Wednesday, April 13, 2005

More hand-wringing over homeschoolers

One Simple Form Removed Winterset Girl From School
Representative Suggests Review Of Home-School Laws

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A Winterset man facing child endangerment charges for allegedly keeping his 10-year-old daughter locked in a room was able to remove her from school by filling out a simple two-page form.

Jon Neely took his daughter out of school in November, telling school officials she was going to be home-schooled. A certified teacher was assigned to the girl under the home assistance program. When Neely began canceling meetings, the teacher alerted authorities.

Police found the underweight girl in February in an empty room.

Rep. Mary Mascher, a Democrat from Iowa City, said she would like to review Iowa's home-school laws.

Neely is free on $26,000 bond pending trial July 12.

A spokesman for a national group representing about home-schooled families said the Neely case is an isolated incident.


Hello!?! Why do we need to re-think our homeschool laws when it appears obvious that the law actually WORKED in this case? Looks to me like a four-month stretch of time isn't actually that long, and that a quick-thinking teacher acted promptly on her suspicions and the proper authorities got involved.

There is a significant portion of the policy-making crowd (generally Democrat nanny-staters like Ms. Mascher) that wants to do away with homeschooling altogether, and this kind of stuff just thrills their souls to no end. Nevermind how successful the movement and its results have been... government just ought to have oversight into education, and that's all there is to it. Parents just aren't qualified to make educational decisions for their children.

I don't buy that.

Obviously there are freaks like Neely and the Dyess family, but can we please label them as ABUSERS and quit trying to tag homeschooling? My word, there are probably a gazillion unreported cases of abuse just in this high school alone, but nobody makes a stink about how all these kids are public-schooled, obviously that's a big part of the problem. Pulleeeze.

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