on education, as taught by Sam Blumenfeld. You all are familiar with Sam Blumenfeld, I'm sure. He's from Boston, Massachusetts. He's the author of several books, How to Tutor, NEA, The Trojan Horse. He's an educator, a lecturer. He has six other books besides those. He's been on numerous radio, television talk shows. He's a teacher. He has been a teacher in both public and private schools, including a private school for children. My name is Robert Newhouse, and I'm the director of Teaching Effective Academics and Character at Home. It's a homeschool orbiting program. And as an introduction to this workshop, it says in Proverbs, there is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Last night, Sam Blumenthal told us that any education that leaves God out will end up ultimately being an education in death. And then went on to say how quite literally that is being explained, how children are literally taking courses on death. And why would that be? It's because there is a way that seems right unto a man. And that's the end result of that. So I personally appreciate very much Sam Blumenfeld for being here, and I'm excited to hear what he has to say about the NEA becoming politicized, and what effect that has had on education. Sam? Thank you, Bob, very much. Incidentally, I'd like to tell you that I will be back in this area on October 23rd, Thursday, October 23rd, at the Falcon Heights Community Center on 2077 West L'Arc-en-Terre Avenue here in, I suppose it's Minneapolis. So in case you want to hear more about why Johnny can't read and other sordid topics, you might attend that. The NEA. Well, what is the NEA? Of course, it's the nation's largest union, believe it or not. The NEA now has 1.8 million members, so it is the largest labor union in the United States. The NEA was formed in 1857 by public school officials who wanted a national education association, who wanted to nationalize American public education. The public schoolers at that time very much admired the Prussian system. They very much admired the centralized European educational systems that existed at that time in France, in Prussia, in Holland. And they wanted the same thing in this country. They wanted a minister of education. They wanted a ministry of education, centralized control. But because our educational system was divided into different states or because our system was actually a conglomeration of state systems, they felt that they could accomplish the same thing by forming a national association, a national organization that would bring educators together so that the state systems would become alike, the different state systems would become alike, and that educators would be able to crisscross the country and become a superintendent in Minnesota, or Massachusetts, or Connecticut, or California, and it would all be the same. And in that very first organizational meeting in 1857, they called for the creation of a Department of Education with a Secretary of Education with a cabinet status. They wanted that department way back in 1857. Of course, they had to wait until Julie Carter came along before they got the department. But it just shows you how far back they wanted that kind of national centralized control. And that's always been their goal, is to have a very strong centrally controlled national education system. Well, for many years, the NEA was little more than a debating society or a discussion club for the educational elite. They had their conventions every year. And toward the end of the 19th century, though, that they began to take on the aspects of a ministry of education. They began to create education policy for the country. Because we did not have a government entity that would create national education policy, the NEA became that body that set policy. How did they do that? Well, they did that by setting up commissions. They would set up these various commissions that would then issue reports, and these reports became translated into policy. Now, around World War I, The NEA decided to establish its headquarters in Washington, DC. And it was at that time that it was taken over by the progressives. Now, it was very easy to take over. It was basically a small organization run by a very small hierarchy. Half a dozen people ran the NEA. They were basically in sympathy with progressive ideas, And so it didn't take much for the progressives to take over that organization. Now, why did the progressives want to take over that organization? Well, as I explained earlier today, the progressives wanted to change America into a socialist society, and they wanted to use the education system as a means to do it. Now, they had to implement their program in the schools of America. And in order to implement that program, they had to have the cooperation of the teachers. And they decided that the best way to get the cooperation of the teachers was to take control of the NEA and to transform it from an elite organization into a large membership organization for teachers. And that's what they did during that period when they established their headquarters in Washington, D.C. The NEA then became a membership organization for teachers. called it a professional organization. And of course then they published their journal, their NEA journal, and incidentally there were many different departments in the NEA, and the NEA included the superintendents, administrators, all kinds of people on different levels of the education system. They were all under that one umbrella of the NEA. And their publication, the NEA journal, became must-reading for every teacher in America. Now, by controlling the NEA then, the progressives were able very easily to influence the teachers through the NEA's publications and through