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No and you know it. This society long ago made a decision that paying for public schooling was beneficial to our society. The idea being that an educated society is more likely to remain a free society. Whether you agree with it or not, it is the law. That is the price we pay for living in a representative democracy (republic). If you don't like what your government is doing, then work to change it.

If you believe that you have a beef, try being someone who pays property taxes to support a school system when you have no children. I accept it because I have no choice. Unfortunately, or fortunately, that is the price one pays for living in a Republic.

You can change things locally and nationally if you are willing to work harder than those with whose views you disagree. You can stand for office, you can run for school board, you can organize a grass roots campaign to change things, or...you can accept that we live in an imperfect world, under an imperfect system of government.

Do not portray yourself as a helpless victim. If you do not like the way the government is working, do something about it. Change it or acquiesce. The choice is yours.

We all seem to be great at complaining about the way our government is operating, but very few of us are willing to actually stand up and do something about it.

As for the right of the government to impose health requirements on you, I completely disagree. It is not only your children they are concerned about, it is all of the children with whose well being they are charged with protecting. Schools become in loco parentis while your child is in their care.

One simple solution is to press for school vouchers. If parents are concerned enough about the way in which their children's schools are being run and wish to opt out, then they need to out muscle the NEA and the other teacher's unions. It can be done, but it takes a level of sacrifice most people are unwilling to undertake. Till then, if you wish to send your children to private school you pay twice, or you can home school.

The literacy rates were higher in this country before the advent of the public school system because people at one time thought it important to be able to read the Bible and that was motivation enough for them to learn. One room school houses worked and worked well.

There is no justification for so much governmental involvement in education, health, or any other aspect of our lives. It isn’t necessary. People who are motivated will learn and those who aren’t won’t no matter how much you try to force them.

By your line of reasoning, the government can justify any amount of control over our lives for the *common good*.

No thanks. I read Brave New World and 1984 and don’t wish to live it.

You can change things locally and nationally if you are willing to work harder than those with whose views you disagree. You can stand for office, you can run for school board, you can organize a grass roots campaign to change things, or...you can accept that we live in an imperfect world, under an imperfect system of government.

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The best way to do that is to change how people think.

Thankfully, we now have the internet, talk radio, and Fox News. Government schools are FINALLY getting the bad press they so richly deserve.

Till then, if you wish to send your children to private school you pay twice, or you can home school.

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Let's call this what it really is: RANSOM!

( Yes, I am shouting. When are the American people going to wake up?)

Yes, we can pay ransom if we wish to break the choke hold that government school workers have on our kids. If we choose not to ransom our children by paying extra for private or home schooling, government school workers will send armed police to the door. If we were to be so foolish as to resist, the police will arrest us. Courts will send us to prison. Government bureaucrats will take the kids and put them in foster care. If we were to sufficiently resist, armed police would kill us. ( Real bullets in those guns on the hip)

Aren't government schools great? (barf!) And, teachers expect to be treated like Mother Teresa for this. (It's for the chiiiildren, you see. )

You might find this article interesting: http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2007&month=11

And some interesting passages:

“Secretary Spellings recently gave an interesting interview to Human Events reporter Terence Jeffrey. She was candid and intelligent in the interview, for one thing disarmingly ready to admit the failures of her policies so far, even while defending them and predicting their long-term success. She favors school choice and works to get it implemented, if so far without much success. She has tough words for the education union that is such a dreaded political obstacle to reform. But toward the end of the interview she was asked a pair of questions that she found difficult.

Mr. Jeffrey asked her if she could “point to language in the Constitution that authorized the federal government to have a Department of Education.” Her reply shows that she knew the bearing of the inquiry: “I think we had come to an understanding, at least, of the reality of Washington and the flat world, if you will, that the Department of Education was not going to be abolished, and we were going to invest in our nation’s neediest students.”

Mr. Jeffrey persisted: “It is one thing to say that the political reality is we are not going to abolish the federal Department of Education, but can you seriously point to where the Framers actually intended the Constitution to authorize a Department of Education?”

The Secretary replied: “I can’t point to it one way or the other. I’m not a constitutional scholar, but I’ll look into it for you, Terry.” Mr. Jeffrey reports that he did not get his answer.

This is Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, sworn to uphold the Constitution in the exercise of her office.”
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“The Department of Education grows now at a rate much faster than the Department of Defense, even in time of war. It grows much faster than the domestic economy, even now when the economy grows rapidly. It grows faster than the population it serves, even when that population is growing. The pace of its growth will quicken with the recent passage of the Higher Education Access Act of 2007, which reduces the size of student loan subsidies, but redeploys that money into outright grants, loan forgiveness, and new programs. If the past is prologue, these new programs will grow as fast as the old ones have done.”

Taken from, “Imprimis” November 2007 edition