Homeschool Freedom

Quoting from this site:

PITTSBURGH — While many parents are preparing their kids for school, the Newborns are taking their suburban Pittsburgh school district to court. The Newborns homeschool their kids and object to the legal requirement that the local district superintendent must have final approval of their children's education, which includes religious studies."It's not the paperwork we are objecting to ... because there is no religious objection to paperwork. It is the final approval by the superintendent, a secular institution, over our children's religious education," said Maryalice Newborn.The Newborns believe the education law treats homeschoolers unfairly because Christian or private institutions are exempt from such strict regulations. But Duquesne University (search) Law Professor Robert Barker believes the Newborns have a tough fight ahead."In order for a person to invoke that law successfully, that person has to prove the action of the government, in this case the school district, constitutes a substantial burden on those peoples' exercise of religion," Barker said.With the backing of a national homeschool organization, the Newborns appear ready for a long court battle.

Great article, the website has the footage that aired on Fox News. It strikes me that our country was founded on all of these ideas about freedom and autonomy. Yet it seems like we make our citizens more and more dependant on the state to make decisions for us.

Now that I'm a parent I feel the burden and the responsibility for my child in a way I had never imagined. That burden, that responsibility, is mine. One day I must stand before my God and give an accounting of how I have cared for the blessings I have recieved. Not the principal of the school, not the Superintendant, Me. And I am more resentful of others trying to take authority out of my hands. These are MY children. If I'm not qualified to make decisions regarding their education, then why trust me with them at all?

Maybe I'm taking this story a bit too much to heart, it just seems so indicative of a larger problem. It's a bit demoralizing. Just another brick out of the foundation of my beliefs about this country. Sometimes I think we're due for another revolution.