the NEA journal. For example, when it came time to make the switchover from phonics to Luxe in the public schools, the NEA journal was one of the chief instruments used to advise the teachers that this was going on and to tell them what a wonderful thing this was. And you had a series of articles about this new teaching method so that the teachers would become acquainted with it and would become acquainted with the professors who were promoting these new teaching techniques. And of course, the NEA promoted the professors themselves and elevated them to very high positions of prestige so that the lowly first grade teacher had to say to herself, well, who am I to dispute what these great professors say? So the NEA really became an instrument for the progressives. And it has been used ever since then. So the idea that the NEA was a conservative organization which only in the last 20 years became radical, is erroneous. It has always been, it has been at least since World War I, an organization controlled by the progressive radicals. And of course that explains a lot about the NEA itself. They have been socialistically oriented now since that time. And I've read through every issue of the NEA Journal since the very first to the very latest, and I can tell you that I have not found in all of those issues not a single kind word for capitalism. And you have to go through all of that to really get the feel of this organization. And during the 30s, the superintendents of the schools were inundated by socialist propaganda. They really believed that socialism was the wave of the future. Now, it was in the 1960s, incidentally before that though, in the 30s, there were leftist professors who were telling the teachers of America that you must go for political power. That political power was the only way that we were going to change this nation in the socialist direction. That the teachers had themselves to become politicized. But somehow the NEA resisted that because the teachers in general were not terribly political. They had their lobby in Washington that was supposed to do all the political work. They had their state lobbies who were doing political work. So the teachers themselves didn't feel it necessary to become involved politically. But then in the 1960s, the NEA decided to become a labor union. Why? Well, because they were challenged by the American Federation of Teachers, which had always been a labor union. The American Federation had been founded, I believe, in about 1912 as a labor union. But they had never really gotten very far. There were a couple of big cities in which they were dominant, but throughout the country as a whole, the NEA was the dominant teachers' organization. But when the AFT decided to launch its campaign to organize public employees, they decided that they would go for the teachers first. Because they said that if they couldn't convince the teachers to organize into labor unions, then the teachers would be able to convince other government employees to be unionized. You see, as the private sector workers were falling in numbers, as the union was losing blue-collar workers, The unions began to see the public employee as their largest future source or potential source of membership. So they aimed after the public employee and they began with the teachers. Well, when the NEA saw this, of course, they realized that they were threatened and so they then became a union themselves. And after they became a union, they embarked on a they adopted this political, they became very politicized. Now, at that time, I also believe that they were taken over by highly radical activists, and they transformed the NEA from a quasi-professional organization into just another highly politicized labor union, with their own very pro-socialist agenda, social agenda. And to give you an idea of how they projected their desire for power, let me read to you what the NEA... Well, first of all, it was in 1932 that Professor George Counts, the communist professor at Columbia University's Teachers College, said, He wrote that the teachers should deliberately reach for power and then make the most of their conquest, is my firm conviction. Of course, the teachers were not ready in 1932 to reach for power. They had to wait a while. But then, when the organization became a union, they embarked on this political course. And when Sam Lambert, became their president or their executive secretary in 1967, he said, NEA will become a stronger and more influential advocate of social changes long overdue. NEA will become a political power second to no other special interest group. And finally, NEA will organize this profession from top to bottom into logical operating units that can move easily and effectively and with power unmatched by any other organized group. This was in 1967, and it has done exactly that. Now what you have in the United States are teachers who not only have become politically active, but are also running for office. And you will find more and more NEA members now running for state legislatures, for school board positions, taking part in state, local, national elections. The NEA now has the largest single group of representatives at the Democratic National Convention. They're beginning to get involved in Republican politics. because they've become very alarmed at the growth of the conservative movement, and now they've decided that they are going to get involved in the Republican primaries. They feel that they can knock off conservatives in the primaries. Rather than wait until the conservatives are on the ballots, they say, let us put in an NEA candidate in the primary. And during this last primary season, they managed to knock off quite a few conservatives by using this new