I'm Outraged!

A friend put a major damper on my day when she sent me a link to a poll in my local newspaper on Saturday morning.  I just get so riled up by stuff like this.  Here's the poll:

The recent death of 14-year-old Matthew Degner from Berwyn in a house of squalor has raised questions over how government officials can help children living in social isolation. Should families who are home-schooling their children be required to register with the state?

Yes, the state needs to know who these children are

No, the law allows families to keep this information private

Home-school families should establish a registry of their own

Neighbors must do more to socialize with families who keep to themselves

First.  None of the possible responses accurately express my desired response.  Second.  There is no provision for responding publicly to the poll.  That's very irritating.  So I wrote to the editors and shared my thoughts.  I started by asking a few questions...

1. Should the fact that this one child died in a "house of squalor" be the catalyst for regulation of an entire movement which is statistically more successful (socially and academically) than the public school system in America?  
2. Isn't it likely that there are public school children living in squalor, neglect, and abuse?  How has "knowing who these children are" helped them?  
3. And what about the kids that are "living in social isolation" in public schools.  There's no isolation worse than being in the middle of a group of people who ostracize you, ridicule you, and bully you.  How did being "registered by the state" help the children who have taken their own lives as a result of living in this kind of isolation day after day? 
4. Your poll intimates that the entire homeschooling movement should share the burden of guilt in the death of this child.  The next time a child commits suicide as a direct result of being bullied by his school peers, will you publish a poll that places the burden of guilt at the feet of the institution of public education and call for greater regulation of that entire institution?
5. And what about the next time a public school child dies as a result of parental neglect/abuse, are you prepared to publish a poll that implies the child's school was complicit in the tragedy and should be more heavily regulated? 

Because this poll was published with no facts or information of any kind, it leads its uninformed readers to draw the conclusion that greater regulation will save the lives of hundreds of thousands of abused and neglected homeschool children.  What caring person wouldn't click the button next to "Yes, the state needs to know where these children are?"  The reality is that most of "these children" are already registered by the state.  The vast majority of abused, neglected children in the United States are not homeschooled children.  They are children who attend public schools.  The state of Illinois, where this tragedy took place, has huge problems with their public schools.  The Illinois schools do NOT have the time, the manpower, or the money to address their own problems, let alone solve the perceived problem of the "danger" facing the children of the homeschool movement.

I am outraged when I read "news" that contains blatant (or thinly veiled) suggestions that tragedies like the death of Matthew Degner are a.) the result of homeschooling, and b.) preventable by the creation of more government regulation.  It is nothing more than a fallacious attempt to sway public opinion for the sake of encouraging higher levels of government intrusion into our lives. Sadly, our world is full of abusive, neglectful parents.  That is indeed a tragedy.  And as sad as it is, the school system is not a social services agency.  It's teachers are not sociologists.  They are paid to teach children.  Giving the schools the responsibility and the power to protect children from their parents is a very troubling trend. This poll takes advantage of the death of a child and uses it as a rallying cry to call for even greater levels of control. 

They should be ashamed.

Registration at a Minimum...They're at it Again in Illinois

The Belleville News Democrat, a small paper serving the southwestern Illinois/St. Louis area, has an online editorial today titled “Registration at a minimum” that calls for state mandated registration and testing of Illinois’ homeschooled children.  You can read the entire editorial here. Their argument isn’t new.  They use the some-kids-fall-through-the-cracks argument to justify state oversight of homeschooling.   Their rationale?  “But kids who don't get a proper education can become the problem of the state as adults. So everyone has a stake in children's learning whether it happens in a traditional classroom or in a home.”  The observation that some kids “can” fall through the cracks is not backed up with a single instance of any homeschooled kids actually falling through the cracks and becoming a problem for the state.  With so many public schooled students actually falling through the cracks (many of them with high school diplomas) and actually becoming problems for the state, the editorial writers at the News Democrat should focus their attention on public schools and leave homeschooling families alone. 

Please take a moment to read their editorial and leave a comment.  If you can, share your comment here after you’ve posted it to their website.  We’d love to read what you have to say!

Post Script
The current edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Life Nurturing Education.  Check it out!

Illinois SB136: Pointless Regulation for Illinois Homeschoolers (UPDATED)

Here in Illinois, we're currently involved in a battle to retain our rights to homeschool our children without interference from the state.  True to form, an Illinois politician is proposing a law to solve a problem that may not even be a problem to begin with.  If passed, this law would require all homeschoolers to register with local authorities and/or the state board of education.  The original proposal was withdrawn because it also included language which required all non-public students to be registered.  According to Illinois Review, Illinois Senator Ed Maloney (sponsor of SB 136) stated last week that "...we're not going for the private school students, we're going to change that [in the proposal].  What we want to know is where the homeschoolers are.  It's as simple as that." 

Evidently, Mr. Maloney, which ironically rhymes with bologne, is concerned with the lack of regulation of homeschoolers in Illinois.  Though he doesn't seem to have much evidence that a  widespread problem exists, he  still believes his proposed law holds the key to ensuring that Illinois' homeschooled children receive a quality education.    In an outstanding editorial, "Homeschoolers Not the Problem," the SouthTown Star, quotes Mr. Maloney,

“There are virtually no regulations on homeschools. No curriculum, no periodic checks on their progress.  We want more accountability.”  (emphasis mine)

As the SouthTown Star article effectively points out, Mr. Maloney seems to forget that large numbers of students currently receiving a regulated, state-administered education are not doing all that well. 

In an interview this morning with Cisco Cotto on a popular Chicago radio station (transcript available here,) Senator Maloney displayed both his ignorance and his bias.  When questioned about his financial ties to the Unions, he also displayed a propensity toward bending the truth as this record clearly indicates.  But what else would you expect from a liberal, big-government politician from Chicago? 

Illinois has been a holdout in terms of homeschool regulation. Laws currently on the books here in Illinois place standards and requirements on homeschoolers, with the burden of proof being placed on the homeschooler to prove his compliance if challenged. This law would be a huge, and ominous change for homeschoolers in Illinois. Give the government an inch and they'll end up taking a mile.. 

UPDATED POST HEARING: From ICHE:

"The hearing is over and Senator Maloney is not planning to withdraw SB 136. Looks like it may be a long battle. Even though the Education Committee chairman kept referring back to registration, things like testing and curriculum approval and, and, and, . . kept coming up. One truant officer said that if they knew where we all were they could check on us and "help" us. Hmmm. . . ."

Discouraging.

We will continue to fight.