Vermont state senator wants homeschoolers shunned

Democrat/Progressive state senator, Philip Baruth, wants homeschoolers shunned. Baruth, Senate Education Committee Chair, has introduced a bill (S.9) that would require FBI background checks on anyone and everyone who even remotely has contact with a Vermont homeschooler. According to the the bill (S.9) parents and guardians are exempt. However, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, the town librarian, piano teacher, horseback riding instructor, the local artist that teaches pottery, the babysitter, and employers are free game. In other words, just about everyone your homeschooler has contact with.

Apparently, Senator Baruth has no understanding how homeschooling works. He has no clue about all the little nuances or how children learn. Our homeschooled children learned from everyone in our family and community. Every conversation around the holiday dinner table was a learning experience. Every family reunion at the lake was an opportunity to learn from elders and get to know their history. Everywhere our homeschooler went they'd learn something from someone, no matter how trivial.

If those who teach homeschoolers anything, whether it be grandma giving her homeschooling granddaughter lessons on how to bake cookies, or your homeschooler apprenticing with the local blacksmith for the day, everyone who instructs a homeschooler will be required to have an FBI background check.

At some point your homeschooler will be excluded from field trips because the necessary background check for the owner of the apple orchard where the cider fest is being held will eventually get fed up with the intrusion into their life. The local pet shelter administrator won't allow homeschoolers to volunteer because of the constant disruption to their personal privacy. We're not talking about one simple background check per person. There will be an inquiry by each individual homeschooling parent every time they want their child to participate in an activity or project. That piano teacher will soon tire of homeschoolers after the tenth inquiry into their background. Even those conducting the background checks will become suspicious of so many people wanting to know if this particular piano teacher can be trusted.

This is a can of worms no one wants opened. Senator Baruth is simply the conniving vessel to disrupt the homeschooling community here in Vermont with his sponsorship of S.9. Personally, I don't think he's smart enough to write this bill on his own because it smacks of the teacher's union and their constant barrage of anti-homeschooling antics.

With homeschoolers tainted as having too much baggage, it will shut down opportunities for them to participate in their communities. They'll be asked not to enroll for instruction at every conceivable avenue. The bill S.9 exempts parents and guardians for their own children, BUT, if you're a homeschooling parent you won't be allowed to instruct your homeschooling niece without the necessary background check. What's to stop another homeschooling parent from having a background check conducted on you, if their children hang out at your house? Now, do you see how this dangerous S.9 shakes out? Isn't this the plan Baruth and his progressive cronies had all along? You bet! It's time this Baruth character heard from Vermonters to let him know he and his anti-parental rights cohorts have been exposed.

Family members of homeschoolers, employers, non-profits and the general public need to contact the knuckleheads in Montpelier to let them know just how unconstitutional S.9 is and how it will make criminals of the thousands of people who associate with homeschoolers. Ask yourself, where do all these records go once the background checks have been conducted? Who pays for them? The answer to the last question is you, the homeschooling parent, pays for all these inquiries. If your homeschooler learns from twenty different instructors, that's twenty background checks you get to pay for!

The war on Vermont homeschoolers continues but this is one battle we can win if you make your disgust with senators like Baruth known and your voice heard. S.9 is ten pages! That's 10 pages of having more of your constitutional and God-given parental rights stripped from you. Monsters like Baruth won't quit until all the power and money lies in the hands of the progressive state and you're left with no more options except handing your child over to be indoctrinated by his ilk. There is NO compromise with this bill. It needs to be torn up, not rewritten as some misinformed advocates want. Be careful whom you let fight this battle. It is up to YOU alone to fight for your rights and for your child's education!

Connect with Guerrilla Homeschooling at Facebook!