Homeschool News & Views

From Homeschool Helpers

In association with Pass It On Ministries

Greetings. This is Dan White with Homeschool Helpers, and issue number 12 of Homeschool News & Views.

In Lexington, Massachusetts two sets of parents sued their local public school because they said the school was trying to indoctrinate their children in an immoral lifestyle. A couple of books were particularly involved. One was Who’s In A Family, which claims to present contemporary family units, including single parents, mixed racial parents, grandparents, and lesbians and homosexuals. The book is aimed at children ages three to seven. One of the children involved in the suit brought this book home from kindergarten.

The other book was read to a second grade class by the teacher. It is called King and King. It is the antithesis of the normal fairy tale, where the prince falls in love with a beautiful princess. King and King tells of a prince who rejects all the beautiful princesses and falls in love with another prince. The two princes marry, then kiss, and live happily ever after. This is the modern version of the public school fairy tale. The book is specifically aimed at elementary children, and is said to help teach diversity.

In the suit the parents claimed that the public schools violated their parental rights to teach their own morals to their children. The parents’ lawyer said that the school’s teachings were ''a form of propaganda'' that goes against the parents' religious beliefs. ''What they fear is that their children are being brainwashed,'' he stated.

I often hear it said that parents are to teach morals, and the schools should teach everything else. First of all, with the schools occupying most of the students’ time, most parents don’t have the time or energy to teach much of anything. Secondly, it is the mission of those in charge of the schools to teach their own morals, in direct opposition to the morality of Christianity. In fact, the judge hearing this lawsuit in Massachusetts, U. S. District Judge Mark Wolf, said, “Almost all moral education is indoctrination. It’s the reason we have public schools.”

When Christian parents send their children to the public schools, they usually do not take time to teach morals. And the public schools have the whole work week to teach anti-Christian morals, both in the classroom and in the culture.

An attorney for the public schools argued in court that teaching diversity is a ''legitimate state interest.''

Notice how the word diversity is just a euphemism for homosexuality. When the public school lawyer said that teaching diversity is a legitimate state interest, he is actually saying that it is the government’s mission to teach homosexuality.

The public school lawyer said it would be ''an administrative nightmare'' for schools in Massachusetts to try to predict when the topic of gay marriage will come up and to inform parents ahead of time. ''The parents do have rights ... but they don't have the right to dictate to the public school system what their children can be exposed to in the way of ideas,'' Davis said.

These discussions on homosexuality did not just come up. They were forced on the children as part of the curriculum and materials on which the parents had no part whatsoever in deciding.

The lawyer said that a parent does have rights. But if a parent cannot even prevent his child from being taught that sodomy, historically regarded as one of the greatest possible evils, is wrong, then what are the rights that a parent does have over his child in the schools? A public school in Pennsylvania declared that a parent cannot bring his child at school a lunch or a snack. If a parent can’t bring his kid an apple, whose kid is it?

Does the fifth commandment say, “Honor your teacher and your school principal?”

One of the parents involved in the Massachusetts lawsuit said he wants to be told whenever the school is going to teach homosexuality. ''When the teacher puts it forward, it becomes the gospel according to the teacher,'' he said. ''The children are so young - they can't reflect on that idea. They're too young to put it in context.''

So why doesn’t he just teach his child a different gospel by not putting him in the left wing schools?

Let’s say that the school did agree to give the parent notice that they were going to teach homosexuality, and the child was removed from the class for the reading of that particular book. After the session, then that child reenters the class with all the other children who were just taught homosexuality. How much good would it do to have the child miss the reading of the book and then spend all his days with the rest of the children who were all indoctrinated with the teaching of that book?

Not much. In fact, what the children are being taught is not just that homosexuality is good, but that those who don’t approve it are bad. The non-participating child would be ostracized as being queer. How about that for being backwards?

The federal judge dismissed the parents’ lawsuit last Friday. He ruled that public schools are "entitled to teach anything that is reasonably related to the goals of preparing students to become engaged and productive citizens in our democracy." He declared that "Diversity is a hallmark of our nation. It is increasingly evident that our diversity includes differences in sexual orientation." He said the courts had decided in other cases that parents' rights to exercise their religious beliefs were not violated when their children were exposed to contrary ideas in school.

Did you get that, Christians? He said that once you send your children to the public schools, there is no religious freedom there.

Last week we talked about the new law in Utah removing the education monopoly from the public schools in that state. It still does not level the field between government and non-government education, because the government gets about twice as much per student, but it is a big change in the status quo.

There is currently in the US a bit of a movement to end the public school monopoly. Here are some examples of this.

