(Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
This is what happens when parents realize the public school system isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and start seeking other alternatives. Ever since the debate over material being taught in K-12 classrooms erupted, government schools have been under well-deserved scrutiny for injecting far-leftist ideas regarding race, sexuality, and gender into their curricula. But now, the nation is seeing a backlash from Democrats and their comrades in the activist media in which they are trying to limit options for parents who have become disillusioned with their children’s learning institutions.
MSNBC’s Anthea Butler wrote an op-ed titled, “How the conservative Christian right is hijacking homeschooling” in which she implies that the movement to educate children at home or in private schools has a racist foundation and that right-leaning Americans are somehow perpetuating that legacy. At the beginning of the piece, she discusses an upcoming documentary called “The Homeschool Awakening” which was created by actor Kirk Cameron. The film argues for the merits of home education.
Butler notes that after the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, “[t]he prospect of integrated schools led to the creation of many ‘segregation academies,’ private schools designed to keep African-American children and undesirable immigrant groups away from white children.”
The author identifies homeschooling as a “more insidious” way to get around integration laws and suggests that Cameron’s documentary is intended to advance the religious conservative effort to “dismantle the public school system by promoting homeschooling, an idea that grew in popularity during the pandemic among parents who wanted to make sure their children kept up academically and avoided the coronavirus.” The number of parents deciding to homeschool jumped from 5.4% before the pandemic to 11.1% after the spread of COVID-19, according to the US Census Bureau.
Despite highlighting the supposedly racist origins of the homeschooling movement, Butler does acknowledge that more black parents are making the same choice but expresses “frustration with conservative Christian materials for homeschooling” that are prevalent in the industry. She is correct in explaining the rise in black parents educating their children at home. The data shows only 3.3% of black families were homeschooling in spring 2020. But by fall 2020, the number rose to 16.1%.
The author does not provide a single example of parents complaining about the material available for those who wish to educate their children at home. She also glosses over the fact that one of the main reasons why more black parents are homeschooling is because of the racism their children experienced in public schools. Apparently, Butler, like other defenders of government learning institutions would find that to be an inconvenient little factoid.
Butler goes on to point out that the documentary will be released amid widespread debate over critical race theory, gender identity, and sexuality in the classroom. She claims Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law is “designed to weaken already debilitated public school systems that are dealing with limited funding, staffing and violence issues.”
(Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Apparently, the author did not realize that admitting public schools are “debilitated” and dealing with “violence issues” is only making more of a case for homeschooling. Perhaps it is these issues, along with the progressive indoctrination efforts, that are driving so many parents to turn to homeschooling or charter and private schools.
Nevertheless, Butler continues to rail against homeschooling, insisting that those who are “unfamiliar with the existing networks” are vulnerable to “being drawn into Christian conservative networks and theocratic teaching.” She then issues a dire warning: “the public needs to awaken to the reality that public schools may disappear if people with [Kirk Cameron’s] extreme beliefs have their way.”
This is but one effort to steer parents away from seeking alternatives to the public school system. Last month, the Biden administration covertly inserted a 13-page list of novel rules and regulations for charter schools into the $1.5 trillion spending bill that would make it nearly impossible for these learning institutions to exist. Liberty Nation’s Kirsten Brooker explained:
“Under the proposed changes, charters must team up with one or more public institutions to produce a letter that proves collaboration in adhering to the new rules. This is a tall order considering many public schools blame charters for their decreased enrollment and are not likely to be overly helpful.
Additionally, charters will face massive and excruciatingly tedious paperwork to meet the new requirements. The proposal also requires them to supply reports outlining the socioeconomic and racial diversity within the student body and staff, even though it is well known that these particular schools exist to furnish a better learning environment for low-income students.”
The Democrats’ concerns over the fate of public schools appears to be well-placed. Last year, the Department of Education released an initial report showing enrollment dropped by 3.8% in the 2020-2021 school year. There were several factors contributing to this development – one of which was concerns over the pandemic. But others were dissatisfied with the quality of education their children were receiving. Meanwhile, enrollment in private schools increased, as did the number of parents choosing to homeschool.
In light of these trends, it can’t be a surprise that public school sycophants are worried about one of their most hallowed institutions. How can they inculcate children with radical leftist ideas if people are yanking their children out of their educational facilities? No wonder they are trying to dissuade people from educating their children at home while attempting to make it harder for charter schools to operate. Nevertheless, it does not yet appear their efforts are yielding fruit. As more stories are released showing how educators focus increasingly on promoting wokeism rather than reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic, this trend will only continue.
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