Supposedly the Buffalo city council was to meet today to “address” the case of a homeschooling mother who was arrested, and her two small children taken away from her, for alleged “educational neglect”–even though she jumped through all the hoops required by law before you’re allowed to homeschool in Buffalo.
All we’ve learned today is that one of the councilmen called the situation “unacceptable” and added that the children ought to be returned to their mother right away ( http://www.wkbw.com/news/wingo-calls-homeschooling-arrest-unacceptable ).
This mess was easily avoidable. Someone at City Hall forgot to pass on the homeschooling papers to the Board of Education; and so school officials, responding to the children’s’ unexplained absence from school, called in Child Protective Services.
No one bothered to discover the facts of the case before acting on it. A few minutes on the phone with the right person at City Hall, and the whole thing would have been straightened out right then and there. But no! Grab the kids and put ’em in foster care!
This illustrates a general principle of modern life: the more power you give to government at any level, the more you’ll regret it.
Somebody needs to be fired for this, and the city ought to compensate the family for its trouble.
And in the long run, public education must be abolished. It has long outlived its usefulness.