According to a recent Detroit News article, a bill pending in Michigan House of Representatives would require Michigan families, for the first time, to register their homeschooled children with the local district's superintendent. Required information would be name, age, and grade level. Rep. Brenda Clack (D-Flint), a former educator for 32 years, authored the bill earlier this year.
Clack writes: Many children who are homeschooled in their elementary years transfer to public schools in middle or high school "because they want to be mainstreamed with everyone else," Clack said. But without any accountability as to the "number of students that are being homeschooled, it could pose a problem in the future. (Registering) gives information for districts to plan in the future, even the building of new schools."
Responding to fears of governmental infringement, she states: "There's this fear out there from especially those that are homeschooling that there is going to be an infringement, that this will lead to something else," she said. "As a former educator, all I need is accountability in terms of numbers of students being educated."
As an elected official on my local school district's Board of Education, I sympathize with the need for strategic planning. Many fail to realize that school's board must not only concentrate on the present needs of the district (e.g. settling union contracts, creating reasonable class sizes, maintaining and enhancing current programs, etc), but also must continually think about the long-term viability of the district. Thus, when attempting to settle on a fair and equitable contract with the teacher's union, we must also consider how this impacts the district 15 years from now. I fully understand Clack's desire for information that would be valuable to such planning.
Furthermore, a public school has two basic mandates from the people of Michigan: (1) produce an adequately educated young adult, and (2) produce a responsible citizen. One of the helpful ingredients of a democratic government is an educated, informed, and responsible citizenry. It is thus in the government's best interest to ensure that a child is adequately educated.
If these were the only issues at hand, then I would firmly support the government's right to require homeschool registration (and perhaps even oversight of homeschool curriculum). However, there is a deeper principle that forms the fabric of this nation--personal liberty. Thus, while the it is in the government's best interest to ensure a responsible citizenry, it is in the citizen's best interest to ensure limited governmental influence over their lives.
Clack's proposal is typical of lawmakers. Simply put, they do not trust the public. Government then becomes the 'Fatherland' and the public assumes the role of naive child. A child, it is understood, cannot make their own decisions; and, even if they do, those decisions require parental oversight. The citizens of the United States are not children, and the government was not intended to play the role of a parent.
Requiring parents to register their children is an infringement of parental rights. While schools understandably desire this information, it is a betrayal of liberty to require parents to provide it. As a school board member, I would like to know how many school age children live in our district. As a parent, the number of school age children living in my home is not the business of the state. Where, and how, I choose to educate my children is a confidential matter between my wife and I. The principle of personal liberty also means that I do not have to report our decisions to any local authority, any superintendent, or even a representative from the city of Flint
HT: Artur Sido
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