Traditional Christian schools thriving in liberal bastion of San Francisco

As public school enrollment continues to decline across the nation, classical Christian schools in the deep blue city of San Francisco are gaining traction, according to a new report.

Three religious schools offering students a classic liberal arts education have opened across the Bay Area in the past five years, according to The San Francisco Standard, which has been documenting the growing trend.

Donum Dei Classical Academy, which touts its Bible-based curriculum for K-8th graders, may look out of place in the Bernal Heights neighborhood “adorned with rainbow Pride flags,” but its influence is growing, the report said. 

The tiny school has reportedly added 25 students since opening in 2019 and donations have skyrocketed from $45,692 that year to $773,319 in 2023. 

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Donum Dei joins other classical Christian schools in the city, including private Catholic school Nativity High School, “which opened this fall with 20 students in the Inner Richmond; Saint John of San Francisco Orthodox Academy, a 25-student K-8 school in the Richmond that opened in 1994; and Stella Maris, a former Catholic school on the same campus as Nativity that has doubled its enrollment to 86 students since reinventing itself in 2021,” the Standard reported.

Parents looking for a curriculum that incorporates “tradition, faith, and conservative values” are drawn to these schools, staff told the paper.

Marilyn Bridon, an art teacher at Stella Maris, explained how their school may look different from many public schools, in that “woke” books are routinely removed from the school library and preferred “pronouns” are not something that is discussed.

An administrator and teacher at another classical school, Saint Johns of San Francisco Orthodox Academy, explained that parents have expressed that they didn’t want their kids’ education to be “too far to the left.”

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“A lot of people in our community have said it’s important to them that we’re not too far out there, too far to the left,” Helen Sinelnikoff-Nowak said in the report. “I’m not preaching to parents, but I hear them, and that’s what they’re looking for.” 

The classical education movement has picked up steam as parents seek alternatives to public schools. According to the Association of Classical Christian Schools, there were 502 schools enrolled in their organization in the U.S. as of 2023.

While more of these schools open across the nation, public school enrollment has dropped in America’s most populous cities, according to a recent report.

Between 2013 and 2022, nationwide enrollment in public schools decreased by 2% from 49.9 million to 48.8 million, falling to some of the lowest points in decades, according to a report released in June by the Manhattan Institute.

Fox News’ Kendall Tietz contributed to this report.