Montana LP testifies against bill mandating home-schooler tests

libertarian party ^ | 3.13.03 | libertarian party

[freepatriot32]

Parents, not mandatory government tests, are the best way to ensure that home-schooled children get a good education.

That's what Montana LP State Chair Mike Fellows told the State Senate's Education and Cultural Resources Committee in testimony in Helena on February 10.

The bill Fellows spoke against -- SB 276 -- was filed by State Senator Don Ryan (District 22/Great Falls). It would have required standardized tests for all home-schooled children.

Ryan said the bill was inspired by President George W. Bush's "Leave No Child Behind" legislation, which will require standardized tests for most public school students.

Currently, Montana parents only have to sign a form saying their home-schooled children are getting an appropriate education.

Fellows told the committee: "Education is important, but parents are responsible for the education of their kids. Parents [should be able] to educate their children with their values, and not a values system that's dictated by government officials."

Although dozens of citizens testified against SB 276 -- and over 400 people packed the hearing room -- "we were the only [political] party to object to this bill," said Fellows.

The bill was later defeated in committee, with only State Senator Ryan voting for it.

[freepatriot32]

"we were the only [political] party to object to this bill," said Fellows.

hmmm not even the small goverment republicrats (or is it demolicans ?) were against a bill that would have reduced the size and intrusivness of the government.Interesting very intersting .

[FreeTally]

I guess homeschooling must be bad if libertarians support it/sarcasm

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

The reason standard tests should be required of the school system is because they must prove they are teaching the kids something for all that money. If homeschooled kids are dummies so what? We didn't pay for it.

However, I'd almost support the homeschoolers taking the test if they were graded separately so that their excellence could be used as a club against the teacher's unions.

[ArGee]

Ryan said the bill was inspired by President George W. Bush's "Leave No Child Behind" legislation, which will require standardized tests for most public school students.

Look, I don't see what's so hard about this.

The government needs to provide the results of standardized tests to demonstrate to the parents that the government is providing a good education. Parents don't need to provide anything to the government because the kids are the responsibility of the parents, not the government.

Does the government wants to pay for clothes, food, school, and car? Does the government want to change their diapers, wipe their noses, take them to the doctor, let them cry on its shoulders? If not then the government can keep out of my home school.

Actually, I should be careful. Hitlary probably wants the government to do this.

Shalom.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[meyer]

Perhaps the teachers need to be tested as well, using the same test, of course.

[Davis]

Check HERE for a creative new idea about education.

[Archangelsk]

If homeschooled kids are dummies so what? We didn't pay for it.

Wrong, we all pay for it.

[ServesURight]

Shouldn't this Mike Fellows guy be out smoking some pot and downloading child porn? I mean, as a Libertarian, doesn't he have anything better to do than to lecture committees about the need for parents instead of RINOs and Rats being involved in children's education?

[ArGee]

Wrong, we all pay for it.

I understand and agree with your point. Do you believe that the state should evaluate home schools?

Shalom.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Notice that the usual bashers of Libertarians have remained under their rocks.

[L,TOWM]

OK. I'll offer up that this is a perfect example of the "Broken Clock" proverb.

[agrace]

Good points. Another is that forcing home schooled kids to take standardized tests by default forces them to learn what is on those tests, thereby removing the ability of their parents to teach freely. But maybe that's the whole idea.

[hrhdave]

It 's an empirically false collectivist statement that "we all pay for" someone not getting educated.

It's time to look on education as the responsibility of individual citizens acting for their own benefit.

The worst condition I can imagine is what we have now--half-educatied half-baked jerks who think they know something and are thus qualified to push us around.

It's time to close the public schools. They've had their day in the sun. Their day is over.

[Archangelsk]

I believe the state should administer an exam to every young adult by age 17. This exam should be comprehensive and should include the following areas: English expression in the form of an essay; mathematics at the trigonometry level; physical sciences at a sufficient level that qualifies whether the applicant can interpret the physical world through data sets and hard facts; foreign languages which would test the ability to communicate at the limited working level; US and world history with an emphasis on the interelationships between both. The exam would be administered over the course of a five day period and results would be published by rank and name (on the WWW) in no less than three months. This exam would be the sole criteria for acceptance to colleges and universities.

I could add a lot more, but you get the drift.

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

In one sense, maybe, but nowhere near the degree we pay when our hard earned money is stolen from us and poured down the rathole of socialism that the government training camps have become. That we pay dearly for.

My kids were home schooled. All the costs and responsibilities were mine and theirs.

Funny, I had three national merit scholars. I don't believe the education system in my town ever produced one.
Could it be that amateurs can do a better job than professionals? Nah, couldn't be.

[ArGee]

I believe the state should administer an exam to every young adult by age 17.

Interesting. So you yourself have determined what it is that makes a person a contributing member of society? And you have determined that the primary purpose of getting a high school education is to prepare you for college? No Shakespeare? No Architecture? No art? No music? No athletics? While you're designing our society for us, you might consider including some of these. What about tuning up an automobile engine? Building a house? Planting and harvesting vegetables? Forging a chain? Welding steel?

I could go on, but I think you get my point. You haven't even begun to touch on the most important thing a child can learn, and that's the child's relationship to G-d. But based on your "cold hard facts" line I'm sure I know where your bias there would lie and how you would design that test for us.

I could point out that you left out the American political process, but I have already gone on too long.

As I said, I agree with your basic point that a well educated populace is important to a well ordered society. But I hope you can understand my point that giving the ability to define "well educated" to any person or group of people is dangerous.

It's also what got us into this mess in the first place.

Shalom.

[Archangelsk]

I strongly disagree. We got into this mess because we got fat and lazy. Point in case, the Chinese are determined to put their astronauts on the moon for the express purpose of exploiting the resources on the lunar surface. Their recent comment that they will do more than "plant a red flag and pick up some rocks" should rankle every American, but more importantly should be viewed as words of warning. Unless we develop a concerted effort to make education - real education - the number one priority in this country, then we will consign ourselves to serfdom to the rest of the world. The rhetoric that I hear from our leadership makes me very apprehensive in regards to whether we can pull it together.

As far as the relationship between me, my wife and my children to Hashem that's a private, individual issue that we explore every Sabbath as we daven at shul.

[Khepera]

You are absolutely right on target. Nobody is qualified to decide what my children should learn and the most important this would be their relationship to G-d. That alone would sustain them.

Go get em Argee!!

[Khepera]

Oh wait!! I forgot to add. The Libertarians for the most part "HATE" G-d. Some will tell you different but they are just useful idiots.

Shalom