I grow up in the Adventist church, in a tiny-ass town dominated by the church and university. The public elementary and middle schools were smaller than the local Adventist private school. When I was in middle school our town couldn't pass a levy funding the school, cause most of the voters were Adventists who sent their kids to private school. So we wound up with one gym teacher for three schools, all the art teachers fired, and music classes severely reduced. Adventists tithe too, so they figured with 10% going to the church, plus paying tuition for private school, why should they fund the public school as well? Thanks for that.
My dad (who worked at the university) was also pissed at how high the pastor's salary was. The pastor also got a house and car. The pastor was really popular with the community, and ended up taking a corporate pr job. Guess he really felt the call huh?
My sister did private Adventist school for one year, but my parents yanked her out of it after her first grade teacher told her that her non-Adventist friends were going to hell.
America has some really fucked up churches.