Ed Maloney Wants Homeschoolers In Jail

What Will Be The Penalty For Disobeying SB 136?

This is how liberals campaign. So turnabout being fair play, I want to know what the penalty for disobeying SB 136 will be? 20 years? 30? Senator Ed Maloney and the education establishment clearly wants to put homeschoolers in jail.

As we've been blogging here for the past week, Illinois Senator Ed Maloney (who accepted $13,000 in contributions from teachers' unions towards his latest re-election bid) has introduced a bill, SB 136, that would require that Illinois homsechoolers register their children with the State Board of Education. A hearing was held today in Springfield, and over 4,000 homeschooling parents and children were on hand.

Curt Mercadante made a compelling testimony:

First, I’d like to share the following quote: “To protect the integrity of the system.”

That quote was made on WLS Radio’s “Cisco Cotto Show” yesterday by Senator Edward Maloney as his reason for proposing SB 136.

I repeat the quote: “To protect the integrity of the system.”

With all due respect to Senator Maloney, I think the State of Illinois should worry more about protecting the integrity of the public education system before it begins trying to assert its authority over the rights and duties of parents to choose how to educate our children.

Because, as the SouthtownStar editorial board wrote on February 13: Homeschoolers are not the problem.

In fact, SB 136 is a government “solution” in search of a problem that doesn’t exist. And I use the term “solution” loosely.

In that same WLS radio interview, Senator Maloney admitted that he “doesn’t know” if there’s a problem. He also promised to provide anecdotal evidence in the hearing that some problems may exist.

Anecdotal evidence may be fine, and may provide for good theater. Each and every one of the home educators present today can provide overwhelming anecdotal evidence of their success in educating our children.

But we don’t need mere anecdotes to tell our story. We have statistics to show that the problem with our educational system certainly isn’t home educators.

For example, as that same February 13 SouthtownStar editorial pointed out, almost half of public school students failed to meet expectations in reading and math last year. That is despite being part of a state-run education system in which local superintendents and bureaucrats are fully aware of the curriculum, and supposedly in charge of the educators.

Senator Maloney has also stated that this bill is about “accountability.” Well, let’s talk about accountability.

In 2001, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that more than 5,000 Illinois public school teachers — not students — failed to pass basic skills exams. National Public Radio has reported that these exams should easily be passed by someone with an eighth or ninth grade education.

In the Chicago Public Schools system, only 28.5% of 11th graders met or exceeded expectations on Illinois standardized tests — yet, according to a report in Newsweek, only 0.1 percent of teachers were dismissed for performance-related reasons between 2005 and 2008.

That isn’t accountability. It’s failure. It is a sign that the State of Illinois is failing our children.

We, as home educators, have chosen to step up to the plate and choose something different — something better — for our children.

That is our right. It is our responsibility.

But education isn’t the only factor that influenced our decision to home educate. We have certain moral and religious values that we have chosen to instill in our children as part of their learning experience.

In addition, we are troubled by many of the social ills that plague American youth today.

For example:

• According to the Centers for Disease Control, for youth between the ages of 10 and 24, suicide is the third leading cause of death.
  
• According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, during the past month 26.4% of children ages 12-20 used alcohol, and binge drinking among the same age group was 17.4%.
  
• Also according to the Department of Health and Human Services, in 2008, an estimated 20.1 million Americans ages 12 or older were current illicit drug users.
  In addition, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “Stop Bullying Now” fact sheet: Studies show that between 15–25 percent of U.S. students are bullied with some frequency (“sometimes or more often”) while 15–20 percent report that they bully others with some frequency.

Now, can the public education system guarantee that our kids won’t be the ones who are failing in reading and math; or the ones who succumb to drug use, alcohol abuse, suicide or bullying? Of course not. But, as a home educator, can I guarantee that my kids will excel in their studies and avoid those social ills? Absolutely. [Emphasis added.]

Homeschooling mom Susan Ryan also testified:

...I would like to emphasize that laws are in existence now to protect all children, including homeschooled children in order to ensure a solid educational and nurturing base. The compulsory school attendance exemption requires private schools to teach the branches of education that are taught to children of corresponding age and grade in the public schools and that it should be in the English language. If there are questions, the truant officers employed in the Regional Offices of Education may follow up and confirm the education process. We’re not hard to find.

Registration has been unnecessary for our children to receive quality educations. Our esteemed University of Illinois created an admittance information page specifically to recruit homeschoolers. There are several other states proving the same educational results from our productive homeschooled adults.

Some worry about whether we are tested or not, even while the National Education Association has pled to Congress for less standardized assessments and more project based learning. Homeschoolers have the wonderful advantage of time and flexibility to create what the public school teachers crave. With that said, there are private means to test homeschoolers and access that progress and many homeschoolers take advantage of those opportunities.

The Home School Registration Form created some years ago has been a concern of mine - first of all - for the expended money for paperwork, mailing and other costs by the Illinois State Board of Education and the Regional Offices of Education for a non-mandated over-compliance demand. They already have this sort of spending history, so what can we tax payers expect if they are in charge of mandated registration.

But my major uneasiness is that new homeschoolers are trying to find what works for their children, and particularly when they start - parents often find much that doesn’t work. What if a homeschooler listed Sonlight Curriculum in the box for “Which curriculum will you be using” and discovered it works for the 8 year old, but not the 11 year old. Will we be stopped from switching to useful materials for our children by a bureaucracy that hampers us? That seems to be the saga of too many public school learning opportunities. Homeschoolers will lose our flexibility. We aren’t running a classroom. We are tailoring a one on one educational plan at home.

Often we don’t use a textbook as much as we frequent the museums, nature trails, the park district programs, and various community programs that enrich our children’s education. For instance, the Annenberg Learner program offers Journey North – a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. Science, math and observation skills are used in this program. The Great Backyard Bird Count- sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Audobon Society pulls families into the world we live in by observing birdlife in our backyards. The Cornell Lab also created specific homeschool resources online to use for their Project Feederwatch. But it’s not a “curriculum”.

In 1950, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Crampton delivered the opinion of the court in the Marjorie Levisen ruling that determined Illinois homeschools are private schools. In part of that legal documentation, he said this: “Compulsory education laws are enacted to enforce the natural obligation of parents to provide an education for their young, an obligation which corresponds to the parents’ right of control over the child.”

We don’t have to be forced to do the right thing for our children. We’ve proven that. Please honor our love, respect and nurturing of our children. Do not require onerous demands on our lives and our time with pointless paperwork held over our heads, when we’d much rather spend that time with our families living and learning. [Emphasis added.]

Senator Maloney wants to be in control of homeschooling. He cannot.

For those in Maloney's Chicago district, it's time to be recruiting his next Republican opponent, who will need to begin circulating petitions to get on the ballot this October.

For the rest of us, we must continue to contact our own state senators, the education committee members, and even our state representatives to line up their opposition to this bill.

This bill represents a clear intrusion into our homes, and our families. It is a legislative home invasion. We will not lie down for it, we will not stand still for it, we will not be content to only slam the door on it. We have now reached the point at which every legislator who goes on record on this bill must be noted and listed. Those who approve of this bill -- that is, those who approve of unwarranted government intrusion into homes and families, must be marked for opposition and defeat. Those who oppose this bill should likewise be noted, thanked, and defended from opposition when election season rolls around. I'm quite serious about this.

And just in case this bill passes, we must prepare to demonstrate to our children the lesson that there is an obligation to disobey unjust laws. How about it Senator Maloney? What will be the penalty? How many years will you give me?