Pay us to teach your children to hate freedom'

Those old enough to remember when education was safe (from indoctrination with values antithetical to those of most parents) and effective (in teaching children to read and write well, obtain proficiency in math and history, and prepare for gainful employment) may have noticed that what started as a gradual deterioration in some states in pedagogical efficacy quickly transformed into a free fall throughout the nation in the 1980s.

What was new?

As police detectives are wont to say, “follow the money.” In 1979, the Carter administration established a new and massive government agency to govern a segment of society that “was not even mentioned in the Constitution, [as] it had been the concern of the states since the beginning of the Republic” - education. In a word, this agency, the federal Department of Education, and its use of more than $170 billion in taxpayer funds each year, in addition to $200 billion in “emergency” coronavirus funding, is unconstitutional, as provided by the Tenth Amendment:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Can it be stopped?

The mere existence of the department is unconstitutional, as noted by congressional representatives past and present, including Michele Bachmann and Thomas Massie, as well as senators like Rand Paul and think tanks like the Cato Institute:

The Department of Education, along with so much else the federal government does, is unconstitutional. The only things that are constitutional for it to do are those things enumerated in the Constitution. Hence, if something is not listed there, it cannot do that something, period. That’s the whole point of enumerated powers. 

Massie and Paul backed their words with action as they submitted bills in Congress and the Senate, respectively, to abolish the Department of Education. Cosponsors of the congressional bill include, among others, Representatives Justin Amash, Andy Biggs, Jason Chaffetz, Matt Gaetz.

How bad is it?

When a soldier who fought communists in Korea or Vietnam is greeted by his grandchild sporting a Che Guevara T-shirt with a sympathetic drawing of the Marxist who was proven to be a racist and mass murderer, the time for outrage (and for monitoring their Amazon Prime purchases) has long passed.

In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education issued a shocking report entitled, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Education Reform.

If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.

Referring to this report in a review of the book, Crimes of the Educators: How Utopians Are Using Government Schools to Destroy America's Children, the reviewer notes, 

The erosion of our educational foundations and the mediocrity that the commission decried are undoubtedly viewed as an act of war by [the authors], as they less-than-subtly suggest right from the get-go in the title itself — “Crimes of the Educators” — and as they then make abundantly clear in the more than 300 pages that follow.

But the erosion and mediocrity were not the result of war by “an unfriendly foreign power.” 

They were (and are) the result of war by an unfriendly domestic power, a subversive Fifth Column of socialist educators who detested America, its Christian foundations, and the American Founders’ design of limited, constitutional government that thwarted their plans for social engineering and central planning. [Emphasis added].

How early does it start?

Indoctrination begins earlier than one may think, so the idea of “a few years of public school before homeschooling" may be self-defeating. 

In I’m a Former Teacher. Here’s How Your Children Are Getting Indoctrinated by Leftist Ideology, the author explains,

Your children are being indoctrinated. The education system designed to teach them how to think critically has been weaponized by the radical left to push an anti-American agenda.

As someone who has worked in education for four years, I have seen firsthand how your children are being ensnared by the left and their teachers.

I worked with kids from ages 3 to 13 and saw the brainwashing that exists at all levels of education. The left uses a combination of propaganda and suppression to push kids into the ensnaring grip of socialism and anti-patriotism. [Emphases added].

Alternatives

Visit us soon for the continuation of our series on homeschooling to explore:

• How did the establishment block Reagan from closing the Department of Education?
• Who are the eugenicists and socialists who framed the structure for America’s national education system?
• Are private schools the answer?
• How about homeschooling?
• Can we stop paying for schools we don't use

Previous article from our series on government education vs. homeschooling:

‘It’s upon us’: Kirk Cameron introduces homeschooling with new documentary.