To me one of the profound mysteries about the North American Christian community is, “How can so many people in two of the wealthiest nations the world has ever known say they can’t afford Christian schooling for their children?”
Now I know that there are low income families here who can barely afford the necessities of life let along Christian school tuition. But what about everyone else? Well thanks to the research of the Vanier Institute of the Family’s ninth annual report, I am beginning ‘to get it’.
The report entitled, “The Current State of Canadian Family Finance” points out that:
- Since 1990, family debt has been rising seven times faster than household income—to the point that it is now equal to a record 131% of household incomes.
- More families than ever are living well beyond their means, despite low levels of unemployment, modest wage gains and an 18% increase in real net worth since the year 2000.
- Among Canadians earning a net mid-range income of about $60,000 annually, credit card debt has almost doubled from $12,000 in 1990 to over $22,500 today.
- There has been a steep decline in the amount of money families are able to save annually from $7,000 in 1990 to about $1000 today.
It seems our income level is less of an issue than our level of spending. An increasing percentage of Canadian families are spending more than they earn annually and, for these families adding payments for Christian school tuition on top of everything else is an extremely unattractive prospect. So even if a family’s annual income is $1,000,000 they cannot afford Christian schooling if their yearly expenses are $1,300,000.
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