School Choice: Parents Decision, Not Government
by Stephen Frank -February 6, 2020
Allow me to define terms as I write this article about education for children. We have private schools, charter schools, homeschooling and government schools. There are no public schools—they are government schools. Legislatures, unions and special interests, like Planned Parenthood, run the classroom. Parents are told they must send their children to school and have no say in curriculum, campus safety, or the values taught. So, the public does not own and run the schools (though we pay for them), outsiders that do not know your child will make legal, moral, ethical and educational decisions for them.
Think your child is safe in a government school? In California, all of them are “No gun zones.” Penal Code 626.9 PC is what's known as California's Gun-Free School Zone Act. Enacted in 1995, this California firearms law prohibits you from possessing or discharging a firearm in a school zone. An area is a "school zone" if it is within 1,000 feet of public or private school grounds.That means a bad person can shoot it up knowing the kids are targets that cannot shoot back (unlike Texas were the targets are encouraged to stop the guns used against them).
On Sunday you take your child to Sunday school to learn Biblical values. Then five days a week your child is indoctrinated with anti-Faith values—anything goes, bullying is OK, ethics and morals are debunked and demeaned. You tell your children to listen to their teachers—then the teachers tell them not to listen to their parents or church.
January 26 to February 1 was National School Choice week. This has been celebrated for years. Imagine parents taking charge of the education of their children, not government or politicians. How many are homeschooled? Per the National Home School Research Institute, “McQuiggan and her fellow researchers estimated that there were 1,689,726 students of ages 5–17 being homeschooled during the spring of 2016. That is, they estimated 1.69 million.[2] They also reported this number represented 3.3 percent of all school-age children that year.”
Actually, I believe that is low. I believe there are many parents that homeschool, with or without government “permission.”
We live in a new era. Most of the good jobs being created involve the use of technology. San Diego is now using streetlights for camera’s—they will install 4200 “smart streetlights” in the city. So far the few they have installed have caused the arrest of rapists, kidnappers, car jackers and more. In a world of technology, why do you need to waste time in class learning that America is racist, white people are bad, and Christians are the cause of all these problems? Instead, how about math, real science and English—and then coding, computers and robotization.
In Simi Valley, we have a church-related private school that teaches all the kids about robots and computers. They have students that have gone to State and national competition—going against college students. That is an education for 2020 and beyond, not for 2020 and before.
Government schools provide cookie-cutter education. Every child is the same, gets the same information, indoctrination and the children are looked at as a mass, not an individual. Homeschooling allows each child to progress on their own, with the education they need, along with the basics.
Billie Eilish is an 18-year-old Grammy winning singer and songwriter. She is an individual. Her parents decided to give her an education based on her needs, not those of Al Gore or Jesse Jackson.
From The Netline, “Billie’s parents chose to homeschool her and Finneas to give them a better chance of developing their talents. Homeschooling was the best option for Maggie and Patrick because it gave the kids a chance to do what they loved without the hindrance of an academic schedule,” Maggie told Your Teen Mag;
“Everybody’s always out doing things, traveling, going places, meeting for classes, and organizing field trips. It’s like going to college. You take what you want, where you want it, and you find what you need. Plus, the kids participate in a lot of other things… Homeschooling allows us to let them do the things that they really love to do and not have a giant academic schedule on top of it.”
In about eight months, the new school year will start. Our children deserve their parents to put more thought into the school or education opportunity they use than the time spent determining where to go on vacation this summer. The children deserve to be treated as individuals, not just being moved from class to class by government agents without thought of the child as an individual.
As parents, we have great responsibilities. Shelter, food, moral values, and education. We should not automatically send out kids to schools that are not safe physically, emotionally or morally. As Judeo-Christian constituents, we have the choice to know which legislators share our values and support their bills, as well as find support for new ones that protect our interests. Yes, it takes time. But they are our children, and we are charting their shared future. If the parents and the taxpayers do not create the options, government will.
Stephen Frank is Senior Contributing Editor of California Political Review. Read California news that is incisive, hard-hitting, and solution-oriented with a free subscription to Steve’s daily emails at http://eepurl.com/UAspv
NOTE: Blogs published on the Judeo-Christian Caucus website are the opinions of their authors and not necessarily those of the Judeo-Christian Caucus.
