State to Force Homeschoolers to Submit to Warrantless Home Inspections, Trampling Rights

Maryland — Under the guise of preventing child abuse, lawmakers in Maryland have introduced a bill that will allow the state to intrude in the lives of innocent families, keeping tabs on them, and destroying their right to privacy.

The bill, HB 1798 - County Boards of Education - Home Instruction Program - Observation of Instruction and Reporting of Abuse and Neglect, lays out some fairly ominous requirements that will persecute otherwise entirely innocent families for doing nothing other than teaching their children at home.

According to the bill's text, it will establish grounds for parents to essentially register with the state and be subject to some of the same constraints as the public education system. But that is only the beginning. This bill also lays out the framework for involuntary home inspections in which state agents will enter a family's home multiple times a year—likely unannounced—and observe and inspect the homeschooling process.

This bill would require parents to annually inform their county school boards of their homeschool child's primary instructor and of the primary location where homeschooling is taking place each year. Furthermore, in order to legally homeschool in the state of Maryland, parents would be required to allow a representative of the county board to observe instruction at the family's primary homeschooling location at least twice a year. Finally, this bill would require county school board employees who observe a family's instruction and who believe a homeschool child has been subjected to abuse or neglect to report their suspicion to the proper authorities.

This bill, like the similar one proposed in California last month, was a reaction to the horrific scene that unfolded in mainstream media in the case of David and Louise Turpin. The couple is facing 12 counts of torture after police learned that their 13 children were severely malnourished, forced to stay chained to their beds, and living in horrific conditions, among other forms of torture that have been ongoing for several years.

Because they were registered homeschoolers, the state is now blaming all homeschoolers.

Instead of realizing the problem of child abuse has nothing at all to do with homeschooling, lawmakers across the country are using this moment to demonize parents who wish to teach their children outside of the state.

When asked why he proposed the bill, HB 1798's cosponsor, Delegate Frant Turner said it was in response to "recent news about homeschoolers," indicating that he is also exploiting this tragedy to push for more government control.

As TFTP reported last month, lawmakers in the state of California are now pushing for families who homeschool their children to be subject to involuntary home visits from state employees—treating those parents with the same oversight and involvement that they would give parents who have abused their children—just like Maryland wants to do.

The new regulations could consist of forced meetings with child protective services and other government agencies, which would leave the burden on the parents to prove to the government that they are fit to be parents who homeschool their children, according to the state’s guidelines.

The audacity of the state to require that your children be inspected by them to prove that you are not guilty of child abuse is stunning and speaks to the nature of the cradle to grave mentality of the almighty controllers.

As the Washington Examiner reported, if this increase in government oversight becomes law, it would “reduce the valid legal option of homeschooling from a fundamental parental right, to direct the education and school choice for children, to compelled consent to government intrusion upon the sanctity and privacy of the home and school choice.”

Currently, only about 3.4% of children ages 5 – 17 are homeschooled in the United States. Also, studies have shown that homeschooled children typically outperform their peers from both private and public schools.

Homeschooling allows for a child to maximize their potential to become creative, adaptive, free thinkers. This, in turn, creates people who are not conditioned to think within the limited confines of an archaic and crumbling system, but who are capable of adapting and applying new thoughts, ideas, and solutions to any situation encountered.

The flexibility of being able to cater education to a particular learning style, as well as a child's particular interests, enables valuable insight.

This insight and creativity, however, is a danger to the status quo. If the state is unable to indoctrinate the entire population into believing in a certain system, people begin questioning that system. When people question the system—instead of simply blaming it on the other party—the state loses its control. When the state loses its control, they lose their power, their ability to extract wealth from masses, and their support for spreading empire.

Freethinkers are a danger to the empire. And whether or not the lawmakers in California and Maryland will admit it, violating the rights of homeschoolers is not in the interest of public safety. It is in the interest of self-preservation.