While it may not be a national trend, some states have opened up ways for students of religious schools (usually Lutheran and Catholic) to use government vouchers to pay for those schools. Parents might also get tax deductions for sending their children to religious schools. While the money and opportunity to educate more students is attractive, churches and schools that accept government money need to be aware of the scrutiny that has not always been part of old system.
Taxpayers will be looking for proof that what you do is beneficial. While these folks might not mind that your classroom is Christ-centered, they will also be looking for more than a religious experience. Most public schools use websites purchased through large corporations that cost the schools upwards of $10,000 a year to run, and many of those school districts have employees on staff who are paid to specifically maintain the web presence. Why? They're trying to sell a product to people who are thinking of spending money elsewhere. Maybe you have a better product, but does your website stack up well against the local public school? Is it even as good as the other local parochial or religious schools?
Parents that transfer over from public schools might be used to lower standards, but public school teachers and administrators have been interacting with parents for years online. Yes, this can be a newsletter, but you should consider class pages for each grade level. Maybe even for each teacher. Luthernet builds sites on a platform that is expandable, and it has been used successfully in education sites all over the world. Parents might want to know whether Junior has homework, but iis Twitter where you want your teachers posting this?
Students at most public schools have to learn how to use teacher websites to get assignments. Not all teachers and not all assignments, but it does happen quite a bit. The best place to find those teachers and their assignments is on the school's homepage, not on some Facebook page set up by the teacher or a classroom parent, and not on some other system the teacher just likes better. Even if you use an inline frame to publish the assignments from another site, YOUR school website needs to be where parents, students, and the outside world goes to see that your school is rigorous and relevant. This is all easy with Luthernet, even if you're using a system you currently like. We can link, embed, or improve upon any system. We've done this before using Joomla and Google Docs to create some of the best teacher websites for students.
It might not happen right away, but someone will start to question your website and its ability to function properly in a world filled with expensive web solutions at other schools. In fact, you're even competing against online-only schools for the same students. Do you think their websites are lacking? With Luthernet, you can compete with the public schools, the online schools, the fancy parochial schools, and the homeschools because you're website will be better than theirs. And that's before your amazing staff and the fact you can deliver a sustained moral education. One more way we can work together to turn the internet into the Luthernet.