The Left's War on Parenting

Townhall.com ^ | December 19, 2018 | Ben Shapiro

[Kaslin]

Last month, the New York State Education Department made a crucial decision: Commissioner MaryEllen Elia handed authority to local school boards to veto the right for private schools to operate. Those school boards must now determine whether private schools provide an education "substantially equivalent to that received in district public schools." According to Jewish educators Elya Brudny and Yisroel Reisman, "The state government now requires private schools to offer a specific set of classes more comprehensive than what students in public schools must learn." This isn't a problem for Jewish schools alone -- Catholic schools in New York have bucked the legislation, with James Cultrara, executive secretary of the New York Council of Catholic School Superintendents, explaining, "We simply cannot accept a competing school having authority over whether our schools can operate."

Now there's a case to be made that the state has an interest in children learning basic secular studies, and to that end, Cultrara has called for an objective standard for evaluating whether or not schools are properly educating their students. That case is far stronger in a welfare state, in which insufficient education often ends with the public bearing the brunt of such failures.

But there's also a case to be made that parents are the best sources for judging which educational standards their children should obtain -- and that attempting to force-feed education to unwilling students and parents at threat of legal peril is a massive imposition on freedom. It's also unlikely that a broadly applied standard of education will succeed in raising standards across the board. The public school system hasn't been able to achieve that even absent religious conflicts.

More fascinating than this debate, however, is the generalized attitude toward parenting expressed by the social left. If you choose to send your child to a non-approved yeshiva, you must be policed and your child threatened with truancy. If, however, you are a parent who decides to expose your 11-year-old son to risk of sexual perversion, then you're open-minded and noble.

What else are we to take from the story of Desmond Napoles? Napoles is an 11-year-old boy who dresses in drag for national press, and who was squired -- presumably by his parents -- to a gay bar in Brooklyn, New York, called 3 Dollar Bill, where grown men proceeded to hand dollar bills to him. As writer Matt Walsh has pointed out, were Desmond a girl being paraded by her parents before the leering stares of grown men, child protective services would be called. But since Desmond is a celebrity who has been exploited by his parents, this is all worth celebrating.

Which is, perhaps, one of the reasons so many religious parents don't want the state of New York determining what they should and should not be allowed to teach their children. Religious parents may look at the world created by the social left and say that they want to inculcate in their children an alternative set of values. There may be costs to that. Perhaps there are ways to mitigate those costs. But overall, only one set of parents is being punished for making "educational" decisions by the state of New York -- and it's not the set of parents cross-dressing their pre-pubescent children for fun and cash.

[Pecos]

In effect, “We own your children. Get used to it.”

[bboop]

gasp

[GSWarrior]

The left hates educational choice.

[antidemoncrat]

Slowly but surly the liberal cancer is consuming the Republic.

[AuH2ORepublican]

Private schools should tell the NY government to buzz off, and, if the NY AG is foolish enough to try to enforce this, sue in federal court. NY is acting in clear contravention of Pierce v. Society of Sisters, the 1925 SCOTUS case that enshrined the right of parents to educate their children in private school. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierce_v._Society_of_Sisters

[cnsmom]

LBJ killed the family then Democrats went after churches, education, and health care. Next they will destroy the food source.

[sport]

And relentlessly.

[Repeat Offender]

substantially equivalent to that received in district public schools."

This right after new yuck stopped requiring literacy tests for teachers so that more POCs could become teachers.

The solution seems easy enough...just stop requiring private school teachers to take a literacy test.

Then, we can be assured the private school teachers are just as stupid as their public school counterparts, and just as likely to turn out another class of s4!t for brains democrats.

[BobL]

Perhaps these Jewish parents should rethink their hated of Trump...

[SunkenCiv]

Last month, the New York State Education Department made a crucial decision: Commissioner MaryEllen Elia handed authority to local school boards to veto the right for private schools to operate. Those school boards must now determine whether private schools provide an education "substantially equivalent to that received in district public schools." According to Jewish educators Elya Brudny and Yisroel Reisman, "The state government now requires private schools to offer a specific set of classes more comprehensive than what students in public schools must learn." This isn't a problem for Jewish schools alone -- Catholic schools in New York have bucked the legislation, with James Cultrara, executive secretary of the New York Council of Catholic School Superintendents, explaining, "We simply cannot accept a competing school having authority over whether our schools can operate."

