Edu-thugs on the march.
Posted on 12/05/2002 10:54:03 AM PST by hsmomx3
I recently read an article about a homeschooling situation in Illinois, written by Art Moore, for World Net Daily. It dealt with a regional government school superintendent for Bureau, Stark, and Henry counties in north-central Illinois.
This superintendent, Bruce Dennison, is apparantly on some kind of power trip. He is after homeschooling families in his area, claiming that they need his approval to conduct their classes at home. He has even gone so far as to send police squad cars out to the residences of homeschooling families with a demand that they attend a 'pre-trial hearing' to prove they are in compliance with the state law in Illinois. When contacted about this Dennison said that police had been asked to accompany truant officers and case workers in a 'very low profile, in a courteous manner.' Somehow, having police cars pull up in your driveway for all your neighbors to see and wonder about doesn't fit my definition of 'low profile.'
Having lived in Illinois for years, and having homeschooled our daughter there for part of that time, I am somewhat familiar with the home school laws for that state. Whatever other problems Illinois has [and there are many] the state has, overall, a very friendly homeschooling statute. In Illinois, home schooling falls under the catagory of a private school. Private schools are only required to teach the same branches of instructon as government schools, and they have to do it in English. Therefore, the district government school superintendent has no jurisdiction whatever over what homeschooling families do as long as they are following the state guideline. He has no right or authority to judge what they should use for curriculum, nor do homeschooling families have to submit anything they use for his 'approval.' This is yet another one of those many cases were a local bureauc[rat] with delusions of grandeur is seeking to expand his power by usurping authority he doesn't have. Another little tinpot dictator with the soul of a despot!
Thankfully, the families involves in this particular situation have contacted the Home School Legal Defense Association and do not plan to take this usurpation lying down. I suspect if Mr. Dennison is hard-nosed enough to try to pursue this in court he may well come away with a bit of egg on his face. Unfortunately, if that happens, it will probably not curb his tendencies toward police control over private education, not will it curb the tendencies of other would-be government school dictators to usurp power they do not have legally if they think they can get away with it.
To the government school system and those bureaucrats in in that are responsible for keeping the financial wheels turning in the right direction, homeschoolers and those in other private schools, especially Christian ones, are the enemy.
This 'enemy' keep the local government school bureaucrat from exercising what he feels is proper control over the curriculum, and therefore the minds, of all the children in his district. In his small mind they are all the 'state's children' and therefore should be properly 'educated' according to the state's standards and taught how to think [or rather react] according to those standards. In his convoluted thinking the state should be Pavlov and our children should be his dogs! The possibility that there might be a whole batch of kids in his area that are not being 'educated' according to his wishes just drives him up the wall - so in order to enforce a little more compliance on the part of stubborn homeschooling families to his wishes he is not above stretching the state law just a tad and intruding into areas he really has no authority in. What he has to do in this scenario is to sound threatening enough and use just enough intimidation tactics that he is able to frighten the parents, who he fervently hopes do not have a real grasp of the homeschooling laws in their state, into doing what he wants rather than checking out just how much authority he really has. If this sounds devious on the part of some government school employees, please be assured that it most definitely is. Many of these people are not at all above dishonesty to gain their ends, and possibly get a feather in their cap should they decide to run for some elected office someday.
In many cases of this type, should he run into a homeschooling family that knows their state laws and seems willing to fight back, and unwilling to knuckle under to him, he will quietly fold his cards and steal away, looking for another family that he can bamboozle easier than he did the first one. Some of these government school types could even give lawyers and politicians a run for their money in sleaziness.
After all, when most of it is said and done, there is money involved, and that is really what alot of this is about. The more kids in his district that can be forced into the government's brain laundries and forced to warm seats there, the more federal dollars will flow into the district to be spent for that ever-elusive euphemism called 'quality education.' Less kids in government schools means less federal dollars - and if a district, for some reason, loses too many children to private education, well, that is simply not acceptable.
