RE: ain't gonna pay for war no more

["Dale Courtney" <dmcourtn@moscow.com>]

Debbie Gray writes:

> In all of this debate about the quality of public schools vs. 
> private vs. whatever, it aggravates me that everything is 
> placed on the public schools in relation to the success or 
> failure of students. What about the parents? 

Debbie, have you been following the recent brouhaha in California
regarding homeschools? 

This is what the California Department of Education sent to the state
legislation: 
1. "Homeschool parents must have state teacher certification."

2. "Homeschooling parents must gain permission from their school
district and the course of study must be reviewed and approved" or "The
parents' application to homeschool was denied."

3. "Homeschools are not private schools because they don't enroll
students other than their own children and they don't charge money for
their services."

4. "We [government school administrators] need to see attendance
records, curriculum and other materials to know if homeschoolers are
complying with the compulsory school laws." 

5. "The state does not have any information, beyond the anecdotal, about
the quality of education in home schools"

You can see the background for all of this over at: 
http://www.californiahomeschool.net/legis/eastinleg.pdf
And
http://www.californiahomeschool.net/legis/cdebrief.pdf

Nicole Winger, a California State Education Department spokeswoman,
insists that Mendoza's memo represents no change in policy. "All
parents," she says, "are welcome to supplement their children's
education with home instruction, but not substitute the education with
uncredentialed home instruction." 

For the government education elite, it is they and they alone who know
how to educate our children -- parents are only a supplement.

Why can't the bureaucrats just leave these parents alone? 

Dale Courtney
Moscow, Idaho