Posted on 11/02/2015 6:41:16 AM PST by GIdget2004
Laura McIntyre began educating her nine children more than a decade ago inside a vacant office at an El Paso motorcycle dealership she ran with her husband and other relatives.
Now the family is embroiled in a legal battle the Texas Supreme Court hears next week that could have broad implications on the nation's booming home-school ranks. The McIntyres are accused of failing to teach their children educational basics because they were waiting to be transported to heaven with the second coming of Jesus Christ.
At issue: Where do religious liberty and parental rights to educate one's own children stop and obligations to ensure home-schooled students are learning begin?
"Parents should be allowed to decide how to educate their children, not whether to educate their children," said Rachel Coleman, executive director of the Massachusetts-based Coalition for Responsible Home Education.
Like other Texas home-school families, the McIntyres weren't required to register with state or local educational officials. But problems began when the dealership's co-owner and Michael's twin brother, Tracy, reported never seeing the children reading, working on math or doing much of anything educational except singing and playing instruments.
He said he heard one of them say learning was unnecessary since "they were going to be raptured."
Then, the family's eldest daughter, 17-year-old Tori, ran away from home saying she wanted to return to school. She was placed in ninth grade, since officials weren't sure she could handle higher-level work.
The El Paso school district eventually asked the McIntyres to provide proof that their children were being properly educated and filed truancy charges that were later dropped. The family sued and had an appeals court rule against them, but now the case goes Monday to the state Supreme Court.
(Excerpt) Read more at houstonchronicle.com ...
Idiots.
I am a homeschooler, and as much as I dislike those parents who abuse their children in this way, I do not want to see the government come in with their cookie cutter and force us all into a pattern.
How many 17yr olds in El Paso can do 9th grade work.
El Paso schools were a sewer 30 years ago. I can’t imagine they’re sparkling examples of learning now. I know someone who went to El Paso public schools in the 80’s who got beaten up every day for being white.
parents who fail to do their part at home schooling is a shame but then to go through twelve years of public school and just get passed on is worse.
Although I think these people have used poor judgment (based on the information here), I even more strongly believe that the government has no standing to criticize them until every student who attends government schools is completely competent at grade level. Every student.
to wbarmy,
agreed. As secular humanism is the most violent of all religions on the earth and has killed more people under the guise of goodness and love than any and all other religions in the earth together, including Islamic terrorism. Communism and socialism, the child form of communism is the worship of self, I will be like God, and led to the flood of Noahs day and God will bring in the flood of tribulation judgements when the cup of iniquity is full. The world is rushing headlong into the cesspool of sins only God can heal with judgement and then mercy afterward.
Yup.
That’s a great point but you and I both know the Supreme Court can’t wait to rule on this and it won’t go in favor of the home schooling movement.
Yes, it’s a horrible case to use to set a court precedence, which is probably why it came up. I think the court can limit the scope of the judgement to within the confines of this particular case. Let’s hope so.
I think government should be able to have the home-schoolers take the same standardized tests as public school children.
But government should only be able to interfere with home schooling when the standardized tests show the kid is not being taught. And an exception to that should be made for kids with medical issues.
Can the children read and write in English? That would put them far ahead of thousands of students in public schools in El Paso.
“That’s a great point but you and I both know the Supreme Court can’t wait to rule on this and it won’t go in favor of the home schooling movement.”
This is the Texas Supreme Court. Presumably they are a fairly conservative group, no?
“I think government should be able to have the home-schoolers take the same standardized tests as public school children.”
And when the government standards teach things the parents are trying to get away from like transgendered 4yr olds, sex ed to 5yr olds and islamic supremacy you’ll be OK with that too? Because those of us who have been paying attention will know that those critical subjects will be pass/fail and determine the outcome of the testing process.
When government does anything, no matter how poorly and no matter how much it costs, it ALWAYS GIVES ITSELF A PASS. If a citizen doesn’t do something as well as government demands, well the burden of proof is on them for why they failed, and besides, NEW LAWS ARE ALWAYS NEEDED.
Detroit Public Schools: 93% Not Proficient in Reading; 96% Not Proficient in Math
(CNSNews.com) - In the Detroit public school district, 96 percent of eighth graders are not proficient in mathematics and 93 percent are not proficient in reading.
That is according to the results of the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress tests published by the Department of Education’s National Center for Educational Statistics.
Only 4 percent of Detroit public school eighth graders are proficient or better in math and only 7 percent in reading. This is despite the fact that in the 2011-2012 school year—the latest for which the Department of Education has reported the financial data—the Detroit public schools had “total expenditures†of $18,361 per student and “current expenditures†of $13,330 per student.
According to data published by the Detroit Public Schools, the school district’s operating expenses in the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2014 amounted to approximately $14,743 per student.
Nationwide, only 33 percent of public-school eighth graders scored proficient or better in reading in 2015 and only 32 percent scored proficient or better in mathematics.....
Me: Do the math. At $18,361 per student per year, it costs $220,332 for the full 12 years of grade 1 through 12. At 4% proficiency in math, this particular way of educating children costs $220,332 / 0.04 = $5.5 million (!!) to graduate a single student who is proficient in math at graduation
Ding Ding Ding, we have a winner!
I was home schooled and glad of it. When I went in to take tests I blew away their score standards. The only parts where I did not do well was on the written part. Seems they didn’t like my take on things. They would go to arbitration and I won every time.
Now that none other than the mayor of Baltimore has stated that many Muslim refugees would be welcomed so as to revitalize that declining city, when areas of it become majority Muslim, how many schools that the Muslims set up will adopt a madrasa-like curriculum, and how many Democrats will object to it?
And how many legal cases will left-leaning governments bring against Muslim parents who failed to teach their children the same subjects that the (D) party demands be taught to public school students. I won’t hold my breath.
Search Google for “madrasah curriculum”
This madrasah in Singapore doesn’t mention a single secular subject on its Madrasah Curriculum page. It is all Islam, all the time:
http://almukminin.sg/web/madrasah-curriculum/
Coming to a community near you!
Legal issue: Should parents have a right to be religious nuts and ruin their childrens’ lives.
Constitutional answer: Yes.
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