Utah State Senator wobbles between bitter accusations aimed at slacker parents, and incoherent calls for freedom and choice, as he tries to find a compelling reason why Utah should no longer have compulsory, free, public education. (via TPM)
TOM KLUDT GOP Lawmaker In Utah Wants To End
Compulsory Education In The StateA Republican lawmaker in Utah outlined a proposal last week to abolish compulsory education in the state.
State Sen. Aaron Osmond (R) argued that certain "parents act as if the responsibility to educate, and even care for their child, is primarily the responsibility of the public school system."
"As a result, our teachers and schools have been forced to become surrogate parents, expected to do everything from behavioral counseling, to providing adequate nutrition, to teaching sex education, as well as ensuring full college and career readiness," he wrote in a post on the state senate's blog.
Osmond told the Deseret News that he wants the public to view education as an opportunity rather than a requirement.
"Let’s let them choose it, let’s not force them to do it," Osmond said.
Which is it, Osmond? Are the parents unreliable and incompetent or are they the best judges of what is a good grounding in sex, behavior, nutrition, and education? It can't be both.
I think he assumes that the Nice people will choose it and the Nasty ones will not, and that will do for them, won't it just?
ReplyDeleteOne more way to keep the BAD SEED out of our public schools. Plus the added advantage of not having the state looking over the shoulders of the parents who choose to home school their daughters a full curriculum of bottle washing and barefoot gardening.
Hi Juiagrey. Thanks for the comment but I think he probably thinks exactly the opposite--this will enable the "good" parents to withdraw and homeschool their children, while the poor and (ahem) urban or working or single parents who don't have that option are forced to pay charter schools for what used to be free. Same southern strategy as after integration--move the children to "christian" or in this case mormon academies, cut public subsidies and taxes, and leave the poor or the non mormon on their own.
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