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Citigroup eyes options including merger
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc lost more than one-quarter of its market value on growing worries over whether it has enough capital to withstand billions of dollars of potential...
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Fed's Bullard: U.S. spending slump to sap 2009 growth
EVANSVILLE, Indiana (Reuters) - St Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said on Thursday that financial market turmoil has collapsed U.S. consumer confidence and this would weigh on growth well...
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Oil falls over $1 on demand worries
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil dropped more than $1 a barrel on Friday, falling for sixth straight sessions as more distress for the global economy threatened to eat further...
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NY City securities workforce down to Sept 2005 level
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City's securities companies shed 16,000 employees in October, measured on a year-over-year basis, pushing the total work force down to a level last seen...
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Democrats demand U.S. Big 3 offer survival plan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic congressional leaders, seeking to salvage a bailout of the Big Three automakers, demanded executives provide a business survival plan in exchange for their support of up...
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S&P dives to lowest level since 1997
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks plunged yet again on Thursday, as a frantic flight from risk prompted by investors' deepening economic fears drove the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index...
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Marsal to lead team of over 600 at Lehman
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bryan Marsal, currently chief restructuring officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc , will take over as chief executive of the bankrupt investment bank after the close...
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Paulson defends handling of U.S. financial crisis
SIMI VALLEY, California (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Thursday defended his handling of the financial crisis but refused to say whether any further help will be offered to...
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Dell profit tops Street view, shares rise
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Dell Inc, the world's No. 2 PC maker, posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday as cost cuts offset lower revenue, sending its shares up about...
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Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac suspend some foreclosures
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two biggest U.S. home loan finance companies, on Thursday said they would suspend foreclosures of occupied homes until early 2009,...
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Written by Michael Faiella
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Tuesday, 19 August 2008 10:41 |
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Tyranny (again) stymied in California (for the moment)
Homeschooling is once again legal in California. The Court of Appeal has reversed its earlier decision and decided that California parents do after all have the right to teach their own children.
Lots of California politicians are probably breathing a sigh of relief. Some of them may even remember an episode in 1994 when another California politician stepped right into a homeschool hornets’ nest that sent the entire United States Congress scurrying for cover.
At that time Congressman George Miller introduced an amendment to a huge federal education bill. The amendment would have required “each local educational agency within the State to certify that each full time teacher in schools under the jurisdiction of the agency is certified to teach in the subject area to which he or she is assigned.” In other words, it would seem to have required that every parent who homeschooled a child or who taught in a private school be state certified in every subject taught. That is to say, homeschooling would be illegal everywhere in the U.S.
Not every one thought that it really meant that, but Texas Congressman Dick Armey, in order to guarantee that it would not be construed to pertain to non-public school students, introduced an amendment exempting homeschools and private schools from this provision. The Armey amendment was rejected, alarming many homeschool advocates.
The Home School Legal Defense Association, which describes itself as “a nonprofit advocacy organization established to defend and advance the constitutional right of parents to direct the education of their children and to protect family freedoms,” sent out a red alert to members in all 50 states announcing that the right to homeschool was in mortal danger.
Congressman Miller and the entire US Congress soon discovered that they had stepped between a mama bear and her cubs. The phone calls to Congress began and soon numbered in the scores of thousands. Mountains of letters poured in. Radio and television shows pounded Congress relentlessly. The halls of Congress were crowded with outraged parents. Within a week Congress had been effectively shut down. Congressman Miller’s office alone got 20,000 calls in one day. Congress found itself unable to do anything but fend off homeschoolers.
The House voted again on the Armey amendment, but this time it passed 374-53 while politicians searched desperately for microphones and cameras so that they could demonstrate how very supportive of homeschooling they really were. The victory was complete. The enemy was annihilated.
In a way, it’s almost disappointing that the California court got it right this time. What might have happened if they hadn’t? After all, since 1994 there has been a tremendous increase in the number of homeschoolers. And now they have the internet. Consider the possibilities.
A member of a state board of education and I once had a conversation about homeschooling. A genuine supporter of homeschooling, he was leaving the board to move to another state. I expressed my disappointment at his departure and my concern that a future board might try to restrict homeschoolers’ rights.
“I wouldn’t worry about that,” he said. “People in government know that homeschoolers are informed and active and that they will fiercely protect their right to teach their own children. I don’t think they’ll dare to bother you people.”
Homeschoolers represent a tiny minority of the population, but they keep winning these battles. Why? It is because homeschoolers consider their right to raise and educate their children as fundamental and essential. They will never willingly relinquish that right. It is because of homeschoolers’ tenacity and determination, their willingness to put all else aside to fight for their freedom, that politicians give homeschoolers a wide berth. It is a lesson from which all liberty-loving people can profit.
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