Back in 2020, we did a post on a piece published in Harvard Magazine in which Professor Elizabeth Bartholet argued for a “presumptive ban” on homeschooling. For one thing, she said it violated children’s rights to an education. After all, in some states, parents “can homeschool who’ve never gone to school themselves, who don’t read or write themselves.” But that wasn’t the only objection: “… surveys of homeschoolers show that a majority of such families (by some estimates, up to 90 percent) are driven by conservative Christian beliefs, and seek to remove their children from mainstream culture.” Bartholet noted that some of these parents are “extreme religious ideologues” who question science and promote female subservience and white supremacy.
In public schools, Karens like Bartholet can better ensure that “children grow up exposed to community values, social values, democratic values, ideas about nondiscrimination and tolerance of other people’s viewpoints.”
Less than a year later, Chad Felix-Greene posted a great thread on the same theme:
You don't think that once the teacher's union paradox is resolved the left won't suddenly declare homeschooling a threat of white supremacist extremists radicalizing their children and using opposition to Critical Race Theory as proof?
— Chad Felix Greene (@chadfelixg) January 30, 2021
Fast-forward to 2022, and here’s MSNBC saying that while the American religious right’s “obsession” with homeschooling “may seem harmless,” it actually isn’t, and is driven by “insidious racism.”
It may seem harmless, but the insidious racism of the American religious right's obsession with homeschooling speaks volumes, writes @AntheaButler. https://t.co/7JCUCXd7Q6
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 12, 2022
Anthea Butler, author of “White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America,” writes:
It should come as no surprise that evangelicals, fundamentalists and other religious conservatives have fought against public education since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education. The 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. But there was another, more insidious way to circumvent integration: homeschooling.
…
This dismantling [of the public school system] has taken shape over the years in various ways: in segregation academies, in school vouchers, in attempts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and even with former President Donald Trump’s appointment of Betsy DeVos to lead that department. Now that her time in government is done, DeVos is speaking at homeschooling conventions, to promote homeschooling and to disparage critical race theory and other “detriments to education.”
Recommended
Alternate headline: Although the liberal left claim to oppose homeschooling on the grounds that it deprives public schools of much-needed funds, it’s really their obsession with a conservative theocracy that speaks volumes.”
delete your account.
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) May 14, 2022
This sentence structure is terrible. It’s trying to say too much and ends up not making sense. Why would “insidious racism” seem harmless? Perhaps the author would have benefited from homeschool.
— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) May 14, 2022
If the public school insists on indoctrinating kids with obtuse ideology, homeschooling is a great alternative. In fact it's a strong argument for school choice. If a school district is losing students, they should look inward to determine why, not blame parents/religions.
— Loves Liberty 🍊 (@LovesLiberty1) May 13, 2022
Public schools are terrified of competition. They might have to provide a better product and they don’t want to.
— Nancy (@SameOldNancy) May 13, 2022
Run on that. Please.
— Will Collier (@willcollier) May 13, 2022
https://twitter.com/timspivey/status/1525313696657981440
Butler actually acknowledges that black parents are beginning to homeschool, but “some parents have expressed frustration with conservative Christian materials for homeschooling, which drive the current marketplace.” Citation needed.
No one should feel obligated to stick with a school or district that they believe is a bad fit for their kids.
— CN (@comp_napper) May 14, 2022
Public schools use their failure of students as bargaining chips.
When they are confronted of their failure, they will have one answer.
More money. When you ask how much money; the answer will always be more.
More will never be enough, because it’s incentivized failure.
— Ross Schumann (@RossSchumann) May 14, 2022
Maybe if the public schools would do better at educating then more parents would feel less likely homeschooling is a better option for their children.
— I (@ISize88) May 14, 2022
Again, please Democrats, take Terry McAuliffe’s advice and run on parents having no input into their children’s public school education. And be sure to call homeschoolers racists.
Related:
Harvard professor recommends a ‘presumptive ban’ on homeschooling, says it violates children’s rights, promotes white supremacy https://t.co/AJlWpx6X56
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 18, 2020
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