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Home-schooling doesn't need state's intervention
This letter is in response to an editorial written by the Lincoln Journal Star and published on Feb. 11, 2008, titled, "Home-schooling proposal has merit, but can be scaled back." Michael P. Donnelly, Esq., staff attorney for HSLDA said, "Home education in Nebraska has a decades-long tradition of respecting the constitutional right of Nebraska parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children. It is well established that the average homeschooled student in the United States performs better on academic achievement tests than his public and private school counterparts. While the state of Nebraska does not have state-specific data on Nebraska homeschooled students, such a lack of data is insufficient to justify the imposition of the proposed regulation on Nebraska homeschoolers." I wonder if Senator Schimek knows how well public school children fair in math and science when compared with rest of the world.
As stated in the Feb. 11 editorial, "If state officials decided that progress has been unsatisfactory, they 'COULD' require the children to be sent to an accredited school." There is no "COULD" involved in this bill. The language of LB1141 says that it will impose mandatory annual testing and assessment requirements at the expense of the parents. That does not sound like a suggestion, it sounds like a mandate. A counter to Senator Schimek's proposed bill might be for all public school children who fail their national assessment to be required to seek an education outside of the public school sector, i.e. Christian, private, or home-schooling!
The editorial also states, "her bill goes much further than simply providing accountability and ensuring that home-school children are receiving an adequate education. It sets up a system of state intervention." I believe this is one of the major reasons why families choose to home-school. They want to escape the state intervention of the nanny state. State intervention is yet another smoke screen of the state and federal government to impinge on my rights and freedoms as a Nebraska citizen. These rights and freedoms were elegantly laid down for us in the U.S. Constitution. What the government, with the help of its public schools, really desires is to track our children. This procedure/mandate was established in the public schools of Nebraska about three or four years ago. Each student is now assigned a unique ID number by the state, so that all of your children's information, attitudes, values, and beliefs, can be tracked by local, state, and federal agencies. Some of these agencies have nothing to do with education.
Donnelly said, "L.B. 1141 appears to be motivated by a faulty presumption that Nebraska parents must be micromanaged. It presumes that the state is ultimately responsible for the education of children, contrary to the Nebraska and United States constitutions. Government does not have the authority to standardize or prescribe how children are educated (See Pierce v. Society of Sisters 268 U.S. 510 (1925) and Wisconsin v. Yoder 406 U.S. 205 (1972)).
Don Brunzell
1708 N. Grand Island Ave.
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