For generations, Christian schools have provided Australian families with an education grounded in faith, values, and truth.

Now, those schools are under growing pressure from activists and legal campaigns seeking to strip away their religious freedoms and force them to conform to secular ideology.

That is why the Coalition’s newly announced policy defending faith-based schools matters so much.

Addressing a Christian Schools Australia dinner, Opposition Education spokesman Julian Leeser defended the right of religious schools to maintain their faith-based identity.

I want you to know that the Coalition appreciate and supports your efforts. Your schools matter to us, and we will fight for the rights of your families and your schools.

Parental choice and religious freedom are absolute non-negotiable articles of faith for which we will go to the barricades to defend.

Christian schools matter.

They matter to the families you serve.

They matter to the communities you build.

They matter to the country we want to be.

They matter to the moral ecology of the nation.

And they matter to the Coalition.

Leeser went on to say that:

Unlike their ABC, we won’t pollute the minds of the next generation of students by broadcasting Jane Caro’s propaganda as fact.

Instead of calling you “wealthy” or “elite” like Caro does, your schools, independent schools, deserve praise for educating 22,538 aboriginal students, 187,300 students with disability and keeping fees across the sector on average at $6060 a year.

And far from being segregated enclaves as Caro claims many Christian schools educate non-Christians just like you educated me!

Unlike Labor we will never commission reports that call for the abolition of deductible gift recipient status for your schools.

Unlike Labor we will never indulge the fantasies of the Law Reform Commission who wanted to attack your very identity as Christian schools.

Unlike Labor we will never devise hit lists which seek to diminish your funding on the basis of the politics of envy.

Unlike Victorian Labor we will never put a special tax on families sending their children to Christian schools to pay for Labors out of control spending.

Unlike Labor we don’t think your families are part of a privileged elite.

Unlike the Greens we don’t believe you are a “leech on public education”, “wealthy” or “overfunded”.

We know many families sending their children to your schools come from low socioeconomic backgrounds and make real sacrifices for their children’s education because they value the type of education you provide.

At a time when Christian beliefs are increasingly unwelcome in public life, this commitment sends an important message: faith-based schools still deserve protection.

Send a message thanking the Coalition for standing up for Christian schools, parental choice, and freedom of religion.