John Oliver has that knack of finding the holes in our system and rubbing our noses in them.
There's no question that some parents are doing a good job with home schooling their kids. But it's a wide spectrum, because most states have no regulations about home school. So you get religious parents who have the kids read the Bible and then do chores the rest of the day. Political extremists who are indoctrinating their kids with how to be good Nazis," he said.
And then he talks about the Home School Legal Defense Association, a group that's been compared to the home schooling NRA.
"You can probably see the fact that it is possible to pull a kid out of school with no questions asked or follow-ups allowed could easily be exploited by abusive parents, especially as most states don't even screen homeschooled parents for red flags. Forty-eight states have no background check process for parents who choose to homeschool," he said.
"In fact, even if you have a prior conviction of a crime against a child, you can home school them. A study done in Connecticut found that of the 380 students withdrawn in six districts to be home schooled, 138 lived in families that were the subject of at least one prior report of suspected abuse or neglect and yet despite this, at every turn the HSLDA has vigorously fought efforts to put any
guard rails in place.
"Here was their then president in 2015 explaining why they fight all regulations, even ones explicitly designed to prevent child abuse.
Child abuse is a parental issue, isn't it? Any child, whether they be a non homeschooled child or parent where they be a homeschooled parent they can abuse their children. They have the potential to do it, so why should we for just a few invade all of the other innocent parents? That's prior restraint. It's unconstitutional, it's unAmerican.
Are there are there some categories of regulations around homeschooling that you would support that you don't think of as an invasion or a takeover?
No, not any.
The HSLDA views any oversight whatsoever as an attack, even offering members a 24-hour hotline in case of a visit from the state. In fact here is the sister of that woman you saw earlier explaining how they would practice what to do if Child Protective Services showed up on their doorstep. The parent would lock the front door, would call the Homeschool Legal Defense Association on the phone, hand the phone out the kitchen window and us kids were supposed to hide in the basement. We actually did drills on this stuff, folks, we did drills in case someone ever decided to check in on our well-being.
He talked about an 8-year-old girl in West Virginia, whose father pulled her out of school after he was reported for abuse. She died of neglect a few weeks later .
"Eventually legislators proposed a law that would prevent parents from withdrawing a child from school when there is a pending child abuse or neglect investigation, or when a parent has been convicted of domestic violence, child abuse or neglect. And it seems like that law would be easy to get passed, right?
"But the legislator who proposed it found out not so much."
Go watch the whole thing.