In South Carolina recently a "Rally for Real School Choice" drew about 4,000 people. Republican Governor Sanford and other Republican leaders addressed the crowd, and he praised Utah lawmakers who passed their voucher program. He says that South Carolina’s schools are failing, and he began supporting giving parents money or tax credits for private and home schools in 2004.

Now the "South Carolina Educational Opportunity Scholarship Act" is being considered by the House there. It would give:

a $1,000 tax credit per child to all families who pay private school tuition, regardless of family income;

a $500 tax credit for home-schoolers;

a $4,500 tuition reimbursement for poor students who leave low-rated public schools.

Two other proposals in South Carolina -- including one by the state Superintendent of Education -- would allow students to enroll in any public school in the state, no matter where they live.

This proposal is just a ruse to derail opposition to the public schools, since this form of choice still only involves public schools. That’s like saying I can shop at Wal-Mart in Lebanon, Missouri, or at the Wal-Mart in Ava, or the Wal-Mart in Marshfield – but I have to buy everything at Wal-Mart. Or I can send my package with the post office at Hartville, or Mansfield, or Grove Springs, but I have to send it by the Postal Service. I can’t use UPS or FedEx.

That’s no choice at all. That’s just a deception by the public school people to try to stop real school choice.

In Texas former US Education Secretary Rod Paige recently promoted school vouchers at an event in the Texas state capitol. He once stated in a court briefing, concerning a school choice case: "Throughout America, far too many children are trapped in failing schools… Those who oppose empowering parents to select the best school for their children argue that school choice programs would somehow hurt the system of public education. I reject this argument. As a nation, we must focus squarely on the needs of children and parents. If I have to choose between protecting the system and educating the children, I’ll choose the children every time."

One Texas legislator planned to introduce a very limited school voucher bill this session that would allow 5 percent of the low-income children in the state's largest urban school districts to attend a school of their choice at taxpayer expense. Texas tried to pass a small school voucher program in 2005, which the public school Democrats defeated.

In Georgia, Republicans have long backed a limited voucher system, without success. Now they propose setting up two tax exempt funds. One would give scholarships to private schools, and the other would give more money to the public schools. Those who donate to the funds would get tax credits.

So there is a definite movement toward ending the left wing public school monopoly in the United States. This movement involves homeschooling, church schools and the school choice initiatives. This is occurring as the left wing is making a strong push to force homosexuality into all the public schools They are doing this by the courts, by introducing homo clubs into the schools, by having a Day of Silence in the schools every year, and by producing and introducing books which promote sodomy. This is part of the overall spiritual/culture war going on.

Perhaps some changes may be made in the public school monopoly. Some big educational changes have already taken place. It used to be illegal in many states to homeschool. Now it is legal in every state. Almost everyone used to disapprove of homeschooling. They were conditioned to believe that only government schools with certified teachers could teach. Now many believe that the public schools are the only ones who can’t teach. Plus many churches across American have established schools, although the number is extremely small compared to the total number of churches.

The public school people are deathly afraid of giving parents an equal choice for education. Their whole premise in fighting all these alternatives in education, whether homeschools, church schools, or voucher programs – and they do oppose them all – is that these alternatives will take a lot of students away from the public schools. In other words, they are totally admitting that their schools stink, and that if given an equal choice, their schools will be the last choice.

Indeed, that would seem to be the case. For example, I read of one program which gave privately funded scholarships to 57,000 students to escape from the public schools. That’s a lot of students who were covered. However, they had a waiting list of 1,250,000 other students wanting to get those scholarships. For every student who was awarded a scholarship, there were about 22 others who wanted one. I believe that is a typical response.

We presume, then, that if the 90% of Christian parents who now support the public schools were given tuition assistance to attend private schools or homeschool, many would do that.

In other words, the only thing that is keeping them with the public schools right now is a little bit of money. That means they are trading their kids’ lives for a small amount of money. That’s a poor trade.

Any family can homeschool right now, if they will just do it. You do not have to wait a decade or so for a voucher program in your state, at which time your children will be gone. All you have to do is to have a parent quit working for the corporation and start working for Christ. Often when a wife quits working outside the home, the drop in income is less than feared because the family was spending so much money to compensate for not having a homemaker.

Americans have a great confusion between things they must have to live and things they think they must have. It is natural for humans to always want more than they need.

In the span of eternity, money is not that important. God and kids are.

Any family can homeschool right now, if they will just do it. You don’t need to wait for a voucher for government assistance. God will assist you. Hundreds of thousands of Christian homeschool families can vouch for that.

Parent tutoring with love is the most excellent form of education. Whatever it costs, it is priceless.

This is Dan White with Homeschool Helpers. God bless the Christian homeschoolers.