The question came up again. "I'm looking for a homeschooling family to homeschool my kid for me. I'll pay."
I don't know about other states, but that's not legal in Wisconsin. More than one family "homeschooling" together actually constitutes a small private school. The administrator of that school needs to obey the laws governing private schools, including fire drills and kitchen rules and bathroom rules and all that jazz. In Wisconsin, homeschools are small, private, one-family schools and are known in the statutes as "home-based private educational programs."
If you don't believe me, look at Statute 115.001(3g). Don't lie to the government. If you want a tutor for your kid, hire a tutor. If you want to make money "homeschooling" other people's kids, fill out the stupid & invasive paperwork that the government will demand of you. But don't lie to the government. Homeschoolers have to sign a piece of paper telling the census-count of their private school and attesting to the fact that they are in compliance with the law. So comply already. Don't try to find loopholes. Just do what the law requires. God tells us through His apostle St Paul that we are to honor and obey the government, and Jesus Himself tells us to "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's."
Monday, May 12, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Scaer has an interesting argument that that verse has nothing to do with taxes or government. It's actually about the pagan images the Jews were carrying on their coins.
ReplyDeletePlus the law is a gray issue- how about speeding? Or the fact that there is no law requiring you to file a federal tax form? Or some of those strange laws which are still on the books? For instance, I believe it's still illegal to cut a Woman's hair in Wisconsin.
And then we seem to invoke an entirely new theology of the law when the government says we can't do something we should be able to. For instance distributing bibles in Soviet countries, or preaching against Homosexuality in Canada.
Or how about when a cop asks you to do something against what the law says then can do? Who do you follow then? His authority or the actual authority? What about when the federal government says one thing and the state another?
Heck- how about the whole Lutheran Reformation! Or the American Revolution (which Scaer had an article on as well).
I just don't buy Paul's words being used as the default answer to all queries. They should be viewed in the context of who he was writing to, and why he was writing them.
But anyway- doesn't the clause "...or by a person designated by the parent or guardian" in that statute seem to make this a legal option? Maybe I'm just mis-reading it.
Jeff, Nathan too mentioned to me what Scaer said in class recently about this verse. First, I'm going to say that it doesn't make sense to disregard the rest of the Table of Duties just because I happened to use that one passage that you're saying doesn't apply. Fine, throw out the fact that I appealed to that one passage, and substitute another from the Table of Duties. What I said is still true.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for "gray area," it sounds to me like you're skirting awfully close to saying we can blow off a clear law because sometimes there are grey areas, sometimes we break other laws, or sometimes there are laws contrary to God's word. I don't think you want to go there! In Judges, "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes" was a terrible thing, not an honorable estate.
Furthermore, there are "levels" of law-breaking. Speeding at 56 in a 55-zone is a lot different from going 115 in a 55-zone. One breaks the letter of the law; the other endangers others. I've had lots of people phone me up, asking where they can hire someone to "homeschool" their kid. I tell 'em they can't; it's illegal. It's pretty cut-and-dried. But if someone were to do that, they'd be endangering everybody else's homeschool. They would be risking changes to the law, increased regulation, and increased oversight of ALL homeschoolers -- resulting in huge losses with regard to the effectiveness of homeschooling for those who neeeed alternative methods of education. So homeschooling someone else's kid is not just taking a risk yourself, but putting many many other people at risk. Is that how a believer should use their Christian freedom?