My name is Nathan Sanders with EdChoice. This is episode six of Sunday School Choice.

All the episodes so far have been great, been amazing, lots of good info, and hopefully this is a resource to you guys watching. If you’re a pastor or a church leader or a school leader or even a parent, I hope that it’s a resource that you guys can take back to your states and your communities and utilize. So today in episode six, I’m joined with Chris Vas from the Herzog Foundation.

They’re based in Missouri. Chris, welcome to the podcast.

Chris Vas: Yeah, thanks so much for having me, Nathan. Excited for today’s conversation.

Nathan Sanders: Yeah, absolutely. Chris, let’s jump right into it. I want to get to know you and get to know the Herzog Foundation and the work that you guys do.

Can you kind of introduce yourself and then highlight the Herzog Foundation for us?

Chris Vas: Yeah, definitely. My background, I grew up in the Chicago area and went to public school, my entire educational background, and then ended up going to college at the University of Missouri. And I have been working at the Herzog Foundation since we launched in 2021.

I was, I think, the third employee and now we have close to 50, so we’ve grown very quickly over the past few years. But the Herzog Foundation has an incredible mission. We aim to advance and accelerate the creation of quality, Christ-centered K-12 education.

So really what we do is we provide resources and support to families and schools that are providing Christian education. And we use Christian education broadly. We don’t say Christian schooling because we work with homeschoolers.

We work with hybrid schools. We work with traditional K-12 Christian schools. And so our goal is to allow them to thrive and be the best version of themselves.

And this was really on our founder’s heart, our founder Stan Herzog. He passed away probably six or seven years ago at this point. And he was an extremely generous and philanthropic man when he was alive.

He donated politically. He donated philanthropically all across the globe to help kids. He funded Christian schools.

He did a lot of really great charitable work. But most people know him because of the business he built. He built one of the largest private railroad contracting companies in the country, Herzog Contracting.

And really, his mission was to create more sustainable transit models. And that’s what we’re trying to do in Christian education. We’re trying to create, with his legacy, more sustainable education models that more kids can access quality Christian education and that more students are able to reap the benefits of having a quality education.

Nathan Sanders: So diving in a little bit deeper to that, Chris, you said you guys were founded just a few years ago. Was there a sort of a core problem that you guys were trying to solve? You know, when that first roundtable got together and said, we need something like this, what was the core problem that you guys sought to solve?

Chris Vas: So when Stan passed away, he left a very clear mission to advance K-12 Christian education, but he didn’t really give much else. He passed away suddenly in an accident. And so his handpicked board didn’t have a lot of information on exactly how are we going to advance K-12 Christian education.

But in the first year of operation, our president traveled around the country and really talked to Christian parents, Christian students, Christian schools. And what we learned is there was a lack of professional development in the Christian education space for Christian school leaders. Meaning a good example would be, you know, a school starts and it’s really successful and the founding head of school either retires or moves or moves on and they promote the best third grade teacher.

And everyone loves this person and they are fantastic in the classroom and they’ve been at the school for a number of years. And so that person now is in a leadership role at the top of the school. And they are amazing at mentoring the teachers and connecting with the families and the kids.

But now they’re in charge of a budget, fundraising, marketing. They’re in charge of a staff. They’re in charge of facilities.

And they don’t have the professional development available to them that many superintendents and principals and things in the public school system have. And so we thought that’s our biggest program we have at Herzog, is we provide that professional development to these school leaders and we scholarship them. It’s completely free to them.

And these are intense kind of learning situations where over two or three days they come and they’re going to learn about marketing enrollment, donor development, succession planning. They’re going to learn about culture building and staff recruitment and retention. They’re going to learn about crisis management and school safety.

And so these are opportunities when schools are not doing well. It’s rarely because of what’s happening in the classroom or the faith formation. It’s because at the top, the business is not viable.

And when schools are kind of stagnant and they want to grow but they aren’t able to, it’s generally some sort of business deficit that they’re experiencing. And so we aim to fill that gap and provide them with that much-needed professional development.

Nathan Sanders: Yeah, that’s incredible. I think oftentimes it goes sort of unnoticed, if you will, when private school leaders or some type of model, homeschool co-ops rather, or micro schools, if it’s Christian-based or not, I think it goes unnoticed how time-consuming and tedious some of these things can be. Like you highlighted, budgeting and staff and things like that.

And so I think organizations like the Herzog Foundation are so important because a lot of these schools, as you know, they don’t have the extra cash to hire somebody to do this or utilize all these different softwares out there to do all this stuff. So they have to rely on nonprofit organizations like you guys to step in. And I appreciate you guys so much because I know, and this is segueing to my next question.

So you guys are based in Missouri, and I know you guys work with a ton of Missouri schools and families and leaders over there. But talk a little bit about your national focus. You know, you talk a lot about your resources.

I know you guys have the, is it called the school box sort of resource for schools. Talk to me about your national reach and how that’s developed over the years.

Chris Vas: Yeah, so we have trained schools in 49 states since we have started and have worked with thousands of schools across the country. We have training hubs. Here in Kansas City is our main hub, which is our headquarters.