strategy of working within the Republican Party, even though most of their work is done within the Democratic Party. Their goal is to take political power for the far left. They represent, basically, the phalanx, the strongest, best organized army political army for the far left in this country. First of all, if you've read their resolutions, you will realize that they have adopted the entire far left social agenda that is on defense, on abortion, on federal spending, any subject you want to name. They have espoused the agenda of the far left, and they have become the strongest political force pull the far left because, let's face it, the socialists can't win elections in this country, the communists can't win elections in this country, but people within the Democratic Party standing for these positions can win elections. And that's why they've chosen the Democratic Party to be their main vehicle. And the NEA within the Democratic Party represents an enormously strong force within that party, able to exert tremendous influence. And how do they do it? Well, they do it in the state legislature, certainly. You have 50 state legislatures in this country, and in every state capital, you have an NEA affiliate that breeds down the necks of those state legislators. I'm sure that In your state capitol, you have the very same thing here as I have found in other state capitals. Usually the NEA headquarters or the state affiliate will be located right across the street from the state capitol building so that there's very easy access to the state legislators. The NEA affiliates write more laws today than any other single group. probably in the United States. Every state legislature gets its NEA agenda, legislative agenda, every year. They have their paid lobbyists who do nothing but write laws. In every state in the union, So you've got those 50 state organizations working on the state level. Now, the communists, of course, are overjoyed by this, because the NEA is doing the communists' work. For example, this last July, after the NEA held its convention in Louisville, this is what the communist newspaper, People's Daily World, wrote about it. They said, This year, NEA political action focuses on a campaign to defeat the Reaganites in the November congressional election. The NEA is a 1.8 million member union representing public school teachers, professors, and school support personnel, the largest union in the country. The 8,500 delegates committed to the NEA to work in coalition with other unions, and organizations which advocate a redirecting of national priorities in order to build a movement for funding education. Marjorie Spire, a delegate from Maryland, pointed out, redirecting national priorities means spending money on books, not bombs. For example, for the cost of one B-1 bomber, 16,000 new teachers could be hired next year at a starting wage of $25,000 a year. The convention also empowers the NEA Board of Directors to endorse presidential candidates during the primaries, ensuring their input in the selection process. Of course, they did that last year with Mondale. They chose Mondale before the primaries chose him. The reason why they chose Mondale was because Mondale was instrumental in getting the Department of Education set up. President Carter was very lukewarm to the idea. It was Mondale who pushed through the Department of Education bill. And so they owed a great debt to Fritz Mondale, and that's why they backed him at the very beginning of the campaign. The article goes on, according to the NEA Handbook on Political Action, Advancing NEA's Legislative Agenda for the 100th Congress, the Union averages 4,000 members in each of the 435 congressional districts. You see that? They have 4,000 members in each of the 435 congressional districts. Organized in congressional contact, teams, CCTs they call them. NEA members lobby their representatives in Washington and at home. The CCTs, that is your congressional contact teams, have at least two members in each congressional district appointed by state NEA presidents with concurrence of state association boards of directors who are trained, coordinated, and briefed at the state, regional, and national levels. They provide a well-informed and dedicated cadre of grassroots lobbyists who complement the efforts of full-time Washington-based and regional staff. CCT members also play a key role in serving as contact persons for incumbents running for re-election by helping to recruit and organize campaign volunteers, the manual states. The National NEA Legislative Committee issues action alerts, such as the one prepared for their convention by Citizens Against Nuclear War, a coalition of 60 organizations. It listed the dates of the Congressional recess and urged delegates to lobby Congress at home to pass legislation freezing Star Wars spending at the existing level of $2.8 billion. to continue observing the SALT II Treaty for a moratorium on testing ASATs and support for the Schroeder Amendment to cut off all funds for nuclear weapons tests. Incidentally, the communists at the NAA disagree on the point of, the communists want us to just get rid of the Star Wars. program altogether, but the NEA wants to freeze Star Wars spending at the existing level of 2.8 billion, which means that it's only good for research and development, but not for testing, not for building any prototypes. And I thought to myself, now why is the NEA deviating from the Communist Party on this point? And I thought, well, the Soviets want the research and development. They want to steal the secrets. So they say, let the Americans pay for the research and development. That's okay, let them pay for research and development, but we won't let them build it. Although