Texas State Agencies' Attempt to Keep Homeschoolers in the Crosshairs Could Be Foiled

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few."-Wendell Philips

Adjust your tinfoil hats, readers!  Or, don't, it's up to you.  I am a recovering tin foil hatter and a former home school mom, so you can imagine that my tin foil hat was stuck with glue for a while.  However, it may not have been affixed completely in vain.  Why's that, you ask?  Listen up to some tactics used by a state agency to keep home schoolers and parents rights advocates in the crosshairs of  the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

See, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services wanted to, in my opinion, make life harder for those that opposed their agenda.  According to Parental Rights.org, which is ironically one of the parents rights advocate groups, the department wanted to, "...make it harder for Texas parents to seek the support of "advocacy organizations, such as parent rights advocated and homeschool coalitions" when they are being investigated for alleged child abuse or neglect.  (Yes, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services actually singled out parent-rights advocates and homeschoolers!)"  Parental Rights sent the state agency a letter and you can read it here.

As a former home school mom who actually HAD Child Protective Services called on her for, get this, letting my children play outside unsupervised, I am appalled, but I should not be shocked by this revelation.  The woman representing CPS banged on the door so hard that my kids ran and hid in the laundry room.  They were terrified of going outside and were also saddened at the revelation that the cops that were sitting out there on our street that day were not there with my kids' safety or best interest in mind.

Needless to say, after my own personal experience, this kind of stuff gets my hackles up.  Infringing on personal liberties, especially the right to parent your child the way that the parent sees fit is wrong on so many levels.  I do understand that some parents out there give other parents a bad name, but the public school mentality of broad range punishment of the many because of the few has to stop.  If you've been reading my stuff for any length of time, you know I love an action item.  So, what can you do?  

Well, you can watch legislation like a hawk.  Honestly, though, what working, full-time parent has time to do that?  You can subscribe to email alerts from agencies or groups that have adopted an interest in the things that you're concerned about.  You can also call your legislators, state and federal.  Those are the things that make the most difference.