But we also have training hubs in Fort Worth, Santa Barbara, Nashville, Washington, DC, Kentucky. And so we’re all over the country. We try to make it as convenient as possible for these schools to be able to attend our trainings and access these resources.

You mentioned the school box program. That’s one of our programs where we help launch new Christian schools, homeschool co-ops, hybrid schools. And what we do is we put these school entrepreneurs and launch groups through an online course that helps walk them through, hey, how do I form my 501c3?

How do I actually become an entity all the way to how do we enroll kids? Are we going to do uniforms or not? What curriculum are we going to do?

Because there are a ton, and since we’ve launched school box, we’ve really seen people come out of the woodwork. There are a ton of pastors and churches that want to get involved in education, knowing what’s happening in our public school system right now. But if you’re a pastor and you say, the church is on board, our church board is on board, I want to do this, we don’t even know how to start.

And so a lot of these churches kind of seize up and they’re not ready to move forward because they don’t know where to start. And so our online course kind of walks them through the logical and chronological order of things that they should do. And then as they get to certain checkpoints, and if they’re moving towards operation and enrollment, then we actually get them a mentor, somebody who has either started a very similar type of school or is running very successfully that type of school.

And we’re going to have that person meet with them monthly and actually take a look at their budget and take a look at their documents so that they get that peace of mind of saying, hey, someone who’s done this before took a look at this and they’re saying, oh, maybe don’t do that. I’ve ran into that. It was a big mistake or, hey, this looks really good.

And so we’ve seen hundreds of schools that maybe wouldn’t have been launched or were on the process of being launched, but they had kind of a lot of holes in their plan be able to utilize the Schoolbox platform to just really launch their schools quicker, faster, and larger than they would have been able to without the platform.

Nathan Sanders: Yeah, and I can’t, like, that resource that you guys have is so incredible. So to give some perspective on this, so the last couple of years, I’ve been head choice for a national organization. So we travel a lot to different conferences and things like that.

And I try to reach out and talk with pastors and faith leaders and these folks that are interested or are in the business of starting some type of Christian education program. And every single time, it never fails. I was at the Southern Baptist Convention three weeks ago in Dallas.

Almost every single question either begins or ends with, okay, so how do I do this?

Chris Vas: Right?

Nathan Sanders: I’m talking to pastors about how they can start these private schools or how they can host micro schools or co-ops in their church building, you know, every day of the week, and it never fails. Okay, how do I get started? What’s the first thing to do?

Is there a checklist? And so the resource that you guys have with Schoolbox for these churches and these leaders is incredible. And I refer people to that all the time.

Shifting gears a little bit, I want to talk a little bit about school choice. And so Missouri, a very topical right now, your tax credit Mo Scholars program helps thousands of families. Just last year, the legislature expanded that out a little bit to reach more families.

And then this year, your legislature appropriated some dollars to virtually triple the amount of students participating that. Talk a little bit about the Mo Scholars program and how that’s helped Missouri schools and families that you guys work with.

Chris Vas: Yeah, I think the Mo Scholars program, like, you know, many other state tax credit or ESA programs across the country, it’s really offered a lifeline to families that just want a different situation or a better situation for their child. I think, you know, the mainstream media and a lot of detractors from these programs like to depict who’s utilizing this program. And we, you know, we’re a scholarship-granting organization, and we talk to hundreds of families.

And you’d be surprised. These parents, you know, are not greedy. They’re not trying to, you know, defraud the system, which is what is generally portrayed.

They have a child who is not being served in their current educational setting. And, you know, I know the teachers unions and the school districts would love to fix the system, and, oh, it’s going to take time. But for these parents, their child’s in school now, and they don’t have time to wait for the system to get fixed.

They want to remove their child from whatever situation isn’t working for them and put them somewhere else. And there are schools that are participating in the Mo Scholars program that are religious. We have Orthodox Jewish schools.

We have Christian schools, Catholic schools, Lutheran schools. There are Muslim schools that are involved. But we also have secular schools.

We have schools that work with high-needs, special-needs students. And parents’ reasoning for moving to these schools vary. We have some parents who say, hey, my child was being bullied, and we’re taking our child to the local Catholic school, and we’re not even Catholic.

But the education is great, and our kid needs a fresh start. Or parents whose children need smaller classroom sizes. Or faith formation is important to them.

And so these are just, who’s utilizing the programs? They’re parents who have a need for their child, and they’re just trying to meet that need. And a lot of these programs, Mo Scholars included, is offering that opportunity to those who, they can’t afford it on their own.

For higher-income folks, if something’s not working for their child, they can pull them out, and they can pay to put them somewhere else. And the Herzog Foundation and millions of people around the country think that everyone should have the opportunity to at least have a quality education that meets their needs.

Nathan Sanders: Yeah, amen to that. And I think that’s so important. Even for a state, if you think about the Missouri program, the Tax Credit ESA program, for those listening, this is a program specifically designed for lower-income families.

I think at this point, it’s what, 300% of the free and reduced luncheon below. It’s designed for lower-income families in Missouri who, as you said, are searching for a better education for their kids, but they may not have the means to do that. And so although we advocate education choice for every single kid, no matter how much money they make or where they live, I think specifically for the Missouri program, it’s something special.