Realize one thing - if you homeschool, you are the enemy to the government education establishment and any sign of willing compliance on your part to their usurpations will be taken by them as a sign of weakness and an open invitation to violate your educational rights if they can get away with it. So, when you deal with these people, be polite, but firm, and don't give these turkeys an inch.
The New World Order wants your children in government schools - and every student that is educated independently of them is a potential threat to them at a later date, because such kids may learn to think, and if they learn to think, they may ask questions, and the One Worlders can't stand too many questions [especially regarding their authority] about their agenda, and they definitely can't stand too many questioners. In all of this, I always remember that it was Karl Marx who wrote in The Communist Manifesto 'Free education for all children in public schools.'
Copyright ©, Al Benson Jr.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
P.O. Box 55
Sterlington, LA 71280
Al Benson, Jr. is also the Editor of the Copperhead Chronicle, and can be reached at cpprhd10@aol.com
In Illinois, it will probably take a major court case--as it did in Fort Worth many years ago--to establish criteria by which homeschoolers can legally demonstrate compliance with the truancy laws.
Texas is probably the best state in the U.S. for homeschoolers. But before that court case, it was a horrible mess. The Illinois "horror reports" probably don't sound all that horrible to folks who got hassled in Texas under essentially the same situation of enforcement ambiguities.
I wish the Illinois homeschoolers all the best. But they will probably need to organize themselves with good lawyers and file a class-action lawsuit against the State.
The more kids in his district that can be forced into the government's brain laundries and forced to warm seats there, the more federal dollars will flow into the district to be spent for that ever-elusive euphemism called 'quality education.'
It is my understanding that the goverment schools (they are not public in any sense of the word) in your region have been using the police to intimidate those wish to exempt themselves from your harmful "educational" monopoly. Having split my childhood evenly between government education and real education, I find your government supremacism deeply disturbing.
Your actions are nothing short of an attack on the dignity and liberty of parents. You have already stolen these people's money. Be content with your looted tax dollars and leave their children's minds alone.
Mr. Dennison:
Why don't you leave the homeschoolers alone? If homeschooling parents are so bad, why do homeschooled children win spelling bees, geography bees, etc. by such lopsided percentages? Why do so many homeschooled children earn perfect scores on college entrance exams? Also, I have not heard of many homeschooled children being shot in the classroom, being molested by teachers, using drugs at school, or getting pregnant out of wedlock.
Get a life.
My Name
Socorro, NM
My response...
We don't need no (government) education.
We don't need no thought control.
No dark sarcasm in the classroom.
Dennison, leave those kids alone.
Hey, Dennison, leave those kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.
(With credit to Pink Floyd)
Edu-thugs on the march.
How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat Mr. Dennison?
I was just saying that these are the kinds of mistakes which we should expect to happen over and over until the courts clarify the protocols for enforcement of the truancy laws. The Illinois homeschoolers need to file a lawsuit, not expect things to get better by negotiation (and probably not even by legislation).
"They're like Napoleon's army in Moscow. They have occupied a lot of territory, and they think they've won the war. And yet they are very exposed in a hostile climate with a population that's very much unfriendly."
"That's the case with the Darwinists in the United States. The majority of the people are skeptical of the theory. And if the theory starts to waver a bit, it could all collapse, as Napoleon's army did in a rout."
Snip
In many cases of this type, should he run into a homeschooling family that knows their state laws and seems willing to fight back, and unwilling to knuckle under to him, he will quietly fold his cards and steal away, looking for another family that he can bamboozle easier than he did the first one. Some of these government school types could even give lawyers and politicians a run for their money in sleaziness.
I wonder, if it wouldn't be possible for a homeschool family, which was targeted by one of these overzealous educrats, to sue the educrat itself for damages - not coming out of the school district's budget, but of of the educrat's own pocket. One successful countersuit in such a case would put a quick end to these attempts to bully homeschoolers.
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