Federal Secretary of Education Criticizes Home Schooling

Home School

Recently, at a breakfast meeting hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, federal Education Secretary John King made comments seemingly critical of home schooling.

According to different sources, Secretary King noted that some of his classmates at Harvard were home schooled, but expressed concern that “students who are home schooled are not getting the kind of rapid instructional experience they would get in school,” and that home schoolers may have difficulty socializing.

Frankly, these are two myths home schoolers have dispelled time and time again. Evidence has consistently shown home schoolers outperform their peers on standardized testing and are adequately prepared for college.

In 2009, Arkansas’ home schoolers performed better on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills than 61% – 80% of the students who took that test, nationwide.

According to the 2013-2014 Home School Report from the Arkansas Department of Education, in 2014 home schoolers in grades 3 – 9 scored anywhere from the 51st percentile to the 65th percentile on that same test.

Home schoolers in Arkansas have performed so well on standardized tests that the Arkansas Legislature ended state-mandated home school testing in 2015.

As the Daily Signal writes,

Many homeschooled students attend some of the most rigorous and intellectually challenging schooling there is. Many families pursue a rigorous classical curriculum. Others choose to homeschool because their children wanted more challenging options than their assigned public school provided.

Research suggests homeschooled students are better prepared for college. Colleges likes Hillsdale and Grove City have become renowned for their rigor and high proportion of homeschooled matriculates. Contrary to King’s analysis, homeschooled students are in “school,” and they’re doing great.

As far as socialization goes, home schoolers have no shortage of options. Arkansas is home to dozens of local support groups for home schoolers; many of these groups meet regularly for educational activities, field trips, or other purposes. Many home schoolers are actively involved in their churches; youth groups; local community organizations; and athletic programs.

John Stonestreet at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview calls the idea that home schoolers don’t socialize well “nonsense. Some struggle, of course, but so do some public schoolers. And what does it mean for a child to be normally socialized anyway? If it’s activities, homeschooling author Joe Kelly observed recently that ‘Many home-schoolers play on athletic teams . . .’ And ‘they’re also interactive with students of different ages… [having] more opportunity to get out into the world and engage with adults and teens alike.'”

The bottom line is this: Home schoolers don’t seem to be suffering any disadvantages when it comes to their quality of education or their opportunities to socialize with other people.

READ MORE

A Marijuana Masquerade Ball

Marijuana

The following blog post is by Family Council staff member Deborah Deuerman.

The effort to make “medical” marijuana legal in Arkansas is a ploy, a ruse, a scam.  It’s a masquerade, a facade, camouflage.  The goal is not to make marijuana available to a few sick people for medical use.  It’s to make marijuana legal for everyone—they want recreational marijuana.

Marijuana is now fully legal in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia.  Oregon, Alaska and Washington legalized “medical” marijuana in 1998; Colorado in 2000 and D.C. in 2010.  Marijuana was decriminalized (lessens the criminal penalties or makes it a misdemeanor instead of a felony) years before in all these places.

So-called “medical” marijuana is legal now in 21 other states.  Voters in 5 of them will determine in November this year whether marijuana will be fully legal, that is, approved for recreational use.

Campaigns to legalize marijuana at any level are funded by national groups such as the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) and National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).  They have contributed millions of dollars to these efforts.

These legalization “pushers” don’t hide their plans:

“The key to it is medical access, because once you have hundreds of thousands of people using marijuana under medical supervision the whole scam is going to be bought. Once there’s medical access…then we will get full legalization.”

-Richard Cowan, former director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Note he says “scam.”  We can stop this masquerade ball in Arkansas.  We don’t want to dance.  We don’t want recreational marijuana.  Let’s not take the first step toward it.  We must VOTE AGAINST MARIJUANA on November 8.

Photo Credit: “Cannabis Plant” by Cannabis Training University – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

READ MORE

Federal Judge Rules State Must Give Medicaid Money to Planned Parenthood

Abortion, , ,

According to news sources, yesterday U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker expanded a previous ruling regarding the State of Arkansas, Planned Parenthood, and Medicaid tax dollars.

You may recall last year Governor Hutchinson ordered the State of Arkansas to sever ties with Planned Parenthood after a series of videos emerged showing Planned Parenthood officials discuss the harvest and sale of organs from aborted babies. Governor Hutchinson’s decision effectively barred Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid reimbursements from Arkansas.

In response, three Planned Parenthood patients sued the state. Judge Kristine Baker ruled the state had to provide Medicaid dollars for those three women. This week she expanded that ruling to apply to all of Planned Parenthood’s patients in Arkansas.

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office is appealing this lawsuit to a higher court, saying, “[Judge Baker’s] order unfortunately allows Planned Parenthood to continue to use its patients to pad its bottom line at taxpayers’ expense. Thankfully, the ultimate issues in this case will be decided by the Court of Appeals.”

Other Lawsuits in Judge Baker’s Court

This is not the first time we have talked about one of Judge Kristine Baker’s rulings. Judge Baker also presided over Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit regarding Act 577 of 2015.

The law requires doctors performing drug-induced abortions to follow FDA protocols when administer abortion drugs like RU-486. It also requires abortion clinics to have an agreement with a physician who has admitting privileges at a local hospital in case complications arise from the abortion.

In response, Planned Parenthood sued the State of Arkansas. Last spring U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker issued a preliminary injunction preventing the state from enforcing this pro-life law. Attorney General Rutledge’s office appealed the injunction, asking a higher court to reverse it and let the state enforce Act 577.

In 2014 U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker also struck down the Arkansas Marriage Amendment, which Arkansans overwhelmingly supported in 2004.

READ MORE