By Nancy Thorner –
In this time of the coronavirus pandemic when schools have been closed throughout the nation, and when homeschooling by parents is taking place – not out of choice but necessity – it should not come as a surprise to learn that teacher unions and their political cohorts are using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to mount a vicious attack against school choice as an excuse du jour to force children into failing schools.
An April 2nd order by Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer stated that "in-person instruction for pupils in kindergarten through grade 12 to be suspended for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year." Whitmer's order banned homeschooling.
It took until April 14, 2020, for Governor Whitmer to back down from her April 2nd order, maintaining her order did not apply to homeschooling. This followed backlash from the Great Lakes Justice Center.
Dumbing Down of Education
Often parents have no idea how public schools are failing their children. Dumbing Down Your Children/ Behind the Deep State is a video presentation by Alex Newman which speaks to the failure of public schooling. Alex Newman is an award-winning international journalist with a global reputation for hard-hitting reporting & the founder of Liberty Sentinel.
While many parents believe they are sending their children to school to learn how to read, write, and do math, instead the Deep State is dumbing down their children.
Cited by Newman was the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress report in which over two-thirds of 8th graders are not proficient in any of the core subjects (math, reading, writing, science, and history). The situation for high school seniors is even worse, as only one-fourth of high school seniors are proficient in math and one-third proficient in reading.
Ronald Reagan's "Nation at Risk" education study released 37 years earlier in 1983 about the nation's public education system, should have been a wake-up call. Disregarded was its warning that our nation is being eroded by a rising tide of mediocracy in education.
But was this nation's educational system always so dismal? "Not so", said Newman.
- Literacy rate by early 1800 was 90%.
- By 1812, most young Americans could read, write and cipher. Not more than four in a 1,000 couldn't.
- In visiting this nation from France in 1830, Alexi deTocgueville was surprised how informed Americans were.
- By the Civil War, literacy rates were 90% for Union soldiers and 80 plus% for Confederate.
- The Federalist papers were written for average Americans and were read by average Americans.
As for Common Core, Alex Newman cites it as the symptom of this nation's education problem, whose purpose is to change the thoughts, actions, and feeling of students.
For those who claim Common Core isn't taught in their school system, Newman had this to say: "Common Core is more firmly in place today than when Obama was leaving office. It's in every state, and came in the back door through textbooks and testing companies."
Newman called out Common Core in this way (only two subject experts were on each committee):
- The English/Language Arts and Math experts refused to sign off on the proposals.
- Young children are taught to recognize whole words by sight, instead of teaching what letters sound right phonetically.
- The math Common Core proposals were written to reflect low expectations.
- Fake science is being taught like global warming, evolution theory as fact, and fake history such as Trump was too extreme a candidate.
- Homeschool Legal Defense Association has set up a website with “7 Simple Steps to Start.Homeschooling.”
- K12 Inc., one of the largest online schooling groups in the country, has created a website for “Coronavirus School Closing Solutions and Alternatives.”
- Prenda, a network of in-home microschools that operate autonomously across the nation, has made its programming available for just $100 for the rest of the year.
- There is also unschooling, which is more informal and learner-directed.
Coronavirus shutdown offers Silver Lining
Alex Newman sees a silver lining through home schooling and private Christian schools as millions of American children are at home due to CoVID-19, safe from the increasingly extreme indoctrination, sexualization and dumbing down taking place in government schools.
As Mr. Newman wrote in his article, Coronavirus Perfect Time to Rescue Children from Public School?:
“With most public schools across America closed, parental interest in home education has been soaring — especially as parents see what filth their children are being exposed to.The hope among critics of government “education” is that, with children home for what may be months or more, parents will discover a simple but important truth: Not only are they capable of providing a superior education, it will be fun, too."
Said education expert Carole Hornsby Haynes, who has a Ph.D in professional education. “It just could be the catalyst for breaking the stranglehold of government schools as parents decide to ‘unschool’ their children and make American education the greatest in the world again."
In regard to Christian education as an alternative to the public schools, Exodus Mandate chief Lt. Col. E. Ray Moore, who now serves as chairman of the Christian Education Initiative, told The Newman Report that this is actually an incredible opportunity. “This is a unique moment in American history,” said Moore, whose ministry has been working to get Christian families out of the “pagan, godless” government schools for over two decades. “We could be on verge of a sea change in K-12 education.”
As Moore questioned: “Is this the 'tipping point' that we all have worked and prayed for? What conservative and Christian leaders could not do — that is, persuade, encourage, warn and urge millions of families to leave public schools — the coronavirus has done in several weeks, backed by orders of state governors, President Trump and the federal government.
Moore believes pastors must once again become “true shepherds” and lead the children in their congregations to “green pastures and still waters.” Among other things, that means they must wean children and families off the secular, anti-Christian education offered by government, and prod them into good programs such as those offered by FreedomProject, the Foundation for American Christian Education, Alpha and Omega, Apologia, Bob Jones, A Beka, Liberty University on-line, Classical Conversations, and many more.
With some 40 million American children home from government school this week amid the virus outbreak, there has never been a better opportunity to rescue America's embattled youth from the threat of government schools.
To get started, don't delay in ordering a copy (or 100 to share) of The New American magazine's popular Special Report "Rescuing Our Children.” It outlines the problem, and more importantly, the solution.
