[BlackElk]

"SFC": If you insist on putting your kids at risk in gummint skewels (morally and educationally as well as physically) then there is not much that homeschoolers and others can do to protect your kids when you won't. If you shove your kids down stairs or into the path of speeding trains, there isn't much others can do either. What you want is the convenience of the gummint babysitting system, the cost paid for by everyone including those who despise that system with very good reason, respect for your decision to put your kids in such jeopardy (you have a right to do it but no right to be respected for it), a sump pump inserted into the assets of your fellow citizens to see to it that the mere fact that you choose gummint babysitting will be less dangerous as an open invitation to this nation's enemies to shock us by killing your kids and other kids similarly situated. You also want the right to whine when, as is inevitable, some servant of the infernal camel jockeys slaughters a bunch of gummint skewel inmates somewhere in America because we did not spend infinity protecting against the irrational risks you assume as to your own kids.

I may CARE about the fate of those in Darfur or about the criminal excuse for gummint edumakashun in most or all of America or about health care for the poor or about re-educating the former inmates of gummint skewels after they have attained their majority or whatever but, to the extent that I CARE, I will CARE with my own money and not tax you or anyone else to fund the effort. We call this "fiscal conservatism." When we apply it to refusing to fund gummint skewels, we also may call it defense of Western Civilization and of Judaeo-Christian values and with many very good reasons.

One of my kids attends the parent run Catholic school where her mother teaches her and others (unlike gummint skewels it is a place where actual education and lots of it occurs). My kid and my wife are at risk in this enterprise as the school could certainly be attacked. We aren't asking you or anyone else to pay through the nose in taxes to provide special protection to that school. That is our own recognized responsibility and we won't blame you if it doesn't work.

That you have chosen socialized misedumakashun does not make you specially entitled to my tax money to protect your decisions. Home schooled kids are as safe as can be: educationally, morally and physically. All private alternatives to PS 666 are less convenient but our kids are worth it. So are yours but it is your decision.

[steadfastconservative]

FYI, five of my six children went to or are currently attending Catholic school. However, one of my children is a special needs student and, therefore, is attending a public high school.

The problem I have with home schoolers is not that they choose to educate their children at home, which is a perfectly legitimate option, but rather that they criticize parents who do not home school and see themselves as being more righteous than these other parents. For too many home schoolers, home schooling is not just a choice, it is a crusade. There are many bad public schools but there are also many good public schools and it is not immoral for parents to send their children to these.

But here is something to remember: you can’t keep your children in a bubble forever. While you might wish to protect them from the evil influences of the world by educating them at home, sooner or later, they will have to go out into the real world. And in today’s post-9/11 America, any public venue is a potential target for terrorists. So while you might flippantly dismiss the terrorist threat against public schools by promoting home schooling (which you know most people aren’t going to do), you really aren’t coming up with any constructive solution to this threat.