Hat-tip to Kristi for the link to a Mary Pride article on what's wrong with Huckabee and why he is NOT a good candidate for homeschoolers.
The interesting part is that Mrs Pride extols Ron Paul's position toward homeschoolers: tax credits and government favors to guarantee certain treatment of homeschoolers by others. Homeschoolers are in big trouble when outspoken homeschool advocates are in favor of getting "help" from the government. Government "help" always always always always always comes with strings attached. Always, not sometimes. If the government is going to "help" homeschoolers, the government will be sticking their nose into our daily life and schedule and curriculum and making sure that we're "bona fide homeschoolers" and all sorts of other interference.
I don't want government "help."
I don't want Ron Paul.
There ain't no such things as a free lunch.
Friday, January 11, 2008
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Hi, Susan!
ReplyDeleteI share your trepidation about government interference in homeschooling, but I'm not worried about Ron Paul. His approach toward this and most other issues is negative, in a literal sense. He promises to veto legislation that would hurt homeschoolers, and his tax-credit idea is really negative, too, in the sense that he wants taxpayers to keep more of their own money. (That's true across the board.) He also wants to abolish the Department of Education and the Income Tax too, so, in a Paul administration, tax credits would ultimately be moot.
Of course, as Haggard said, "We'll all be drinking that free Bubble-Up and eatin' that rainbow stew." Ron Paul's not going to win, but I plan on voting for him solely because he is a symbol of Constitutionalism. There's not really much of a difference among all the other candidates anyway, save for their rhetoric.
The one thing I like about Huckabee is that he doesn't equivocate about his faith, such as it is. His answer last night to the question about Baptists and the submission of a wife to her husband was perfect. But he's a big-government nanny-stater like all the rest of 'em.
Been a "Ron Pauler" the whole time. ;o)
ReplyDeleteCan you please point me to a place where I can read about Ron Paul's plans for "government favors to guarantee certain treatment of homeschoolers by others."
ReplyDeleteThanks.
How about his website?
ReplyDeleteRegarding tax credits for homeschoolers, check out HEM's comments. And you can read the actual text of the Family Education Freedom Act (and the wording about "qualified expenses" at "qualified institutions").
Scott, you live in a state where the homeschool laws are what I consider to be unreasonably restrictive. Maybe that's why you and I see Paul's "help" so differently.
Wait a minute, Scott. I just remembered. Your kids aren't homeschooled anymore; they're public e-school students. "Homeschooling freedoms" to you are a theoretical argument. To me they're about what I do each day, and how my weeks and months are ordered.
ReplyDeleteHis website doesn't say what you say it says. (Got that?)
ReplyDeleteYou said "Gov't favors to guarantee certain treatment of Homeschoolers by others."
Do you think equality is "special treatment?" If so, then I guess you're right, but I would disagree that equality is special treatment.
As for the text of the act, it says "TUITION AND RELATED EXPENSES FOR PUBLIC AND NONPUBLIC ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION." (caps in original.)
That does not set home schoolers apart.
It also doesn't say you would HAVE to register your "qualifying expenses." If you don't want it, you don't have to take it. Still no gov't favors guaranteeing certain treatment etc for homeschoolers. Maybe I'm missing it?
That's a low blow Susan.
ReplyDeleteSince I'm not homeschooling I can't participate in the discussion?
Nevermind then.
:-( !
Making sure that everyone else (employers and colleges, for example) behaves themselves and "treats homeschoolers with equality" means that the govt must butt in with controls, and checking up to see whether the people being "protected" are worthy of protection (in other words, they are "real" homeschoolers and other such nonsense). This is the way it invariably plays out when states have government "protections" put in place or tax credits allowed or any other "favors" from govt.
ReplyDeleteAnd Scott, I didn't say you can't participate in the discussion. It's just that I have noticed through the years that people in MN and OH and PA and NY and IA will rarely take homeschooling freedoms and govt carrots as seriously as do people in IL and IN and WI. It's a matter of what someone is used to and willing to live with, whereas other someones are shocked at what kind of loss-to-freedom would result from certain "help" from the govt. Those of us with more to lose can see the dangers that people in other states have gotten used to living with (except when we're coveting their "benefits"). Because those benefits always come with loss of freedom.
Thanks for the discussion of this. I am sorry I missed out on the entire list discussion, but did read it after the fact (busy couple of days since I posted it).
ReplyDeleteI think your last comment is right on. What I (and others in my state) have for homeschool freedoms right now are already less than what you have and I think that plays heavily into how people view this.
Also learn lots from you posts. Keep up the good work.