According to Rory Ryan, publisher and editor of the Times Gazette, an Ohio newspaper, a public school administrator challenged the paper to do an exposé on homeschooling. This seems like a rather odd thing for a public school administrator to do in a public forum and it is difficult to not suspect hopes of another series on abuses occurring in homeschools to drum up public support for greater restrictions placed on homeschools. Perhaps even just in time for Ohio’s five year review of its homeschool rules.

If this administrator is aware of anything which ought to be “exposed,” maybe he should simply contact the proper authorities. If he suspects cases of abuse, there’s Children Services, the police, the Highland County Sheriff’s Office, the Juvenile Court judge, all of whom would, no doubt, respond to the legitimate complaints of a school administrator.

Why challenge the newspaper? We are not the home school police. Frankly, we have enough to do to keep up with those public bodies that spend more and more of taxpayers’ money each year. But I digress. The Times-Gazette

He goes on to discuss what homeschooling is about…and to reveal that his children were homeschooled. And his digression brings up another interesting point about the relationship between the citizenry and the state and where newspapers fit into this relationship. Jefferson certainly seemed to hold a general disdain for the papers of his day, as illustrated in an 1807 letter to John Norvell:

Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell

Yet he still viewed them as a necessary censor of the government and a free press as a guardian of liberty.

To demand the censors of public measures to be given up for punishment is to renew the demand of the wolves in the fable that the sheep should give up their dogs as hostages of the peace & confidence established between them. Thomas Jefferson to William Branch Giles, 1794

I, for one, am happy to see at least one newspaper that is still too busy “keep[ing] up with those public bodies,” the so-called wolves in office, to answer to their calls for better monitoring of the sheep. His comments may be a digression, but they illustrate well the attitude of an increasingly powerful educational bureaucracy which believes that parents, especially those who dare homeschool, should be answerable to it.

And unfortunately, this attitude is not isolated to Ohio. New Hampshire homeschoolers had a fight with their legislatures this year regarding increased restrictions placed on homeschooling. The Board of Education of course supported the legislation, but their reasoning was a bit muddled.

The state Department of Education is supporting the bill. Roberta Tenney, an administrator for the department who oversees the homeschool program, said the bill would help get a dialogue going with parents who are looking to homeschool as an option.

“We want, as educators, to be part of that conversation,” she said. nashua telegraph

We need legislation requiring homeschoolers to submit their curriculum to the state in order to “get a dialogue going?” Why does the Department of Education think it has any right to be a part of the education conversation of private citizens not attending public schools? Thankfully, all that came out of this was an earlier registration date. And an ominous commission with as-of-yet undetermined consequences for New Hampshire homeschools with the sole purpose of examining New Hampshire’s home education statutes.

In response to Michigan education columnist Kelly Flynn, who also supports greater state oversight of homeschools through the “compromise” of registering with the state, Karen Braun writes,

As free citizens, we are not required to report to the courthouse if we are not accused of a crime. We do not report to the Department of Health and Human Services if we are not on welfare. We do not report to the Department of Transportation if we don’t ride public transportation. Likewise, we should not be required to report to the Department of Education or the local school district if we don’t intend to use the public schools. spunkyhomeschool

As free citizens, we monitor the government. The government does not monitor us until probable cause has been established. As this paradigm shifts, how long will we truly be able to refer to ourselves as free citizens?

Dana Hanley is a fourth year homeschooling mom to three girls and a boy. In her column, she will be taking a look at homeschoolers who have affected the news and news that affects homeschoolers. Dana is the host of Home School Talk, a weekly one hour broadcast focused on homeschool news and opinion. Visit her blog, Principled Discovery.