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I’ve been on CEF staff several years and taught many lessons (though haven’t been involved lately). I’ve also recruited several others who have done the same. I’ve taught in schools, homes, and outdoors. I’m definitely not against Good News Clubs.

And perhaps a better answer to your question is more of following where God leads you and opens doors. However, my initial response is correct regarding the impact on public schools.

When Paul did outreach into a new area, he ordinarily started at the local synagogue. We also read about Mars Hill. We never see him operating out of an idol’s temple. But he did set up shop in the school of Tyrannus when his ministry was opposed in the synagogue in Ephesus (a town in modern day Turkey).

I don’t see a pattern in scripture of fighting to keep a speaking platform, but neither were opportunities to have a platform declined. Christ said to His disciples to flee to another city, whenever they were persecuted, and continue to preach.

The preaching and teaching of Christ and the apostles were directed primarily at adults. Children were reached in the process and were welcomed and included. They are important.

But you are not going to take back public schools by trying to fight legal battles to get these clubs approved by local school boards. Public schools are primarily governed at the state level. Compulsory school attendance exists in all 50 states and the main impact of federal laws and regulations is budget money.

Courts currently protect religious liberty of students to the extent faith-based clubs must be treated equally with secular ones. But you still have hostile districts that refuse to follow the law. And this is often because they know they will face expensive lawsuits whenever religion is introduced into the equation, even if they ultimately win the cases. That’s not to say such cases should not be fought. But some of these battles take years to resolve.

Public schools are not a place where adults can promote directly to children. In many cases, any faith based club would have to promote to parents in order to get permission, and school districts may or may not cooperate in getting this information to the parents. School districts are typically only going to allow such clubs to operate where there are already similar secular clubs. And this is primarily for legal reasons.

When you promote such clubs in other ways, you have a much better chance of reaching parents and children. But, like I said, go where doors open.

Certainly schools have an obligation to share with parents the availability of any “after school” activity or Club and provide parents with literature that describes the curriculum that is taught at that after school Club or activity. In fact it is my understanding that some good news clubs meeting before school not just after school this has the added benefit of allowing parents to drop their kids off at school early as well as pick them up late —. Much like many other pre- or post-school activities that parents must pay a participation fee. To my knowledge no Good News Clubs charge a participation fee as all the staff are volunteers correct?

Public schools are primarily governed at the state level.

whoever takes the kings gold...

The Department of Education is administered by the United States secretary of education. It has under 4,000 employees (2018)^[1] and an annual budget of $68 billion (2016).^[2] The 2019 Budget also supports $129.8 billion in new postsecondary grants, loans, and work-study assistance to help an estimated 11.5 million students and their families pay for college.^[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Education

Figure 2. State revenues for public elementary and secondary schools as a percentage of total public school revenues, by state: School year 2017–18

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/figures/CMA/Figure_2_CMA-flat2.svg

† Not applicable.

NOTE: All 50 states and the District of Columbia are included in the U.S. average, even though the District of Columbia does not receive any state revenue. The District of Columbia and Hawaii have only one school district each; therefore, the distinction between state and local revenue sources is not comparable to other states. Categorizations are based on unrounded percentages. Excludes revenues for state education agencies.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), “National Public Education Financial Survey,” 2017–18. See Digest of Education Statistics 2020, table 235.20.

In school year 2017–18, the percentages of public school revenues coming from state sources were highest in Vermont and Hawaii⁴ (90 percent each) and lowest in New Hampshire (31 percent) and Missouri and Nebraska (32 percent each). The percentages of revenues coming from federal sources were highest in Alaska (16 percent) and South Dakota and Mississippi (14 percent each) and lowest in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut (4 percent each). Among the 50 states, the percentages of revenues coming from local sources were highest in New Hampshire (63 percent) and Nebraska and Missouri (60 percent each) and lowest in Hawaii and Vermont (2 and 4 percent, respectively). In the District of Columbia, which does not receive any state revenue, 92 percent of all revenues were from local sources and the remaining 8 percent were from federal sources.