According to Homeschool Legal Defense Association, Michigan’s superintendent of public instruction, Michael Rice, was alarmed at what appears to be a huge jump in homeschooling families and is demanding to know the names of the students.
HSLDA has cited a letter written by Rice, and posted on the state's Dept. of Education website, which suggests the state should require a "count" of homeschooling students.
HSLDA attorney Mike Donnelly says Rice “lamented” the number of students no longer in public school, but the attorney points out Michigan is one of eleven states that does not require homeschoolers to notify the state.
"He's blaming homeschooling as the contributing factor,” Donnelly says of Superintendent Rice, “and wants to create a list so that he can find out who's homeschooling and who's not."
Donnelly
Yet the Michigan Constitution fails to give any oversight to the superintendent, Donnelly says. So, in reality, the HSLDA attorney predicts Rice won’t succeed in his demand for the names of 50,000-plus homeschooling students.
“So it's just none of his business,” the attorney insists. “He'd be better served to focus on making public education in Michigan better."
President Joe Biden promised voters he would tackle the coronavirus pandemic better than Donald Trump, whom Democrats accused of being responsible for 400,000 deaths to date, but in the course of one day the new president snapped at a reporter over vaccine distribution and his new press secretary dodged a question about his mask-skipping hypocrisy.
News stories each weekday from reporters you can trust without the liberal bias found in much of "mainstream" media.
News stories each weekday from reporters you can trust without the liberal bias found in much of "mainstream" media.
It appears more than 50,000 students in Michigan are no longer in a public school classroom, and now a prominent homeschool-defending law firm is warning a state education official to stay within the law.
Despite assurances from medical officials that it is safe to do reopen the area's schools, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is fighting efforts to do so.