By Dawn Fantasia
Yesterday, I met with a group of parents/ homeschool advocates and discussed A5825, a far overreaching, Democrat-sponsored bill that would force homeschoolers to align to New Jersey’s curriculum standards and submit a portfolio of work to prove it.
Is this a joke? The entire point of homeschooling, private schooling, and school choice is that parents—not Trenton bureaucrats—decide what’s best for their children.
New Jersey is home to many excellent choices for families: traditional public schools, public charter schools, magnet and Renaissance schools, private and parochial schools, micro schools, virtual schools, and homeschooling.
It is not the state’s job to dictate how every child must learn. What’s next? Private schools? Religious schools? Will Trenton try to bring their curriculum standards under their control too?
Parents have the right to educate their children without being dictated to by the state. Period.
I’ll stand with parents to fight this nonsense every step of the way.
The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that parents, not the government, have the primary right to direct their children’s education. In Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), the Court ruled that the state cannot “standardize its children” by forcing all students into a single system. In Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), the Court reaffirmed that parents’ decisions about education, even when they don’t match state standards, are protected as a fundamental right.
Forcing homeschoolers to follow state curriculum standards and submit portfolios for approval, as A5825 would do, goes against those principles. Parents have the right to choose how their children are educated.
