[Thanks to Susan for the nooze tip]
(As I start writing this, our electricity suddenly begins to flutter. Please, Lord, not that.)
The coronavirus panic–I’ve been calling it a “scare,” but it looks like devolving into panic–has given Blue State governors a tantalizing taste of the kind of power they would have if only America would sink down into socialism.
In her haste to shut down the public schools for the rest of the school year, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order that seems to ban homeschooling, too (https://www.wnd.com/2020/04/governors-coronavirus-order-bans-homeschooling/?fbclid=IwAR0ZPnNmsKzHoQk_B2O36tKxi3_5chFltY9cVB83QOANCgF9qhOaTP8PVz0).
What the “order” says is “in-person instruction for pupils in kindergarten through grade 12… is suspended for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year” and that the order also applies to “all non-public schools in the state.” Michigan law defines homeschooling as “non-public schooling.”
The Great Lakes Justice Center is attributing the governor’s ban on homeschooling to “faulty drafting” of the executive order and calling on her to rewrite it. Otherwise it would, of course, be a mammoth overreach of the governor’s authority.
We’ll have to see if she rewrites it. Meanwhile, consider: Homeschooling was legal in Michigan before the coronavirus panic. What suddenly makes it illegal? And what exactly constitutes “in-person instruction” that must be banned? If I tell my great-grandson about the career and personality of Hannibal, would that land me in jail? (No, it would not be an eyewitness account!)
For the moment we’re not going with the speculation that the teachers’ union asked the governor very nicely to prohibit homeschooling. But I’m putting it on a low shelf, within easy reach should it be needed.
UPDATE: Gov. Whitmer has “clarified” her order to make it clear that her suspension of “in-person instruction” does NOT apply to homeschooling.
But it’s still a good idea to recall any Democrat governor.