Typical... just typical politics. Some poor teen girl got murdered by her parents, and instead of being outraged that social services and/or police didn't take her from her parents despite several reports of abuse? Lawmakers go after "homeschoolers" just generally.
Matt McCoy
doesn't want an inquest to determine why the hell nothing was done
after a neighbour filed police reports (note plural noun). He doesn't
want a full review of social services and police protocol in these
cases. Nuh-uh. That would actually help kids. Real kids.
Yeah, why bother having an inquest as to what actually went wrong, why cries for help were ignored and why this innocent child died? That might look bad for the state, or for the police, or for the child protection agency. Better just to cast the blame on "homeschooling" and nevermind that there is no actual evidence that this child was diligently taught at home. Shhh.
So.
Under a proposed new law, school officials will pop on by to see every homeschooler in the state at least quarterly. They have lots of time and money to do this in the Iowa state budget (apparently). The people from the public school districts in Iowa are also way more trained than comparable staff from other states because they (also apparently) already know how to do a complete medical and psychological evaluation during a casual visit. I'm not sure if they will take the time or effort to actually ask about the kids' education, though!
Ahh... politics. Are you amazed and surprised to read that McCoy is a Democrat?
"What McCoy suggests would be an unprecedented invasion of privacy for
homeschooling parents," writes Shane Vander Hart. "Iowa law has never required school districts to
monitor home schooling families – ever. It was not a requirement even
under competent private instruction."
It seems to me that some liberal legislators just have it out for homeschooling, so they'll use the most horrific and unusual thing that could happen to force their way into our homes and our lives. Annnnd of course homeschoolers are the bad guys if they don't want social workers snooping through their houses. They will be painted as the insensitive, nasty people who couldn't care less that a child was horrifically murdered.
And it IS horrific and horrible, what happened to Natalie Finn after her parents withdrew her from public school. And if the social services people were doing their jobs, they'd have followed up on numerous complaints and figured out that this really wasn't even a homeschool thing. This was a crazy parent/ abuse thing, and the parent just took the kid out of school so that fewer people would be aware of what was going on.
Which means it can and will happen again. Don't think that real abusers are going to follow the law, which in Iowa means record-keeping and bla bla bla depending on the option parents choose. Ok, don't bother clicking the link; you and I both know these parents were not homeschooling and it doesn't matter what the law says.
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I agree it is a really horrible thing to have happened and of course homeschoolers should not be targeted this way, but,
ReplyDelete"Ahh... politics. Are you amazed and surprised to read that McCoy is a Democrat?"
Why does it make a difference that McCoy is a Democrat? Would your take on this be different if the Republic party was advocating these quarterly visits?
Personally, like you, I think they should be focusing on why the child was taken from regular school and why complaints to police were not followed up.
I'd have the same outraged reaction if it were a Republican saying/ doing these things, but I'd be surprised. Usually Democrats are the party that advocate government "help" and are very pro-public education, sometimes to the point of trouncing over the rights of homeschoolers. Teachers' unions are frequent campaign contributors to Democrats.
DeleteI would shot the parents and saved your state a packet in keeping such pathetic creatures alive. I am glad such offender s get short shirt form he oteh prisoners
ReplyDeleteOver here we have mandatory abuse reporting but often social workers dont win whatever they do. If they take the kids away it is an affront to parental rights adn if they leave the often the cases end up in severe abuse. Child protection officers have often too heavy a caseload so they are not effective. >I m surprised thought as there were several reports the parents were not dealt with
Sorry about the typos
ReplyDeletehttp://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/2013-11-17/5086254
So sad! Not a winning situation. Adopting these kids out makes me think back to when children were snatched from single mothers there. I am sure there must be an outcry. Terribly sad.
ReplyDeleteI do have friends who are foster parents in the US and NZ and there is such overwhelming need.