Home-schoolers: There is no hope in Obama

In the last election, unions spent $450 million to elect candidates who favor their agenda. They have succeeded beyond the dreams of avarice. The federal government is now virtually the empire of Big Labor.

Especially gleeful are the teachers' unions, who helped elect a president explicitly and vociferously opposed to vouchers.

Even as America's students have dropped to their lowest level on standardized tests compared to students internationally, and even as drop-out rates soar past the 50 percent mark in most of the largest urban school districts, President-elect Barack Obama has shown contempt for school choice-even as he exercised school choice in enrolling his own children in the most expensive and exclusive private prep school in Washington, D.C.

But there is a ray of hope for those who favor freedom of choice in education: home schooling. A report just out in Education Next (by Milton Gaither) shows that in the face of the continuing failure of the public school system and the roadblocks to freedom erected by the public school special interest groups, parents are increasingly home schooling their children. Especially striking is the growth of home schooling among African American households... [snip]

No doubt the public school monopoly will continue to use its force (fueled by millions of dollars in union dues) to keep its stranglehold on American education. We can anticipate major efforts to stop home schooling in its tracks. Here in California, Justice H. Walter Croskey ruled last year that home schooling was illegal unless the parents had teaching credentials (as if that were any indication of teaching competence!)

The ruling was reversed, but it is just a matter of time before another move is made...

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