Is the Obama administration targeting homeschoolers? There are signs the Obama administration may be trying to make a move to make it illegal for you to home school your child and force you into the Department of Education indoctrination zones known as the public school system. Of course, the Constitution gives the federal government no authority in educational matters and this subject is entirely up to the states thanks to the 10th Amendment, but it does appear Eric Holder and the Justice Department has at least thought about how to make home schooling illegal in the United States.
Consider the case of the Romeike family. They sought political asylum from Germany because the German government banned home schooling and forced German children into state run schools. This is where it gets interesting.
US law allows asylum if the family can provide proof they are being persecuted. While this forum is not to debate if the Romeike family was just in their claim, it is Holder's comments that are most alarming. Let's also put out there the German Supreme Court upheld the German ban on homeschooling it would “counteract the development of religious and philosophically motivated parallel societies.”
Starting to sound like the old Germany is back. Can't have people who have different philosophies and religions than what the state approves. Might as well begin to light up those furnaces in Germany again, right? (Sarcasm of course!)
None the less, let's look at how Eric Holder handled the situation. He is fighting granting the Romeike family asylum. In his remarks about the case, we learn Holder doesn't lean on the side of liberty when it comes to you having a choice where to educate your children.
In Romeike v. Holder, the United States Department of Justice argued three points:
1. Banning homeschooling doesn't ban anyone's rights. Holder's argument is since Germany has a prohibition against all homeschooling, the rights of the Romeike family weren't violated.
There are two major portions of constitutional rights of citizens—fundamental liberties and equal protection. The U.S. Attorney General has said this about homeschooling. There is no fundamental liberty to homeschool. So long as a government bans homeschooling broadly and equally, there is no violation of your rights. This is a view which gives some acknowledgement to the principle of equal protection but which entirely jettisons the concept of fundamental liberties.
2. The second argument Holder made was there was no religious discrimination in the case. According to Holder, the German government had the right to direct the religious direction of society and even prevent some of it. You know, the good of the collective outweighs individuals who disagree with the statist belief and decides to go off on their own to develop their own core values.
3. Another argument from holder denying asylum was was because persecution requires showing "immutable" characteristics from a social group that cannot be changed and should not be required to change, which Holder says homeschoolers don't fit the description of.
So let's go back to number one. Eric Holder says Americans have no fundamental liberty to decide on their child's education and carrying out homeschooling as long as equal protections are carried out and homeschooling isn't made available to one group and not the other? Why isn't someone asking Mr. Holder where in the Constitution the federal government even has a right to make educational decisions? The Constitution gives the federal government no say in education. It's a states rights issue.
Yet we see how the dangerous thinking of Eric Holder in this case as this German family fights for asylum and the freedom to educate their children. Holder says that if the federal government wants to force you into a Department of Education indoctrination zone (aka a public school) there is nothing stopping the federal government from doing so.
welcome to the U.S.S.A
ReplyDeleteBill, the 2nd argument concerns me even more than the 1st!
ReplyDeleteAs a former homeschool parent, the primary reason for my decision to homeschool was God's Word to me when my son was 2 years old that I was to teach my child and not leave that duty to the state.
If Holder truly believes and successfully argues that there was no religious discrimination in the case and the German government had the right to direct the religious direction of society and even prevent some of it, does he believe that for the United States? If so, what happened to wall of separation between church and state that is meant to prevent the government from interfering in our right to free exercise of religion?
That wall is being used to beat God out of not only public life but also private life. Fall into lock-step with the secular view or else!