no politicians addressed this convention, NEA raised over $200,000 for the 86th election. Many states, including Iowa, New Jersey, and Texas, had their own political action committee fundraising booths. Each state has a booth at the convention, and they sell their wares. The successful convention, the NEA's commitment to work in coalitions and its highly organized grassroots electoral apparatus, is a winning approach to help defeat the Reaganite candidates in the fall." Well, you can see why the communists are delighted with the NEA. I mean, it represents really an incredibly organized political machine. For example, they have 1,200 fully paid professional organizers all over the country who do nothing but organize the teachers into political and union activities. These are called uniserve directors. And to give you an idea of what uniserve directors do, here's a story of one uniserve director who was caught red-handed. Here's the story. Richard Kornstubble, Forty-two, UNISERV director for the Indiana State Teachers Association in the Lafayette area, was arrested on March 2, 1985 by an off-duty police officer who spotted him at the home of a Michigan City school board member. According to the Lafayette Journal, the officer said he saw Cornstubble holding a bag filled with paint and varnish removal over board member Don Stewart's car on Stewart's property. Police found in the cars Cornstubble was driving a sledgehammer, a can of red enamel spray paint, a large piece of concrete, and a map with the neighborhood residences of three school board members circled. Police also found an open can of pink stripper on Cornstubble when he was arrested. Cornstubble was released from the LaPorte County Jail March 4th on a $3,500 bond He was suspended with pay by the association March 4th and was reinstated March 29th. So that gives you an idea of what UNISERV directors do. And I was curious to know if the expenses for the sledgehammer, concrete, spray paint, and paint remover were covered by the budget of the Indiana State Teachers Association. But that's the caliper of the individual that they have working in this army. Incidentally, Mr. Eugene Metzen in his Reader's Digest article of May 1984 called the UNISERV the largest grassroots political army ever deployed in the United States. Now if you wonder why during this conservative era so many liberals have been winning elections, It's the NEA that's responsible. Remember, the NEA is organized in every school district, every congressional district. They are active in state legislative elections. And they work tirelessly to control the state legislatures of this country. In fact, there are now more teachers in the Michigan state legislature than lawyers. More teachers than lawyers in Oregon, in the state of Washington. I don't know what the situation is here in Minnesota. But I would assume that you have a good number of NEA people running for office in this state. Now their target, their main target, and incidentally, do they have money? 1.8 million members contribute an average of $300 in dues. That gives the NEA and its affiliates a cash flow every year of a half billion dollars. That's a lot of money to play with. And they are in politics up to their eyeballs. That's their chief preoccupation now. It's politics. Elective politics. And legislative politics. Now, who are the main targets? Well, the target, of course, is... I am a target. You are a target. We are the targets of the NEA these days. As a matter of fact, they are telling their members all about us. They even put out a manual called Participants Manual, Combating the New Right, a training program developed by western state regional staff of the National Education Association. They are now telling their members how to fight the new right. And in this manual, they list the various organizations that they consider to be their enemy, such organizations as the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Young Americans for Freedom, Moral Majority, Christian Voice, Religious Roundtable, James Robeson Evangelistic Association, Christian Voters Victory Fund, Californians for Biblical Morality, National Rights to Work Committee, National Taxpayers Union, the Heritage Foundation, the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise. You know how they describe that organization? They say, promotes Americanism and free enterprise. See, that's terrible if you oppose government regulation. And the list goes on and on. The Coalition for Peace Through Strength are against that organization. They're against the parents of Minnesota. You made it on their list. And they describe it as, Mrs. Janet Egan opposes secular humanism, values education, Anti-Christian, anti-family instruction in public schools. Wow, so she's on their list. That's terrible. They're opposed to citizens for decency through law. They're opposed to the Institutes for Creation Research. And you look through this, they're opposed to everything that we stand for. And they're indoctrinated with teachers and PALs to fight us. They're telling the teachers that we are the ogres, that we are the book burners, that we are the horrible people that want to destroy public education. Of course, they're doing a good job of destroying it themselves. They don't need us to do it. But that's what we're up against, a very strong political organization that's out to destroy us. Why? Because we stand in their way. We're the only ones who Woken up, we're the only ones telling Americans, look, what's happening. Now they're also very much down on homeschoolers. As a matter of fact, the NEA in 1984 put out, in October 1984, put out its guidelines on homeschooling. They want their members to study existing homeschool laws and