Need another reason to not get a divorce? How about not having judges making basic decisions on how you are allowed to raise your kids?
Judge Ned Mangum of Wake County, N.C., last week ordered devout Christian Venessa Mills to stop homeschooling her kids and send them to the government-run Raleigh public school system.
That shy flower, Alan Keyes, is righteously indignant about this development — maybe too righteous, but not too indignant. The judge — who disregarded the fact that the Mills kids have tested two grade levels above their public school peers — made happy noises about this not being about his hang-ups about Venessa Mills’ desire to base her children’s education on Christian teachings. But that’s what it was about.
It’s hard to find a better example of how modern, secular elites continually erode individual liberty — and there is hardly a more basic and intimate sphere of liberty than deciding how one’s children will be raised and educated.
Let’s take it from the top, starting with the lead of the story.
RALEIGH, N.C. — A judge in Wake County said three Raleigh children need to switch from home school to public school. Judge Ned Mangum is presiding over divorce proceeding of the children’s parents, Thomas and Venessa Mills.
The judge said the "root of the problem" is that Venessa Mills desires to give her children a religious-based education.
"We have math, reading; we have grammar, science, music,” Venessa Mills said. [snip]
"My teaching is strictly out of the Bible, and it’s very clear. It is very evident so I just choose to follow the Bible,” she said.
That just won’t do — despite the fact that the Mills children (ages 10, 11, and 12) have been tested and are two full grade levels ahead of their peers. In a verbal ruling that he will presumably later put on paper, Mangum has ordered Venessa Mills to put her children in public school — where their high academic achievement will be squandered.
"He was upfront and said that, ‘It’s not about religion.’ But yet when it came down to his ruling and reasons why, ‘He said this would be a good opportunity for the children to be tested in the beliefs that I have taught them,’" Venessa Mills said.
It should not ever be the role of the state — not in a free society, at least — to "test" the belief system of parents against their wishes by force and penalty of law.
Maybe you think educating your children on strict Biblical principles is a bad idea. Fine. But should not one have the liberty to do so? Are there millions of parents out there teaching their kids that man walked with dinosaurs (or whatever they supposedly teach)? And does this army of miseducated children (who may have evolution wrong, but nonetheless tend to excel in academics and enter the colleges of their choice) do such great public harm that it requires an extraordinarily intrusive intervention by the state on the sanctity of the family? To usurp a parent’s basic human right to raise their children as they see fit?
Egad! The presumptive arrogance of this family court judge — not to mention his abuse of power — is astounding. And a more than a little scary.
Here’s an update from the same site you link to at the top:
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4757848/
It fills in a few more details that seems to make it less sympathetic for the mother.
I think there is more to this story than a simple, “the court ordered them to public school.” I could be wrong… If that is the case I agree whole-heartedly with you.
In my reading of the story it seems that the father is opposed to the idea of his children being schooled in the manner in which they are.
The Charlotte Observer adds even more insight that supports my theory.
As one who lives in Wake County I was initially suspicious of the your take on the story because this area is Very religious… but there are a lot of sects that are a “bit out there”. Not saying the courts have a right to determine what is a “bit out there”, but the father surely does when it comes to his kids.