Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

To Save Education, Legislators MUST Fund Home Schools
Townhall.com ^ | June 14, 2021 | Barney Brenner

Posted on 06/14/2021 5:09:13 AM PDT by Kaslin

There's a window of opportunity and realization which is closing on America's parents and their school-aged kids. For well over a year, families have had video glimpses of the drivel and anti-American evil being foisted in America’s government-run classrooms. They’ve also gotten a feel for what it takes to educate their children at home. But unless they make their move this summer to exercise their authority in deciding where, what and how their kids are taught, this unprecedented chance will likely be lost.

Despite many parents not believing that they can educate their own kids, those naysayers are not appreciating the fact that all parents are teachers by definition and necessity. Additionally, Proverbs tells us to train our children in the way they should go, and Deuteronomy says we should diligently teach our children. And that wasn’t just the simple ABCs, but the laws of Moses!

In truth, the biggest problem for most is money, both in the associated costs as well as the possible lost employment involved in staying home. But there's a simple solution which can mitigate both drawbacks: state funding. There's no good reason why parents, or even neighborhoods or other organizations, should not be paid well for taking over the government school mission.

Dennis Prager’s recent column tells parents that to take back our country, we should yank our kids from public school en masse. But the huge number of students needing to be emancipated from this educational rot is way too large to be accommodated by the current private, religious and charter school systems.

The best answer is an unprecedented homeschooling movement.

And the responsibility need not fall on each individual family. A dozen kids living in close proximity can easily form a local classroom and be taught by any of the parents or a hired instructor. The key is securing some level of funding from the taxes that are used for each child in the government schools. Educational expenditures in this country per year per student range from a low of around $8,000 in Utah to a high of around three times that amount in New York and the District of Columbia – with DC producing perhaps the worst academic result and Utah perhaps the best. With just half of average state funding following the student, those 12 neighborhood kids could have a six-figure classroom. This is more than enough funding to pay a well-qualified teacher and provide necessary supplies. Along with rotating parent volunteers, it could form the basis for expansion into full-size, American values-based, instructional institutions all over this hopefully still land of the free.

There’s nothing wrong with not wanting others to essentially raise your kids, especially in the lower grades, as elementary-age kids are prime prey for the government-sponsored indoctrination currently permeating our schools.

There needs to be a lobbying effort in each state for legislators to direct tuition tax dollars to any homeschooling parent who will assume the responsibility. For those that argue that this will hurt the established school systems, they are wrong on at least two counts: only a portion of funding will follow the child so the remaining student body will have a higher per-pupil level of funding, and the competition involved will prod the schools losing enrollment to up their game. The argument about lack of socialization is also a canard as they're not locked up 24/7 but rather have plenty of time to interact in their communities. Leftist drama queens are quite experienced at the Chicken Little role and we should have learned long ago to ignore their hysterical rants.

The Left is openly flaunting their grip on our kids and has changed education’s three Rs into racism, reparations and revolution (HT: Don Weaver, Tucson, in the Arizona Daily Star). We must turn those tables back and ensure that our kids’ formative years have a solid basis of basics as well as appreciation for the astonishing country we've been lucky enough to grow up in.

An encouraging note is that Census Bureau information is showing a significant rise in home schooling. From 1999 to 2012, U.S. homeschooling rates roughly doubled, then stayed level at about 3.3%. By April 2020, they increased to 5.4%, and then more than doubled again to 11.1% by October. Another doubling would approach critical mass.

This is a threshold opportunity. If we can cross that line and start educating kids by the millions away from the current corrupt system, we can start turning this country around and raise the next generation of Patriots.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: conservatism; homeschool
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-27 next last

1 posted on 06/14/2021 5:09:13 AM PDT by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Um. You’ll have an “unprecedented home schooling movement” if you close the taxpayer-funded indoctrination centers.

Why stop making a mistake, when you can make a new one, I guess. 🤪


2 posted on 06/14/2021 5:13:10 AM PDT by Empire_of_Liberty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

“Education” was not the intent when the federal government for involved in education.


3 posted on 06/14/2021 5:15:04 AM PDT by Gen.Blather (Wait! I said that out loud? )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Taking government money, means government controls.


4 posted on 06/14/2021 5:16:26 AM PDT by Grey182 (Trump won, Benedict is still Pope & Jeffery Epstein didn't kill himself.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

No. If you take the king’s penny you are the king’s man.


5 posted on 06/14/2021 5:21:01 AM PDT by Fai Mao (I don't think we have enough telephone poles.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I’m not on board with this. What’s that saying about who pays the piper?


6 posted on 06/14/2021 5:21:41 AM PDT by Buttons12 ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Gen.Blather

“𝘌𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯” 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.

That goes for everything beyond the eighteen enumerated powers. I’d love for a lot of people, a lot of republicans included, to see that whenever the federal government sticks it’s fingers into one of the many pies, things ultimately get worse.


