During a recent episode of the “I’ve Had It” podcast, host Jennifer Welch critiqued all alternatives to the state-run school system.
We have a fundamental, crazy Christian problem. I’m talking about the freaks of the mega church. I’m talking about the ones that have schools that are these crazy indoctrination factories. Hate academies. And then, when that hit isn’t strong enough, they go to homeschooling… it’s a huge problem.
Welch’s co-host then added, “I don’t trust somebody that wants to be with their kids 24/7.” For these “dumb people,” she said, it’s just easier to keep their kids home.
Of course, few people who homeschool think of it as “easier.” That aside, the podcasters’ critique of alternative schooling, including homeschooling, is not uncommon. It is assumed that teaching requires a rarified skillset and that only trained professionals qualify. It is assumed that homeschooled kids are minimally educated and lack proper social integration. Ultimately, homeschooling puts kids at risk. Therefore, the state must step in to regulate the practice and offer sufficient protections for children.
In Colorado, a budget shortage (which was never supposed to happen again after legalizing marijuana) is justifying the elimination of alternative schooling programs, including homeschool enrichment programs, charter schools, and hybrid schools. Budget concerns, however, do not present the entire picture. Also at play here, perhaps even more so, is a worldview that shapes an approach to public affairs, especially education. In this framing of reality, it seems intolerable to Colorado’s governing class that something as central as education would not be fully under their control.
The reason is a fundamental distinction in how to answer the question: To whom do kids belong? Do they ultimately belong to the state and are only outsourced to parents? Or do they belong to parents who can choose to outsource their education, or at least part of it, to the state? Do parents serve the state, or does the state exist to aid parents in their fundamental duties?
For a large segment of the professional educational class, the answer is clear and simple. In their view, the state and its approved agencies are ultimately responsible for children, not the parents. This is why, in school districts across the country, we see educators claim the prerogative to remove, silence and even arrest parents who challenge their authority.
Making this worse, of course, is the widespread assumption that educators are experts, and parents are not. Many parents would be shocked to learn how much time an education major spends on teaching ideologies and pedagogical theory, compared to the actual content of reading, writing, science and math. In other words, even if the fundamental philosophy of knowledge and learning were not so skewed, education majors study far more about how to teach than what to teach.
This is also a matter of what secures basic liberty. The American experiment has long prioritized “mediating intuitions,” those associations, institutions, and organizations that stand between citizens and the government. It is because America is so decentralized that it has remained free. The most important of all mediating institutions is the home. It is also best equipped and most responsible for the cultivation of new citizens.
Of course, quality does matter. It is valid to ask if parents are able to deliver the level of learning necessary for emerging citizens. If that is the concern, nationwide studies consistently show that, on average, homeschooled and private schooled students score higher on tests than their public-school peers, even on college admissions tests.
Parents are best equipped to secure the education of their children, even if they outsource various aspects of it to co-ops, charters, religious schools or even public schools. Whatever resources are employed, parental authority should be presumed. The state can and should come alongside moms and dads to help, but its place is behind parents, not above them.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Jonathan Kirn
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can’t find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today’s news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
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