Look, I’m not trying to pile-on with the anti-Republican rhetoric. In fact, I’d say this doesn’t even represent traditional Republicans. It’s about the right wing nuttery that has somehow managed to succor itself to the Republican Party like a swamp leech. This time the place is Utah, and the mind that has conceived the latest in right wing nuttery resides in the head of State Senator Aaron Osmond (R).
It seems that the deep thinking Osmond was pondering what to do about what he saw as the improper use of the school system for non-educational purposes like nutrition, health, counseling and that favorite of all bug-a-boos, sex education. But let him speak in his own words from his contribution to a Utah State Senate blog:
“[O]ur teachers and schools have been forced to become surrogate parents, expected to do everything from behavioral counseling, to providing adequate nutrition, to teaching sex education, as well as ensuring full college and career readiness.”
His solution to this problem? Well, of course. End compulsory education. Let parents – those same parents who are so deficient that the schools need all those non-educational services – decide whether their children should attend school or whether they should simply grow up illiterate and without any of the other services schools provide.
Osmond is apparently convinced that 92% of children would still attend school because that’s how many attend kindergarten, which is not compulsory. First that’s pretty unrealistic. What parents choose for a five year old may be entirely different than what they choose when that child becomes an unruly 10 year old. But, even if Osmond’s prognostication, unlikely as it seems, proved true, do we really want to condemn 8% of our population to illiteracy? And how exactly does that solve the problem he wants to fix which he claims is the provision of non-educational services in the school system? Will the 92% magically no longer need those services once the 8% rabble are discarded into the dung heap of illiteracy?
You can read more, including a far more patient and gentle response to Osmond’s proposal than I have provided from State School Board member Leslie Castle, here .
Contributor, aka tidbits. Retired attorney in complex litigation, death penalty defense and constitutional law. Former Nat’l Board Chair: Alzheimer’s Association. Served on multiple political campaigns, including two for U.S. Senator Mark O. Hatfield (R-OR). Contributing author to three legal books and multiple legal publications.