present policy and action recommendations to the 1984 representative assembly. And they write, the National Education Association believes all children have a right to an adequate education to develop their potential for becoming productive and contributing citizens. Education is a joint responsibility of the schools and the family. The role of the public school is to establish worthy curricula determined through educational research and public dialogue, provide instruction through quality, certificated professionals, regularly evaluate student academic achievement, et cetera. And then they say about 10,000 to 20,000 of our school-aged children are currently being taught at home. Hear that? Of our school-age children. The variance of ambiguity in state statutes on compulsory attendance in home education permits de facto segregation and home study instruction of questionable quality. So if you're keeping your child at home, you're segregating your child. He's going to a segregated school. To assure that all children have an adequate education, guidelines for home education programs must exist in those states where home study is permitted. They assume that in some states it's not permitted, so it's a moot question. But where it is permitted, they have these guidelines. And here are the guidelines. A, teachers of home instruction programs should meet either the state certification requirements or special requirements approved by the state. b. Authorized state or local permission should be required annually for home study where the decision is based on an individual education program or on recommendation of professional personnel, where standards for student achievement are accepted and where there is compliance with curriculum and health requirements. c. Home study should be monitored by local school administrative personnel knowledgeable about excellence in the teaching-learning environment. Well, they're going to have a hard time finding anyone knowledgeable about excellence in the local schools. D, students should receive regular and thorough instruction in a program of study comparable to that taught to students of the same age in the public school. In other words, at home you're going to have to teach values clarification and all of that nonsense. e-home study programs should comply with compulsory attendance laws on length of school day and school year and age requirements. Now you know that you can teach a child, you can tutor a child in one hour what it takes for the school to do in five hours. So that makes no sense. But this is typical harassment, you see. F. Students should participate in state or locally mandated testing programs in suitable settings and in other assessments conducted by the school district. G. Compulsory recordkeeping should include a register of work, time at instructional activities, daily attendance, and progress. H. Students should have the option of attending public school for part-time instruction. They should be counted in the average daily membership, ADM, without proration. You see, they want to get the money of these kids, so they want them on the rolls. Even though they're there for part-time, they will get the money for them. That's all they want your youngster for. That's all they're interested in, is money. F, when home study is a matter of parent-parental preference, all expenses should be borne by the parents. The NEA encourages its state affiliates to remain alert to home study issues and monitor political action and home study practice in the state. I wonder if there are any monitors here today. B, develop and or update state association policy on home study in accordance with these NEA guidelines. C, work for the enactment, updating, or clarification of state home study laws to emphasize the protection of students' rights and excellence in the quality of education programs. d. Work towards state statutes that include carefully delineated definitions of and distinctions among home study, private school, and homebound students. e. Gather information on home study and disseminate it to members, locals, and the NEA, etc. Well, there are some more, but I simply want to point out to you that the NEA has an agenda for us. They don't like what we're doing because we are escaping from their control. They don't want your children to escape from their social agenda, from their control, you see. So they're going to try to get every state legislature in this country to first restrict homeschooling and then eventually ban it, outlaw it. Well, that's why it's so essential for homeschoolers to organize in every state. to create homeschooling organizations that can begin to go to the state legislature and impress on these state legislators that there are more parents than teachers in this state, and that the parents have power also. See, that's the one thing that the legislators understand. They know how to count noses. And when they begin to find out that there are more parents than teachers, they're going to begin to listen to you. So you've got to begin getting to your state legislators. Now, I and several colleagues are in the process of creating a national organization to help free up education in this country and to help restore parents' rights. We're calling it Parents for Unalienable Rights in Education. And we're calling it that because it makes a wonderful acronym PURE, P-U-R-E, Parents for Unalienable Rights in Education. And we are in the process of creating this organization, first a national PURE committee, and then we're going to set up 50 state PURE committees. We want a PURE committee in every state of the union that is going to work for the repeal of compulsory school attendance laws, work for the assertion to assert the