Not necessarily special. It’s ironic that you have these opponents out there claiming that school choice is only for wealthy, when in reality, it’s helping thousands of families in Missouri who are nowhere near wealthy. So I thank you guys for the work that you guys do for that program as well.

So shifting gears a little bit, I know that you guys work with not just private Christian schools, but you guys work with homeschool programs and micro-schooling programs and all these new innovative models. I’m curious to get your thoughts on some of the trends you’re seeing in terms of those different models of education and how you’re seeing them be utilized in sort of traditional settings, right? I mentioned earlier, lots of churches are now hosting schools in their church.

Even though it’s not a church-run school, they’re saying, hey, use our space because we’re not using it four or five days of the week, right? So tell me a little bit about what you’re seeing with some of those trends.

Chris Vas: One of the most popular things we’re seeing are home educators and homeschoolers that are creating these co-ops or pods, and depending on who you ask, they call them different things, but they are meeting in the church or a facility, but oftentimes the church will lease or offer their facilities up two or three times a week. And so these kids are kind of getting the best of both worlds. Clearly the family homeschooling works for them, but they also want the students to have classes where they’re interacting with other kids, and it kind of feels more like a traditional classroom setting.

It also allows opportunities for parents. A lot of questions we get is, well, I can’t afford to homeschool because we both work. And so that kind of hybrid homeschool situation or co-op makes homeschooling accessible to a lot of families that previously may not have been able to homeschool because a couple days a week they may be able to go out and work, and the kids are at the church, and they might have a rotation of parents who are there educating on those days and the other days they’re at home.

And so I think that’s been a really big trend, and also it’s been very popular because economically speaking, the startup costs of getting that going are far less than a traditional school. And so I think that’s been interesting and something before working at the Herzog Foundation. Honestly, before COVID, I don’t think it would have ever exploded like it’s been, but I think people are seeing the benefits of homeschooling, but also the benefits of having a community around those students.

Nathan Sanders: Yeah. I think one of the best things, as you just said, about new or innovative type where you’re just hosting the school is starting a private school, it takes a long time to plan out, over a year for sure. You have to build your board and get staff and work everything out, budget.

But if I’m a church leader and my church can fit 300 people on a Sunday, but it’s empty four days a week and a homeschool co-op wants to come and use our facilities, why not? If you’re able, especially if you’re able to minister to them in that, I think that’s really special and much, much easier than starting a private school. Okay, Chris, we’re coming up a little bit on time, but I do want to ask you one final question.

So I ask this to every guest at the end. So someone like yourself, who’s worked for the Herzog Foundation for a while, and I believe your title is Senior Director at the Herzog Foundation. So given all that experience and expertise you have, what is your advice talking with pastors or church leaders who are sort of on the fence about jumping into the education world, the education ministry world?

Maybe they don’t know where to start. What’s your advice to them on how and when to get started?

Chris Vas: Get started yesterday, because I think it’s so important. What we’re talking about is the next generation. And we now see since COVID what is happening in the schools.

And so what we, we can’t ignore that now that we know what’s happening. I love working at the Herzog Foundation. I spend more time at work during the week than I do at home with my wife and family.

And it’s the same for kids. Kids spend far more time, waking hours at school during the school year than they do at church or Bible study or with their families at home. And so if you’re going to send a child to school for a majority of their waking hours, it is extremely important that the school is reinforcing the values being taught at home, is not arguing against the values of the parents that are sending the kids there.

And I think that pastors and church leaders are in a perfect position to be able to serve those kids Monday to Friday, when the church is not being used on the weekends.

Nathan Sanders: Yeah, my friend, Pastor Tom Kakadelis outside of North Carolina, he loves to say the school has your kids for over 40 hours a week, potentially more if they do after school programs and clubs and stuff. Over 40 hours a week, like you said, like we would for work. The church has them for what, three a week, Sundays and Wednesdays, maybe three hours a week.

So as parents and these folks who are responsible for these kids who want them to have a Christian-based education in a biblical worldview, having them in an education model that is Christian-based, it just changes the game. And so I think that’s exactly right. Chris, finally, I’m done with questions except for this one.

You’ve talked about a lot of the resources and work that you guys do at Herzog. For folks listening and watching, if they’re interested, where can they find all those resources? Where can they find you?

Chris Vas: Yeah, so the Herzog Foundation, if you’re interested in starting a school or work at a school or want resources, Herzogfoundation.com. You can see all of our trainings, all of our events and resources are there. We have an online news publication that has an emphasis on education news, and that is ReadLion.com, and that we’re cranking out 70 to 80 articles a week so that parents and grandparents are up-to-date on what’s happening in the education space. And then as for me personally, my X account is at ChrisJVas, and would love to interact with you on X as well.

Nathan Sanders: Awesome. Thank you, Chris. Thank you for all the work that you guys do at Herzog.

Thank you for joining me today. For those listening, this has been Sunday School Choice, where faith meets education freedom. Thanks for joining us.