Whose Kids Are They Anyway?
It’s official.
Virginia Democrats have declared war on families. And they’re just warming up.
So far, in the nascent General Assembly session, they’ve introduced two appalling anti-family measures. More to come, no doubt.
The first is a proposed constitutional amendment that’s an abortion enthusiast’s wet dream. It would enshrine in Virginia’s constitution an unlimited right to abortion. From my reading of it there are none of those pesky restrictions that ban killing viable unborn babies in the 8th or 9th month of gestation. This is an all-out abortions-until- birth amendment.
Oh, and the amendment seems to allow minors - who can’t legally buy lottery tickets - to secure abortions without any interference from meddling parents.
Read it. See what you think:
ARTICLE I
BILL OF RIGHTS
Section 11-A. Fundamental right to reproductive freedom.
That every individual has the fundamental right to reproductive freedom. This right to make and effectuate one's own decisions about all matters related to one's pregnancy shall not be denied, burdened, or infringed upon, unless justified by a compelling state interest and achieved by the least restrictive means that do not infringe an individual's autonomous decision-making. A state interest is compelling only when it is to ensure the protection of the health of an individual seeking care, consistent with accepted clinical standards of practice and evidence-based medicine. The Commonwealth shall not discriminate in the protection or enforcement of this fundamental right.
That, except when justified by a compelling state interest, the Commonwealth shall not penalize, prosecute, or otherwise take adverse action against an individual on the basis of an actual, potential, perceived, or alleged outcome of such individual's pregnancy, nor shall the Commonwealth penalize, prosecute, or otherwise take adverse action against an individual who aids or assists another individual, with such individual's voluntary consent, in the exercise of such individual's right to reproductive freedom.
That this section shall be self-executing and that if any provision of this section is held invalid, it shall be severable from the remaining portions of the section.
Gosh, with a constitutional amendment like this one, Virginia could become America’s abortion destination.
And there’s more!
According to the Virginia Department of Education, 56,008 Virginia students are being educated at home. Leftists hate this. It means tens of thousands of Virginia kids are not being indoctrinated in government schools and exposed to marvelous books like “Gender Queer,” “Lawn Boy” and “All Boys Aren’t Blue.”
Presently, almost any parent can teach their offspring at home with minimum red tape. If Pekarsky’s bill passes and is signed by the governor (which it almost certainly won’t be) it would impose stricter rules on who could homeschool, with most families being barred unless they have a religious exemption.
Writing for The Federalist, “Virginia Bill Would Ban Homeschooling Unless Parents Prove It’s For Religious Reasons,” Fairfax parent Stephanie Lindquist-Arora, reports that presently only 6,755 of Virginia’s homeschoolers cite religious beliefs for doing so.
Why should parents have to give government apparatchiks ANY reason for homeschooling? Whose kids are they anyway?
The homeschooling movement has exploded in recent years and received a big boost during covid when schools closed and parents got a load of the stuff their kids were being taught in the government schools.
“Reason,” an online publication, explored the explosion in homeschooling in 2023:
Nationally, since the 2017-2018 school year, homeschooling has increased by 51 percent—while private schooling has only increased by 7 percent. Based on the available data, the (Washington) Post estimated that there are now between 1.9 and 2.7 million homeschooled children in the United States.
But many states and districts saw truly staggering growth in their homeschooling population. Notably, many of these places had schools that were closed the longest during the pandemic. D.C. and New York both saw homeschooling increases of more than 100 percent, while California saw an increase of 78 percent. In Brooklyn, homeschooling in the borough's school districts saw increases that ranged from 197 percent to a whopping 492 percent (though the total number of homeschoolers remained under 1,000 students per district.)
This growth has helped transform homeschooling into a racially and ideologically diverse movement. According to data analyzed by the Post, homeschooled students were three-quarters white in 2019. By summer 2023, less than half were white. Homeschool parents are now roughly evenly split between conservatives and liberals, while those homeschooling before the pandemic overwhelmingly identified as Republicans.
Such a rapid growth in the number and diversity of homeschooling families indicates that more and more American parents are dissatisfied with their children's education in traditional public schools—and deciding to take matters into their own hands.
"Families who choose homeschooling less for ideological reasons and more for matters of circumstance and what meets the needs of their child in the present moment will help change our conception of what it means to be a home-schooler," Robert Kunzman, a professor at Indiana University's School of Education and director of the International Center for Home Education Research, told the Post.
Most studies show that homeschooled children outperform their public school counterparts by 15 to 30 percent on standardized testing. This is true regardless of the educational levels of the parents or their income.
Yet teachers unions loathe homeschoolers and sneer at parents who choose to educate their kids at home.
While some states permit homeschooled children to join local public school sports teams through so-called “Tebow Bills” (in honor of Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow who was homeschooled but allowed to play football on his Florida public school team) Virginia with its strong teacher’s unions have successfully defeated such measures in the Old Dominion.
Pekarsky’s bill goes further, seeking to force many children back into public schools whether their parents want them there or not.
This could be politically dangerous.
Virginia Democrats appear to have short memories. It was the parents’ rights movement that drove Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s surprising victory three years ago.
Do they really want to go down this path in an election year? Apparently they do.
