Government Money Will Destroy Homeschooling–And That May Be the Name of The Game

I recently came across an article from June 10th on https://thefederalist.com by Maggie McNeeley that was worth noting. McNeeley observed, quite accurately, that “Freedom isn’t lost in one fell authoritarian swoop. It happens slowly, and by degrees.” And she’s right. In removing our freedoms government treats us like the proverbial lobster that you put into a pot of cold water and then you gradually turn up the heat until you have boiled lobster. Government takes our freedoms in a way they hope we won’t notice until it’s too late to do anything about it.

McNeeley noted that: “An unexpected outcome of the Covid-19 years is that the need for school choice and educational freedom have become more apparent than ever…Over the past two years, parents have watched from their living rooms as public schools failed their children. They’ve seen school boards implement unscientific health policies and have been appalled at divisive curricula being taught to young kids. As a result, more families than ever before are pursuing other options besides government-run schools.” This trend upsets the government educrats no end and so ways must be found to offset that.

Although McNeeley doesn’t approach it from this perspective, I do. I’ve probably been observing the public-school secular religion for more years than she has been alive and in all those years, I’ve never seen anything in that religion that has made me trust it–from the textbook protest situation in Kanawha County, West Virginia in the 1970s until now.

However, she does note: “The most popular solution–especially in Congress–is to hand out money. But in the case of homeschooling, the popular solution is incredibly dangerous.” And here she is right. The absolute last thing homeschoolers need is government money because government money will destroy homeschooling or any private educational endeavor for that matter. People need to remember that, with government money comes government control and government oversight. If government is willing to “help” you pay for your child’s curriculum, then you had better realize that government plans to control the content of that curriculum.

McNeeley again notes: “Because the money flows through the government, the government then gets to decide how it is spent–for example, what types of school, curriculum, and tutoring programs…When bureaucrats are empowered to decide what is acceptable, education freedom is threatened…Government policies to fund education open the door to other regulations: lists of curricula that families have to use, mandatory homeschool registration, and even mandatory home inspections. There have been attempts to implement all of these at the state level. The pressure would be intensified if the federal government started regulating home education as well.”

She concludes with: “The very reason so many families are leaving public schools is that they want less government regulation, more parental choice, and more ability to do what is best for their children and families. Keep homeschooling free from federal funding and intervention and let families thrive.” Any government not willing to do that is potentially dictatorial.