Constitutional Home Educators Alliance has been helping parents navigate the nuances of EdChoice, ESAs, parent/school choice, vouchers, and special scholarships. Visit their site for information and research on the topic, and read why they support Education Liberty over EdChoice and similar policies.
Even if you aren’t a Colorado resident, it is important to keep abreast of the political climate in other states because it won’t be long before it’s in your state. Be prepared for what’s coming your way.
Carolyn Martin, the Director of Government Relations for Christian Home Educators of Colorado, sounds the warning on HB23-1003, a bill currently under consideration that represents an outright assault on parental rights.
The question we need to ask is: “Where does the civil government’s authority and jurisdiction stop?
“This year an introduced bill, HB23-1003 School Mental Health Assessment, grants children twelve years or older the ability [to] override a parent’s wishes concerning a mental health assessment given in a public school. Although the bill allows parents to opt their child out of the assessment, it also authorizes the school to ignore the opt-out when the child dictates. Children can also keep parents from seeing the results of the assessment. Note: If your child participates in a part-time public-school program, this bill applies to you as well!“
Keep reading here.
Education policy jargon is enough to make anyone’s head spin! What in the world is the difference between school vouchers and ESAs? How does taxpayer-funded education threaten your educational freedom? And how does so-called parent choice (or school choice) actually eliminate your educational options?
The Constitutional Home Educators Alliance has created a fantastic video to answer these questions and more. And have you read our blog post, All That Glitters Isn’t Gold, published on December 28, 2022? Be sure to check it out!
Save the date for Unfragmented, a new book club hosted by our very own Leigh Bortins, beginning Thursday, January 5, 2023, at 8:00 p.m. EST. Just click the Unfragmented book club banner on the home page of Leigh’s website to find the Zoom link and join in the discussion.
January will feature author Kevin Novak and his book, Abolition. No preparation is required, but it definitely helps to have the book in hand. Enjoy the relaxed conversation!
You can also listen to this interview between Leigh and the author.
Taxpayer-funded education goes by a variety of names these days, such as school vouchers, charter schools, and education savings accounts (ESAs), which different states variously call Education Freedom Accounts, Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, or Individualized Education Accounts.
These lovely names suggest a commitment to the principles of freedom and self-determination that define the homeschooling movement, but buyer beware: all that glitters is not gold.
Take No Child Left Behind: glittering name, pyrite legislation. Enacted with bipartisan support, NCLB promised to fix the substandard and ever-worsening quality of the public education system. In fact, one of the legislation’s objectives was to offer parents school choice! (Sound familiar?)
Instead, NCLB vastly expanded the federal government’s role in education while public schools continued to deteriorate and school choice was left by the wayside. Despite the glittering name, despite the promise of school choice, NCLB only eroded educational freedoms.
School choice—a.k.a. “parent choice”—funded by taxpayers’ money represents a similar bait and switch. The government offers this money to parents when they withdraw their students from the public school system, ostensibly because the money would’ve followed the students anyway. Sounds great, right?
Here’s the catch: this money is then deposited in government-authorized savings accounts—accounts subject to government oversight. And that’s where the trouble begins.
Government oversight means regulation. Regulation is the death of freedom and self-determination. Soon, you won’t be able to spend those funds according to your own wants and needs. Instead, you’ll need the government’s approval for your expenditures.
And then your home school won’t be your home school—rather, your home school will be just another government-run program in your living room.
Pyrite is called fool’s gold because it tricks people into believing it’s real gold. School choice funded by taxpayers’ money isn’t school choice at all—it’s just fool’s gold. Like No Child Left Behind, taxpayer-funded education will only undermine legitimate educational freedom.
Don’t trade your child’s future for pyrite.
In this episode, Robert Bortins and Michael P. Farris discuss basic human rights, educational choice, and the possible overturn of Roe v. Wade. Robert is the CEO of Classical Conversations and Michael is the founding president of both Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) and Patrick Henry College. Today, he serves as chairman of the board of HSLDA, chancellor emeritus of Patrick Henry, and president and CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom. Throughout his career, Michael has defended human rights for freedom of religion and speech, promoted educational choice, and fought for the sanctity of human life.