parents' unalienable right to educate their children without interference from the state or the NEA or the educators or the bureaucrats. Now, this is a long-range program because we don't expect to do this overnight, but we have to begin doing it somehow. I've traveled all over this country and I've spoken to many homeschooling organizations and parents' groups, and we all recognize that we have the same problem. In each state legislature, we have the NEA affiliate to contend with, we have the education lobby, and we've got tremendous ignorance among state legislators. Most of them, you know, never heard of unalienable rights. You know, this is a rather novel idea to them. You know, so we've got an education job to do. And it's up to the homeschoolers in every state to do this. And I'm happy to report that homeschoolers all over this country in different states are organizing and are making significant process. In some states, however, the NEA has been successful in creating real problems for homeschoolers. They did so for the church schools in Nebraska, as you know, Reverend Sullivan School. Faith Baptist School was shut down, was closed because he would not hire certified teachers. And he would not register with the state. He contended that, you know, we have religious freedom in this country. There's a separation of church and state. They talk a great deal about it, but they don't seem to practice it when it works in the opposite direction. They don't want any Christians to have any input in the public schools or in the public institutions, but they want the government to have lots of influence on the Christian schools. tell them how to run their affairs. So as you know, Reverend Sullivan went to jail, and the matter was finally resolved by having the Nebraska State Legislature pass a new law, which permitted unapproved schools to exist. They call them unapproved schools. And they said, you can run an unapproved school, you don't have to report, you don't have to register. However, the parents must report. Parents who put their children in an unapproved school must report. So they still have that sort of Damocles hanging over the parents in Nebraska. So the situation is not entirely resolved, but it's better than it was when Reverend Sullivan was put in jail. And it was the Nebraska State Education Association that was responsible for that heavy-handed government action in that state. And it's responsible for the same kind of actions had homeschooling parents in Iowa locked up, and homeschooling parents in Alabama locked up. So we have a fight on our hands, but one of the wonderful things about the homeschooling movement is that the parents are learning more than the children, you see. The parents are also becoming politically aware, politically awake because they are coming to realize that their parental rights They can no longer take for granted their parental rights. They now have to fight to get that right they once had. Because remember, before the first compulsory school attendance law was passed in this country, parents had the right to educate their children at home without interference from the state. And if that is an unalienable right, how can that right be taken away from you? What is an unalienable right? Declaration of Independence tells you that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. If you're endowed by your Creator with these rights, they can be taken from you, but they're still your right. The state can take it from you, but they're doing it illegitimately. The state is violating the Constitution, our form of government, by doing that. So parents have got to now inform the legislators of this country that they intend to assert their unalienable parental rights. You see, rights, unalienable rights, like anything else, if you don't use them, they atrophy. If you don't use your legs, if you don't use your muscles, they atrophy. If you don't use your rights, they also atrophy, and for years, Parents have been putting their kids in public schools and saying, let the government take care of my children's education. But now when they've discovered that the government schools are destroying their children, and now they have to reassert their rights, they're finding out that suddenly they don't have them anymore, or they're told that they don't have them. So this is what we've got to do. And what we are fighting are organizations like the NEA, who have enormous power, because remember, They started working at this in 1857. They have 1.8 million members. They've got a half billion dollars a year. They've got lobbies in every state capital. They control school boards, state legislatures, members of Congress. So we've got quite a fight on our hands. But I have confidence, I have, there's no doubt in my mind that we will overcome that particular, these obstacles. Because as I say, there are more parents than teachers. I think by now there must be more than 1.8 million homeschooling parents in this country. Nobody knows the exact figure. There are a lot of parents who are keeping a low profile, as you know. Here in Minnesota, you've been fortunate that you've had your compulsory school attendance law ruled unconstitutional. So for all practical purposes, you have complete laissez-faire in Minnesota. And you can, you know, come out of the closet, so to speak. And maybe that accounts for the good attendance at this meeting. But in other parts of the country, parents are very reluctant to come forward. They're doing it on their own, but they're not showing themselves. They're not registering. They're not putting their names in. But this is the problem we have, and we've got to organize nationally if we're going to get the educational freedom we want in this