Dear Fellow Oklahoma Constitutional Home Educators,
Our senators and representatives need to keep hearing from us regarding our opposition to homeschool handout bills.
I listened to a two hour OK Senate Education Committee hearing this week on SB 1647, Oklahoma “Empowerment” Act (handout euphemism). The bill passed committee. During discussion, I heard that this handout bill was a response to parental loss of control in the public school system.
Their proposed answer to the loss of parental control in the public school system is to throw government funds at the remaining remnants of privately funded education in Oklahoma!
He who pays the piper, calls the tune. This is a fundamental and enduring tenet of life. We learned early on that to have full and sole control over our personal affairs [e.g. vehicle, phone, higher education, house], we needed to be the sole person paying for them.
Once government provides ANY percentage of financial outlay, it can, and usually does, exercise control of the item or service provided. When it does, by de facto, it becomes the ultimate authority, with power to dictate what we shall and shall not do, employ checks to ensure we comply, and wield tools to enforce compliance. There is no such thing as shared individual - government control. Hence why parents have lost control in the public school system.
Parental control in education starts with singular reliance on our own financial means for education provision.
Oklahoma “Empowerment” Act is being bulldogged by an Oklahoma Senate Republican Leader, championed by our Republican Governor, and supported by Republican majority Senate Education Committee. Their proposed answer to the loss of parental control in the public school system, which occurred in the first place because government funds it, is to throw government funds at the remaining remnants of privately funded education in Oklahoma! When will we learn? This, of course, will NOT result in more parental control. It will result in less. Parental control in education starts with singular reliance on our own financial means for education provision. Control over any of our personal affairs starts with singular reliance on our own financial means for provision of them. We lose control of our personal affairs when we “let” others share in the provision.
Limited government, individual responsibility and the fruit of both, namely individual liberty, can prevail in Oklahoma!
We are not asking for handouts; they are being foisted upon us. Very active engagement is needed to refuse handout delivery. Once the fridge is left at our front door, whether we signed for it or not, and regardless of whether we ever use it, we will have been ensnared. Government will be able to say “Lookest at what we have done for thou”.
Limited government, individual responsibility and the fruit of both, namely individual liberty, can prevail in Oklahoma! The principles of Freedom win in the public dialogue and at the ballet box when people who understand and appreciate this then communicate and get involved! Liberty is worth the effort! Ultimate and sole authority of the direction of our children’s education is at stake! Engage to re-direct the fridge back to the government delivery van before it’s too late!
-Nathan Teague, Constitutional Home Educator in Edmond, OK
