Sen. Kruse has introduced SB 100 purporting to protect the “liberty” of parents in the upbringing, education, and care of their child.
This piece of legislation is long on rhetoric and light on substance. It declares that “the liberty of a parent to direct the upbringing, education, and care of the parent’s child is a fundamental right.” I gather that right is in a penumbra somewhere.
It then declares that “A governmental entity may not infringe on the right [to direct the upbringing, education, and are of the parent’s child] without demonstrating that the governmental entity’s governmental interest as applied to the person is of the highest order and not otherwise served.”
Legislators draft an ambiguous piece of mush like this and then complain when “activist” judges don’t interpret the legislation in the manner the legislators would have liked. One reason for the ambiguity is that, once you get into details and concrete examples, the prospect of passage goes off the rails almost immediately.
I’ll just go ahead and assume this is about sex. Because somehow it almost always is. Or, I guess it could be about, for example, curfews. By imposing a curfew on minors, the government is interfering with my desire to raise nocturnal children. Or, maybe it’s about child labor laws. I figure putting my kid in a factory for 70 hours a week would instill a good work ethic; not to mention provide me a little extra beer money. But, if I had to bet on what’s motivating this legislation; I’d go with sex of some kind.
Not just sex. God. And climate change. Evolution. Dietary recommendations. Bullying. School prayer. Safe childcare ministries. Abortion. Oh, wait. Strike that. Parental liberty interests don’t apply until the post-fetus phase.
I think it’s probably about home schooling or making sure that parents have their way, despite state and Federal laws that say they have limited standing on an issue. Schools are very conscious of their obligations to children and the various laws that emphasize a child’s right to a free and appropriate public education, that a child simply attends school, or is vaccinated. From time to time, parents will threaten to sue a school district if it shares information about a child with another district to which parents have moved or even within the district, follows through with a special education placement, insists that a child attends school on a regular basis or excludes a child who has not been vaccinated. The ones supporting such legislation probably think that would be their trump card when the schools follow the law to assure that the child is being educated. The great kept secret is the stunning amount of money that school districts spend defending against trivial and unsubstantiated legal claims from people who feel entitled to have their own way, yet are ignorant of the laws that created schools and protect children. The wealthier districts tend to be sued the most, and those are the parents who are more likely to drive this legislation.
This is only about education and who has control of the money. Many members of this General Assembly want to take the control of education which means the money away from local school boards and make it a “parental issue.” The majority of the GOP will not rest until they destroy public education, the ISTA (and IFT) and sell off the teacher’s retirement fund to the one who contributes the most money to their campaign funds. Mr. Kruse and Mr. Behning are the leaders of this movement and they require that all the rest go along.
Hilarious post!!! “the government is interfering with my desire to raise nocturnal children” Yes Doug has a tremendous sense of humor! Not sure what is funnier the commentary or the SB100!!!
No shock here–Senator Kruse is the one who introduced the “Lord’s Prayer in Public Schools” bill last session.
Either Kruse’s head is in China, and he knows nothing about legal happenings in the last 30 years, or he’s trying to make some constituent happy, knowing that the bill will be unceremoniously buried.
Dennis Kruse has established firmly that his skill as a legislator is inversely proportional to his skill as an auctioneer.
Half of being smart is knowing what you’re dumb at.
From this blog, I know that there is a team of attorneys that looks at the laws and gives opinions to help legislators make decisions. Apparently, Kruse thinks he knows so much more about these issues that he should prevail. Last year, I was especially thankful for the leadership that consigned some of this stuff to a committee that served as purgatory.
See also, “The Dunning-Kruger effect.”