Yesterday we saw an article from Allison Benedikt on the education of our youth.
Her end point was that those who chose private education over public education are bad people, bad parents and morally bankrupt. Yes, she used the phrase morally bankrupt to describe those who choose to educate their kids at private schools, no matter the reason.
Religious convictions? Doesn’t matter. Crappy school district? You’re the cause. Want your child to not only succeed, but excel? You’re selfish and a horrible person.
I’m not exaggerating or paraphrasing by the way, you can see the exact quotes here:
A few of the high points…
You are a bad person if you send your children to private school.
You want the best for your child, but your child doesn’t need it.
Take two things from this on your quest to become a better person: 1) Your child will probably do just fine without “the best,” so don’t freak out too much, but 2) do freak out a little more than my parents did—enough to get involved.
Reading Walt Whitman in ninth grade changed the way you see the world? Well, getting drunk before basketball games with kids who lived at the trailer park near my house did the same for me. In fact it’s part of the reason I feel so strongly about public schools.
By the way: Banning private schools isn’t the answer. We need a moral adjustment, not a legislative one.
There’s more, a lot more, but if you really want to burst a blood vessel, you’re going to have to click and read for yourself.
So while Allison says she doesn’t want to abolish private schools, that’s exactly the end result she wishes for. And what’s even more evil than private schools?
Homeschooling.
If sending your child to a private school is morally bankrupt, then what must homeschooling be?
If Allison is adamantly opposed to the choice of sending your child to a private school, what must she think of homeschooling? How dare a parent make the choice to remove their children entirely from the education system. Never mind that homeschooled children score significantly higher than those publicly educated in every subject tested. And when I say significantly, I mean 30+ percentage points. Never mind that they have higher college GPA’s, higher college graduation rates and are better at socialization.
http://www.home-school.com/news/homeschool-vs-public-school.php
No, the real point is that The State is God and your children should only be educated by The State.
Well Allison, Germany is ahead of the curve. They’re implementing what you’re suggesting. The State educates your kids. Or else.
Homeschooling parents, and children, have often faced a tough road here in America, both from government bureaucracies and from general public opinion. Apparently it’s much worse in Europe.
Four children, ages 7 to 14, have been forcibly taken from their Darmstadt, Germany, home by police armed with a battering ram, and their parents have been told they won’t see them again soon, all over the issue of homeschooling, according to a stunning new report from the Home School Legal Defense Association.
http://www.wnd.com/2013/08/police-storm-homeschool-class-take-children-by-force/
You’re probably thinking to yourself, “Well, I’m sure there’s more to it than homeschooling. The kids were probably being abused or neglected or something.”
Nope.
The shocking raid was made solely because the parents were providing their children’s education, HSLDA said. The organization noted the paperwork that authorized police officers and social workers to use force on the children contained no claims of mistreatment.
“Ok,” you say, “but this was Europe, Germany even! It could never happen here!”
I direct your attention to the Romeike case. The Romeikes were a family from Germany that fled to the US and sought asylum in 2010 because the German government was attempting to force the children to attend public school. An immigration judge here in the US granted them asylum.
“See?! Can’t happen in the U.S. We’re better than that.”
The Obama administration, unhappy with the outcome, appealed and obtained an order from a higher court that the family must return to Germany. The Obama administration has argued in court parents essentially have no right to determine how and what their children are taught, leaving the authority with the government.
I repeat, The State is God.
The State has control over your children. It is their responsibility, and their’s alone, to educate your children.
This is the end result of thinking like Allison Benedikt’s. She argues that there is a moral imperative for children to be educated by The State. Is it really that great a leap from “you should be doing X” to “you must do X”? Liberal moral causes have become legal requirements over and over. Tobacco, abortion, gay marriage, “equality”, salt, trans fat, big gulps.
“You should” becomes “you must.”
It’s just one more front in the War On Everything Not The State.
Drift Compatible 
Greetings. Popped over from the Ace Thicke comment thread. You’re spot-on, of course. The problem with home schooling and parochial schooling is that the state cannot undermine the values which the parents choose to teach their children. Most of the time those are religious values, which Ms. Benedikt dismisses. Notice she deliberately ignores the “rich” who will “game the system.” Stated differently, she will ignore those snooty private schools which participate in the indoctrination. Her and the progressives’ aim is solely at those educational systems which do not set up the State as God.
Germany seems to be getting back into the habit again.
If I remember correctly she sends her kids to daycare at a cost of $5k per month. Sounds like a pretty exclusive daycare center!