Judging by a recent proposal under consideration at the Legislature, public education officials in the state must figure that they have got K-12 ed peaked, tweaked, and humming along in fine form. The proposal is to move the Department of Non-Public Instruction under the jursidiction of the Department of Public Instruction. It has been a separate entity for 25 years.
Is academic excellence in the public schools now a fait accompli, such that legislators would like to do the same for private and home education?.
So we might be asked to believe. This encroachment into private choice is exactly why there is a need for a big, thick “wall” between private and public education.
To those who claim this is an administrative change and does not represent a real threat to the independence of private and home schools, you are misinformed, or worse. After 25 years, there is no reason to make such a change, other than to remodel private education in a different direction, clearly one that parents themselves would not choose.
If the point is to deliberately contravene parent choices on behalf of public education interests, then the battle lines are clear. No one who respects the right and competence of parents to seek private educational options on behalf of their children would dismantle the voluntary separation of private and public education with abandon.
If we give them new authority over private educational choice, do we really assume that public education administrators will not use it?
