FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 15, 2012

On Wednesday, August 15th, it was reported by the Associated Press that the chairman of the Kansas State Board of Education had called for a review of homeschooling in Kansas and possible legislative intervention to ensure that homeschooled children in Kansas are receiving an education approved by state government officials.

The Libertarian Party of Kansas strongly opposes this call for government intervention, along with the entire mindset that says government employees are somehow more qualified than the parents of Kansas to raise their own children.

Libertarians stand in support of the state government’s role of protecting individuals, both children and adults, from clear cases of harm.  However, they do not believe that parents teaching a curriculum that state employees have not explicitly approved rises to the level of harm to these children.  Libertarians know that the ultimate right and responsibility of choosing appropriate education for children belongs in the hands of those children’s parents.

Kansans must unite to protect the rights of all parents to raise and educate their children as they see fit.  A single set of state mandated curricula and teaching methods cannot account for all learning styles and individual interests.  It is a simple truth that “one size fits all”, never truly fits all.  That truth is equally valid in the education of our children.

Stacey Davis, Policy Researcher for The Libertarian Party of Kansas, encourages Kansas legislators to resist political pressure to complicate the lives of the thousands of successful homeschooling Kansas families by introducing additional regulations.  Many of these families have already chosen to make difficult sacrifices to do what they believe is best for their children and additional reporting or testing requirements will only take these parents’ time away from their children.

The Libertarian Party also encourages state legislators to make expanded school choice for all Kansas families a priority in the coming session.   For the last two sessions, the Kansas House has considered legislation based upon The Kansas Education Liberty Act (KELA).  KELA is model legislation created by the Libertarian Party of Kansas and has garnered growing support of Kansas legislators.  Legislation based upon KELA fell just short of passage in the house last session.