Democrats vote to keep a minority in the shadows

There is an underground society in today’s America. These invisible people pay taxes just like the rest of us, but are ostracized because of their background. The promise of America is denied them.  Instead they lead a clannish, insular existance, suspicious of the authorities and on the fringes of mainstream life.

Often driving by some remote area, you may catch a glimpse of them playing soccer on dusty, over–used public fields, far away from well–groomed high school athletic facilities.

But in spite of being marginalized by a judgmental, intolerant society, they never lost hope. They believed in working through the system for justice. And finally, there came a chance to emerge from the shadows — a golden opportunity to finally join the rest of America and enjoy the rights of a full–fledged citizen.

But an 8–7 block vote by Democrats in a Virginia Senate committee defeated the “Tebow” bill and again denied homeschooled children the chance to try out for high school football and other athletic teams.

Sen. Harry B. Blevins (R–Virginia Education Association), a former cog in the education–industrial complex, was personally responsible for the tie–breaking vote that meant homeschooled children would be forced to play ballerina ball for yet another season.

Teacher’s association and Virginia sports league officials voiced two primary reasons for opposing the bill and, in keeping with typical Democrat discourse, both reasons were false. But these people will do or say anything to retain the government monopoly on indoctrinating children.

The first was public school students are subject to more stringent academic requirements than the homeschoolers. I know “football,” “stringent” and “academic” are not three words you normally encounter in the same sentence, but be that as it may, the facts are otherwise.

Homeschooled children are tested by the state every year and must meet set achievement levels. In fact, Progress Report 2009 — a study that surveyed 11,739 homeschooled students tested by 15 independent testing services — found that homeschooled students on the average scored 37 percentile points above public school students on standardized achievement tests.

Once they get to college homeschooled students have a better freshman GPA (3.41) than other freshmen (3.12) and graduate at higher rates.

The second objection was homeschooled students might represent potential discipline problems. This, too, is rich. Granted it was a long time ago, but every team I ever played on had a coach and if the coach didn’t like your attitude you were not a member of the team for long.

Democrats who voted against the bill no doubt wondered why Virginia homeschooled children can’t act like those quaint Amish folks: stay out of the limelight, avoid fossil fuels and make sustainable furniture.

The only bright spot in the entire debate was, for possibly the first time in history, a leader of the Democrat party went on record stating the choices people make have consequences with which they must be prepared to live. Senate Minority Leader Richard Saslaw declared, “Every single parent who chooses to home-school their kid knows what the ground rules are. Parents know that choice, and they know what the ramifications are.”

This will be a real news bulletin to liberal protected groups like Occupy, unwed mothers, illegal aliens, foreclosed homeowners, drug addicts and the homeless.

But Saslaw has not entirely joined the Personal Responsibility Caucus. He also said if the bill passed it would not be the end of demands. “It’s the camel’s nose under the tent,” he claimed. This indicates confusion on Saslaw’s part. Homeschooling advocates weren’t asking for player quotas to be established — the standard liberal Democrat remedy — they only wanted the opportunity to compete.

If the youngster isn’t good enough, he doesn’t make the team. Unless, of course, the coach wants to stash a couple of homeschoolers on the bench to raise the team’s overall GPA.

The education establishment views the homeschooling movement as a mortal threat. If Ma and Pa Kettle spend only $500 per year and produce students who, on the average, outscore public school students supported by nearly $10,000 each year — including money from homeschooling parents — sooner or later taxpayers may start asking pointed questions.

Besides, just because a family buys a few books for their own home the authorities can’t ban them from public libraries. The same principle should apply to high school athletics.

In the last week we’ve seen Democrats all over the country support Sandra Fluke — Queen of the Prophylactic — and her desire to play footsie on the taxpayer dime. It seems only fair that homeschooled children be allowed to play football on the taxpayer’s teams.

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Michael R Shannon

Michael R. Shannon is a speaker and political commentator who has entertained audiences on four continents and a handful of islands. His dynamic, laugh–out–loud commentary on current events, politics, and culture has connected with audiences in a wide variety of settings including corporate meetings, association conferences, Christian fellowship, political gatherings, university seminars and award dinners. He is the author of "A Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with Added Humor!)" available at: https://tinyurl.com/lcqs87c

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One Comment

  1. I’ll tell you what scares liberals the most about homeschooling and that is if they, and private schools end up being the only choice White people have in order to have their kids receive some kind of education, the so-called, public, schools will end up being 100% BLACK!! Then the whole issue of Blacks tearing the doors off of the non-Black public education system will have all been for nothing, because the White kids found another way to get their kids educated and hired at all the good paying jobs that Black kids STILL can’t get, then the liberals will have wasted all the effort and blood, sweat, and tears for nothing!!! When the White woman takes it upon herself to stay home and teach the kids herself there won’t be a damn thing Black mothers would be able to do to compete with that by getting the government to take something away from the table in order to further punish Whites for being smarter and more ambitious than Blacks.

    That, and the fact that Whites would demand that they not be forced to pay for school for Black kids when they won’t have any of their kids in those schools. That would be like paying taxes for Blacks to be given Welfare and Food Stamps when most of the working Whites who are paying the taxes that Blacks get the money from, no longer want to pay those taxes. This would be just like that. Why pay taxes into schools that White kids no longer go to? And if Whites could get to stop paying taxes so that Black kids will get well built, well supplied, new books every year, good food that is cleared by the FDA to be nurishing, and air conditioned in opposition to Maurice Strong’s beliefs American’s don’t deserve to have air conditioning at home AND at work to. Whites may demand they be exempt from those and any future taxes that take care of someone else, and the fact that they don’t get any access to the benefits from those taxes.

  2. Some years ago I thought that “homeschooling” meant that some parent who had the proper cridentials to teach, held school in their “home”, hence “home school”. But then when I voiced that opinion to my wife and some other people, they told me that my idea was not correct. They said that it was where the parent teaches their own kid and no others. I was shocked. I thought, “What a waste to time!!” “How would you ever get your kids to take you for their teacher, or think that what you were saying was what they needed to learn.” And, “How in the hell could a regular, no one special, could ever learn to teach everything they would need to know in order to give their kids a quality education all the way up through high school????” That’s why I first thought, “What a waste of time.” That meant how could one person teach one or two kids all the way up through high school and not give any other kid the benefit of what they were able to do for their own, they should WANT to share this environment with other children whose parents might not be able to acquire the needed apptitude to teach in the way it would need to be in order to give their own children the education they need, especially at high school level.

    My question is why isn’t it that way, where someone who is teaching their children, allow some other children into their home and charge some so that some other family could have their kids get a homeschooled education?

  3. Very good read here. Also of note is the fact that those evil home-schoolers can’t have thier lunches taken away from the by the big government-puppet food police either. What really rankles politicians is that home-schoolers do well on tests and score higher than the dumbed-down-in-the-name-of-diversity public sector.

    Fewer critical thinkers then results in more votes for Liberal [fake} Democrats.

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