[thirst4truth]

Next they will destroy the food source.

They have already tried, now Trump is reversing the order. Waters of the United States was set to control every drop of rain that God gives this good land. They were set to dictate what every drop is used for and fine you thousands of dollars daily until you complied.

When the left and the right city dwellers said nothing, that worried me, I thought who speaks for the land owner, who is standing up for private property rights?

[rightwingcrazy]

This is New York. If they hated Trump, they wouldn’t be targeted.

[sphinx]

Now there's a case to be made that the state has an interest in children learning basic secular studies, and to that end, Cultrara has called for an objective standard for evaluating whether or not schools are properly educating their students.

I would support an objective test measuring achievement in math and reading. Any school in which the average score fell short of this mark should be given a very short period -- maybe three years -- to get up to speed, or it should be closed.

My caveat is that this rule must apply to public as well as private schools. No exceptions.

The reality is that, on average, homeschooled kids are generally at the top in broad assessments of basic skills mastery. Private school kids are second. Public school kids are third. And the vast majority of hopelessly bad schools are public.

Part of this is due to differences in curriculum, standards and school culture. But a lot of it is simple selection pressure. Homeschooling parents who are struggling and whose kids aren't learning can and will simply return to a conventional school. Private schools have to do better over time or parents will default back to public schools and save the tuition. It is only in the public systems that failure is allowed to persist, and indeed is often rewarded with extra resources.

Viewed through this lens, it is infuriating that public school authorities, who preside over the worst schools, have the audacity to attempt to regulate competitors who are doing a better job.

[txrefugee]

Because government is so efficient and excellent at running things??? What a joke! Government is trying to stifle its competition so it doesn’t look so inferior.

[DoodleBob]

Now there's a case to be made that the state has an interest in children learning basic secular studies

Why is it that alleged conservatives become statists when it turns to the education of children?

Yea, yea, I know...if the government doesn't mandate public school many kids will grow up ignorant and we will have to support them via public assistance. Well, the Nation did pretty well prior to mandatory public schooling and now that we have it, how's that workin' out for us?

The federal government has no Constitutionally-enumerated power over education. At the State level, the citizenry has bought into the State acting in loco parentis, though that doesn't make it correct.

It is the responsibility of the PARENTS to raise their children...not the Village. If you can't do that job adequately, then don't have kids and let private charity or religious institutions or voluntary associations or the parents handle the education of the kids of careless adults.

Marx was a fan of public education. There is no need for us to jump on his corrosive bandwagon.

[cnsmom]

Home school co-ops and online curriculum are the answer. Parent choice. Maybe the parents will learn something too.

[darkangel82]

Let us also remember who was behind the law that was struck down in that case(by a unanimous Supreme Court, even).

[BobL]

“This is New York. If they hated Trump, they wouldn’t be targeted.”

I think Trump got about the same percentage of Jewish votes as black votes, meaning not very many.

As to whether they’d be targeted, you don’t know liberals very well then. They are targeting these people simply because they refuse to let them rule over and mold their kids. I suspect well over half of these Jews still hate Trump and cannot figure out that Trump is the ONLY hope they have, if they don’t want the state to take total control of their kids.

Heck, even the author OF THIS PIECE, Ben Shapiro, a Jew, despises Trump and has not figured out that ONLY TRUMP can put an end to this crap he’s writing about here, and just about every other leftist move. He hates Trump so much that he’s TOTALLY BLINDED to the fact that he’s doing the dirty work for the left.

So, sorry - someone will have to start slapping people in the face over the consequences of their votes, because whining about Democrats NEVER WORKS - Fascists don’t need to listen to voters. They have to be DEFEATED.

[Pecos]

Not actually destroy the food source since they need to eat as well. But they are seeking to control it because people will do all sorts of things to feed themselves and their families. You may remember the case under the FDR administration where the courts agreed that a person growing wheat on their own land to grind into flour exclusively for family consumption indirectly impacted interstate commerce and thereby fell under the control of the federal government. Want to sell milk? Gotta get government blessing to do that too.