7 posted on 06/14/2021 5:28:51 AM PDT by Antihero101607
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

On a related note...

I wonder how many school districts nationwide have ghost students on the books?

School districts ought to be audited on a frequent basis.


8 posted on 06/14/2021 5:30:20 AM PDT by mewzilla (Those aren't masks. They're muzzles. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I like the concept but it would never happen. Does anyone really think teacher’s unions will give up their government handouts? Right now teachers have sat at home and done absolutly nothing for a year and gotten paid for it, education has been overrun by unions since the 60’s.

Unions have filed lawsuits to stop anything that improved the quality of education, like the school voucher idea tried in Florida years ago. It worked, they showed a noticeable improvement in quality of education in 2 years, the teachers union sued and stopped it. Teacher’s unions are the ones screeching about charter schools, private schools, anything else that improves education, gives them competition and suddenly they have to - OH NO - do their jobs.

Teacher’s unions will do anyting they can think of, beginning with tons of lawsuits, to stop any idea like this. It may have a chance, and I agree with the concept here, we desperately need to yank kids out of the current government oindoctrination camps.

If people are going to be taxed for “education” or pay a “school tax”, however you want to put it, then it should be put to much better use than it is now. Then again you’re talking burons here, not normal people...(bureaucrats that are also complete morons. Thank you Donald Trump)

In addition to the teacher’s unions, you have democrats, who will scream about it too. And right now, they happen to be in charge. This will have about the same chance of surviving democrats as a snowball in the trunk of your car about 2PM today.

The only way it would have a chence is without government funding, millions of people simply refuse to send their kids back into the government indoctrination centers they call schools. Try to redirect government funding and you’re trying to walk back up a water slide. Ain’t gonna happen.


9 posted on 06/14/2021 5:40:57 AM PDT by Paleo Pete (You can't fix stupid, but you can numb it with a 2X4...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Let’s see...

The local government takes our taxes to support schools.
Sme folks decide to home school.
The government now gives the money back to parents.

Yeah - that sounds like an efficient system.


10 posted on 06/14/2021 5:43:51 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

My grandson in NC and the girls next door all homeschooled last year.

They worked at home doing schoolwork on laptops connected to their schools.


11 posted on 06/14/2021 5:46:28 AM PDT by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) Like BLM, Joe Biden is a Domestic Enemy )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

An idea whose time has come to save America.


12 posted on 06/14/2021 5:51:25 AM PDT by iontheball
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Grey182

Taking government money, means government controls.
___________________ _______________
The idea is to not allow the government to take citizens’ money (tax) so they can then hand it back as some benevolent landlord; it’s to not let the government take the money in the first place. Do it through credits if you need to put a dollar figure on it.


13 posted on 06/14/2021 5:58:23 AM PDT by iontheball
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The problem with state funding is state controls. The ideal solution is to get Government out of the education business . Since that is not about to happen tax breaks for parents who teach their kids outside of the Indoctrination Camps is the next best alternative.


14 posted on 06/14/2021 5:58:54 AM PDT by Nateman (If the Left Is not screaming , you are doing it wrong..)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

If the government funds home schools then the government controls home schools.


15 posted on 06/14/2021 6:05:07 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Fai Mao; Grey182; Buttons12

I’m not fully on board with this, for the same reason you’re not. As is, the fed. gov. supplies just 10% of school funding. yet exercises way out of portion control of our schools.

Full funding at state level would be an improvement. not ideal but better than what we have.


16 posted on 06/14/2021 6:09:33 AM PDT by Graybeard58 (The China virus doesn't scare me, Venezuelaism does.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
No. This would mean strings attached.

Sex education strings. The one thing they will not let you teach your way.

17 posted on 06/14/2021 6:18:34 AM PDT by Salman (It's not a "slippery slope" if it was part of the program all along. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Let the money follow the kid as they allow in West Virginia. That will promote school choice like nothing else.


18 posted on 06/14/2021 6:37:39 AM PDT by ReleaseTheHounds ("The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." M. Thatcher )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I was astonished - this weekend we visited relatives, first time since face masks were not required.

Our 11-year old niece “graduated” from 5th grade. It was a Pennsylvania city/county public school. She was going through her “yearbook,” pointing to pictures of her classmates.

She said: This one is gay, this one is “bi,” this one is “trans” (F to M), and this one is “trans” (M to F).

My goodness, FIFTH GRADE!!!! 11 years old !!!


19 posted on 06/14/2021 6:45:54 AM PDT by FroggyTheGremlim (I'll be good, I will, I will!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I’ve been listening to this argument for 30 years.

While correct, it ain’t gonna happen in a grandchild’s life.

Find a new hobby.


20 posted on 06/14/2021 6:48:02 AM PDT by Uncle Miltie (I'm changing my name to 'Spike Protein'!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-27 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson