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Those supporting the idea that parents should be the primary decision-makers in how their children should be educated seem to have valid cause for concern. There are people – mostly on the left – who seek to limit, or even abolish, parents’ ability to homeschool their children. In 2020, Harvard Magazine published an interview with Elizabeth Bartholet, Wasserstein public interest professor of law and faculty director of the Law School’s Child Advocacy Program, who seeks to ban the practice, arguing that it violates children’s right to a “meaningful education.”

She complained that homeschooling is “an essentially unregulated regime in the area of homeschooling” and that “if you look at the legal regime governing homeschooling, there are very few requirements that parents do anything.”

Bartholet also told the magazine that since only a dozen states have rules regarding the level of education required for homeschooling parents, “people can homeschool who’ve never gone to school themselves, who don’t read or write themselves.”

The professor also argued that public schools are more desirable because teachers are “mandated reporters,” meaning they are required by law to contact the authorities if they see evidence of child abuse. “Teachers and other school personnel constitute the largest percentage of people who report to Child Protective Services,” she said.

But is this a valid reason to prohibit parents from deciding how their children should be educated? For starters, despite teachers being mandated reporters, there are still a disturbing number of children being mistreated, even in schools. However, studies have shown that children who are homeschooled fare much better than those attending public schools. The National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) noted that homeschooled children “typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests,” and that “78% of peer-reviewed studies on academic achievement show homeschool students perform statistically significantly better than those in institutional schools.” //

The Maryland proposal might be based on good intentions. But one of the main reasons why parents choose homeschooling is precisely because they do not have confidence that the government is the most effective way to educate their children. The establishment of an advisory council opens the door to more government involvement, which, given its track record, would have a disastrous impact on education.

Emily Zanotti@emzanottiForget those fake union negotiations they make you do in law school to learn conflict resolution tactics. They should make students mediate a pre-bedtime multi-vehicle monster truck trade between two tired toddlers.

Damn, they drive hard bargains. Brutal.8:52 PM · Feb 12, 2022

Paivi Rasanen spoke to The Federalist about her free speech case that has huge implications for Christians across the West. //

“I was happy to have the possibility to also tell the gospel—the solution to the problem of sin—in front of the court and in front of the media,” she said. Speaking about the first day of her trial, which occurred in January, Rasanen said, “When so many people were praying for the day, God also answered the prayers. It was quite a hard day, but I thought it was a privilege to stand for the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion and stand for the truth of the Bible.” //

“I would characterize the day as a modern-day Inquisition or heresy trial,” Coleman said in a phone interview from Helsinki last month after the trial’s first day. “And the heresy was that Paivi and Bishop Juhana were on trial against the new sexual orthodoxy of the day.” //

The deeply theological nature of this case has been clear throughout, Rasanen said, putting courts in a “very odd situation” of litigating permissible religious views inside a constitutional democracy that claims to guarantee the freedoms of speech and religion. //

The prosecutor also charged Rasanen falsely, she said, with believing that homosexuals are not created by God.

“According to her [the prosecutor], you cannot make a distinction between a person’s identity and his or her actions,” Rasanen said. “So she said if you condemn the act, you also condemn the human being and say they are inferior.”

On the contrary, Christians believe that all humans are sinners and have equally ineffable value to God. They believe humans’ worth can absolutely be separated from their actions. Otherwise, humans stand forever condemned for everything they’ve ever done wrong.

Christianity teaches that God is willing to forgive all sins. All that’s required is to confess those sins. This also means Christians consider homosexuals and transsexuals as they do everyone: equally precious, forgiven, welcomed, and loved by God.