Posted on 03/20/2025 6:29:31 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Progressive Judge Susan Crawford is running for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Her husband wrote a book against homeschooling.
For too long education experts have failed Wisconsin students. Too often the political left focuses on advancing a progressive narrative instead of simply teaching the basics. Recently, Wisconsin Gov. (and former education superintendent) Tony Evers proposed replacing mothers with “inseminated persons” in state law. Now, Dane County Judge Susan Crawford is running for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Throughout her career she has proudly advanced progressive causes. So it should come as no surprise that her husband, Shawn F. Peters, wrote a controversial book on homeschooling recommending the removal of parents’ right to homeschool their children in Wisconsin by using novel litigation tactics.
Wisconsin voters deserve to know whether Judge Crawford supports her husband’s extreme views on homeschooling. Should any litigation come before her that advances her husband’s extreme legal claims, will she be able to objectively consider the arguments? According to Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction statistics, “home-based” education continues to grow in popularity. While only 966 students were homeschooled during the 1984-85 academic year (0.10 percent), during the 2023-24 academic year almost 30,000 students (3.04 percent) benefited from a homeschool environment.
Book Proposes IQ Tests for Parents
It’s important to understand the arguments advocated by Judge Crawford’s husband. Peters co-wrote Homeschooling: The History & Philosophy Of A Controversial Practice with James G. Dwyer in 2019. Throughout the book, both authors take shots at “religious conservatives” and argue a “large percentage of homeschooling is objectively bad.” They knock homeschooling as instilling misinformation and bad habits and values.
In reality, they should be more concerned about public school outcomes. The most recent national test scores show only 31 percent of Wisconsin students are proficient in reading. Homeschooled students, in repeated studies, typically score at the 65th to 80th percentile on nationally standardized achievement tests, which is 15 to 30 points higher, on average, than public school students, who average in the 50th percentile.
The authors’ solution is to only allow homeschool parents to control their children’s education if they consent to IQ tests to determine if the parents are qualified. In addition, they would require standardized testing and assessments of homeschooled students. They argue governments should enforce serious consequences if children do not make sufficient progress and the “state should revoke the parent’s qualification to homeschool and mandate that the child attend a regular school.” Nearly all public school teachers have government teaching certificates, while only about 10 percent of homeschool parents have ever received any accreditation, yet homeschool students consistently outperform public-school students....SNIP
How about if public school teachers get paid or retained based on student outcomes.
Hmmm, maybe do the same thing for potential voters (rolling my eyes). Sometimes I feel that the entirety of those on the Left need an IQ test.
We need more politicians who pursue the quiet, monastic personal lifestyle of a Bill Clinton. No more Hillarys, no more Hunters.
It is proof of the intent of the Left to enforce indoctrination.
This position will be worth two or three house seats over redistricting.
Well, my wife had to learn stuff like calculus to teach it to one of my kids. He’s now an astronautical engineer supporting the Space Force mission.
I guess my book editor daughter with a million selling book under her belt is an idiot too.
I couldn’t agree more.
And Marxist indoctrination at that.
How about we don’t hire a public-school teacher if they can’t attain a certain score on an IQ test and a subject competency test.
Hmmm... I wonder where their children go school?
Smells of that "fundamental transformation" which was pushed....
By Bathhouse Barry.
Isn’t there a home school legal defense group? Hope some billionaire gives it big bucks.
How abt if conservatives promote lawmakers against libs
This election is on April 1. It will decide which party controls the WI Supreme Court. If you’re in Wisconsin or have friends there, make sure you and they all vote against this witch.
Americans accuse Russia and China of being "corrupt" - but from my experience having worked in both places, US Gov't apparatchik - familial grift in DC is absolutely the same.
In those places in the 1990s and 2000s, it was common that government officials in charge of any approvals, licenses or purchasing, always had a child/spouse owning a company doing that same "business" on the side.
The words and style are different, but the apparatchik-class level of entitlement, abuse and grifting, I'm sorry to say, are NO different in Washington DC.
Yes. HSLDA.
Ok, that was possibly the most confusing thing I have read today.
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