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It was a grave mistake to ever allow the general welfare clause to justify amplifying an overall concern for the welfare of children by requiring them to receive an education to actually having government run schools. This was so wrong on so many levels. We are now seeing the most grotesque fruit fall from this tree. It must be CUT DOWN and that function returned to the private sphere.

At most, government should set only general of standards for the level of education at various age levels. At most, government should provide parents with a voucher that pays the tuition and fees at a qualified school of the parent’s choosing.

Me? We homeschooled. You should too, unless it is just impossible.

“Me? We homeschooled. You should too, unless it is just impossible.”

Impossible is a subjective word. For most people, yes, it’s impossible - because they place a HIGHER PRIORITY on maintaining their lifestyle than on raising healthy kids.

But I suspect, in most cases (at least for middle class families and up), there are steps parents can do that may impact their lifestyles, but keep their kids out of this crap. Among them are moving to a smaller house (maybe doubling up the kids in the bedrooms, if needed), or an apartment/condo; giving up the nice new car and keeping the old one much longer; moving closer to work and/or to a cheaper neighborhood, even if that means a marginal neighborhood (but then who cares, your kids won’t be going to school with that gang anyway); and, of course, the usual other things like eating out and vacations.

The first thing these parents need to understand that living in a small house or apartment WILL NOT HURT the kids, one bit. It’s MUCH MORE important that they be protected against this crap (and the rest of the sick culture of our schools) and it certainly helps if the parents stay together.

But I doubt this makes any sense to most parents with kids in public schools.

...and you also have the parents that say “I pay thousands in property taxes for schools and DAMMIT I’m going to get something for it” - I’ve run into those also.

I home school as well. Talk to a college recruiter the other day with her. She asked about the classes my daughter had and we told the recruiter. She said “Oh your home schooled right”. Then said she could get a BA in bio engineering in three years with a few classes in one summer. So she should have a BA when she is twenty.

The kid here will be serving her coffee most likely.