Under the guise of having the government provide “oversight” of homeschooling families, far-left Democrat lawmakers in New Jersey are working with powerful forces to crack down on home education, parental rights, and educational liberty. If the effort is not stopped, homeschoolers in the Garden State will soon have Big Brother watching them — literally.
The most controversial legislation, introduced this month, requires homeschool families — both children and parents — to meet annually with a government bureaucrat. It turns the presumption of innocence on its head, with homeschoolers forced to prove to the government that everything is OK as part of a “wellness check.”
The bill, known as Senate Bill (S.B.) 4589, is short and to the point:
A child in a home education program and the child’s parent or guardian shall meet annually with a person from the resident school district who has been designated by the superintendent of the school district. The designated person shall be a school counselor, school nurse, or school social worker employed by the school district. The purpose of the meeting shall be for the parent or guardian to have an opportunity to request support from the school district for the home education program and for the person designated by the superintendent to conduct a general health and wellness check of the child.”
What kind of “support” a homeschooling parent might be expected to “request” from the government is not made clear in the bill. But in the immortal words of President Ronald Reagan, “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.’”
The other, far more ominous “purpose” of the mandatory annual meeting is crystal clear. In short, if the bill is passed, a government bureaucrat will be in charge of assessing whether parents are doing an acceptable job of parenting, caring for, and educating their homeschooled children.
The criteria for determining what is acceptable, of course, will be in the hands of the very bureaucrats and policymakers who are knowingly and willingly sexualizing and indoctrinating children in public schools. These are the same bureaucrats teaching children to believe absurdities like the idea that they may have been born in the “wrong” body and that hormone “therapy” and surgical mutilation of genitals may be the solution.
The bill currently has three Democrat co-sponsors, Sen. John Burzichelli, Sen. Paul Moriarty, and Sen. Benjie Wimberly. It was referred to the Senate Education Committee where it awaits a hearing. The Assembly version of the bill, A.B. 5796, was introduced with two Democrat co-sponsors, Rep. Cody Miller and Rep. Sterley Stanley.
Critics including the Home School Legal Defense Association, which represents hundreds of thousands of homeschooling families nationwide, are already fighting back. “This bill can only encourage discrimination, prejudice, and suspicion toward parents merely because they exercise their constitutional right to homeschool their children,” warned Scott Woodruff, HSLDA director of legal and legislative advocacy.
The details of the bill, he continued, are “astonishingly problematic” as well. For example, the legislation does not define what a “general health and wellness check” is. Neither do the state’s statutes or regulations. That means officials will essentially be able to “do what they feel like,” including question children without their parents present.
“S. 4589 is not merely an affront to homeschooling families,” continued Woodruff, urging constituents of the senators to call and make their voice heard. “It raises privacy concerns and undermines the fundamental principle of American jurisprudence that individuals are presumed innocent unless there is proof they have committed a crime.”
Another controversial bill, S.B. 1796, was just featured in a June 5 hearing that drew hundreds of homeschool parents in opposition, as well as an attorney for the HSLDA. If approved, it would require homeschool families to register with the government and provide information on the children without even basic privacy protections.
The situation in New Jersey follows a very predictable formula being observed in multiple states. First, activists team up with far-left “journalists” to find an exceedingly rare case of a child not receiving an adequate education, or worse, of parents or guardians abusing or neglecting a child while claiming to be “homeschooling.”
Once a suitable case is identified, the activist “journalist” highlights the case, paints it as normal or potentially even common, quotes the totalitarian activists demanding government control, and then pesters legislators to comment on “doing something.” With the media buzz, tyrannical lawmakers then have cover to introduce bills targeting homeschoolers.
In New Jersey’s case, a major hit piece targeting home educators recently appeared in the nearby Philadelphia Inquirer. Headlined “New Jersey is ‘deeply unregulated’ on homeschooling, leaving the system vulnerable to child abuse,” activist journalist Nate File expressed shock that in the Garden State, homeschooled children “are under the complete control of their parents.”
“In the state of New Jersey, there is essentially no oversight for homeschooling families,” the reporter marveled, as if government rather than parents were the presumed protector and guardian of children. “There are no required tests to demonstrate that the children are getting an adequate education, and there are no mandated check-ins on the child’s well-being.”
A key part of the story involved a case in which a New Jersey couple was charged with abusing and neglecting a teenage girl who was supposedly being homeschooled. As is typical, the article did not even mention federal data showing that one out of 10 students in government schools face sexual misconduct by staff, including rape and sodomy.
Illinois offered another very clear example of this. After a far-left activist “news” outlet funded by billionaire globalist George Soros started banging the war drums against homeschool freedom, lawmakers responded with legislation that could have made homeschooling parents into criminals for failure to file paperwork. Thankfully for homeschoolers, the bill failed — for now.
One of the most vocal groups leading the charge claims it is merely calling for “responsible” homeschool to be enforced by government. But the organization, known as the “Coalition for Responsible Home Education” (CRHE), believes that the government must regulate and oversee homeschooling for it to be considered “responsible.”
And right now, New Jersey is one of the key states in the group’s crosshairs. “New Jersey is deeply unregulated compared to other states,” said Jonah Stewart, the organization’s interim executive director, in comments to the aforementioned activist “media” organization. “Which means that kids can, in effect, fall through the cracks.”
Again, as is typical, no mention was made of the millions of victims in government schools facing sexual abuse. Nor did the article, the activists, or the lawmakers make any reference to the fact that less than one in three students in government schools are even “proficient” in any subject on government academic tests. Homeschoolers on average perform far, far better on the government’s own tests.
This edition of The Newman Report originally appeared at Freedom Project Media.