country and to reassert parental rights. Well, I will stop there and answer questions, if you have any, on the NEA and on our continuing battle for educational freedom. Yes, the gentleman in the rear. Minnesota has a task force right now studying the homeschool issue. And it seems to me that they're willing to compromise and go along and say that they will do the testing at the NEA to get the parents to decide their homeschooling and keep records of attendance and attending that. Isn't that something we should try to avoid doing so often, what they would like what you were reading as, and try to put that in a bill? Well, the thing is this. The question is that you have this task force that is working on a new bill, I suppose, a new law, that is going to require testing and all kinds of things of homeschoolers. Well, since you have complete freedom now, why don't you try to keep things as they are, if at all possible? Just tell the legislators, we like the way things are right now. We're doing a great job. Nobody's bothering us. We're not a burden on the taxpayer. As a matter of fact, we're making it easier on the public schools because they're getting as much money even without us. So they have more money to spend on each pupil in the public schools. And also simply tell them that what is to be gained by the government interfering with the homeschoolers. First of all, homeschoolers are organized on their own. They're very quality conscious. The public schools are not required to prove success, are they? I mean, as a matter of fact, the worse they do, the more money they get. Well, that's true, you know. If you want to get federal money, Chapter 1 money, you've got to have a lot of failure. You've got to have a lot of reading problems. You've got to have children who need special ed. That's why special ed is now the growth industry of education in this country. There are more special ed kids these days. more learning disabled youngsters in America than ever before. Why? Because there's money in it. It's now big business for the educators to have learning disabled youngsters. So I think your job is to impress the legislators, and you have at least a year in which to do it, that you as Christians are quite capable of running your own affairs without interference from the state. Since when do Christians have to be regulated by atheists? Since when do atheists know how Christians should run their own homeschools? What can we learn from the atheists? They have nothing to teach us. If they want proof that homeschoolers are doing their job, Most homeschoolers are going to apply to college anyway and are going to take tests. People don't keep their children in a homeschool in order not to teach them to read. So I think you have to educate your legislators on this point. Yes, sir? Do you think it will take Supreme Court decisions to really free them in the future or reach out and be avoided by the courts? Do I think it'll take a Supreme Court decision to free it up? It's very hard to tell at this point, you see, because it was your, I imagine, your state Supreme Court that ruled compulsory school attendance unconstitutional. Now, I don't know what the, now the federal court, the Supreme Court, until now has generally tended to avoid having to come to grips with such questions. For example, They turned down the Sullivan case. They would not rule on the Sullivan case. And I don't know when they will rule on these cases. Perhaps with the new chief justice, they might get interested in these cases. We'll have to see. Yes, sir, in the back. I would like to address a small complaint with this issue, and what I mean by that is that she observed very herself, she has had to work several nights before retirement, and so forth, that she tells us her language, but it's not a controversial term, that she has had difficulty getting references on what it is that they are truly seeking in reform and social justice. The general asked a question. Is there a question involved, or is that just a comment? Oh, to comment on that, the general would like me to comment on how the NEA and Mary Futrell, how they couch the language in such a way that you really don't know what they're talking about or what reforms they want. Well, of course, that standard practice of the educators when they are writing or speaking to the general public or to the top officials of this country. They use what I call the Aesopian language. The Aesopian language, that is, it's a language which the educators understand among themselves, but which the public takes at face value. For example, if you take the reports that the general press made of the NEA convention, the press said, although the teachers are now reforming the way teachers are hired, There's going to be radical reforms of teacher education and all of that. I didn't read a single report in the press about the NEA's political agenda. I had to read the communist press to find that out. For communists to know what the NEA is up to. But you see, so, if you want to find out what the educators mean, you have to read the publication that the educators write for one another. Now, where do you find that? Well, you have to go to a university library, and you go to the periodical section, and there you look for all of the different journals of education, where the various professors of education write their articles for other professors of education. After all, who reads journals of education? Only other professors of education. You see, we've got, oh, I don't know how many thousands of professors of education in this country, who really have nothing else to do but to talk to one another. And they inhabit these graduate schools of education, and each graduate school of education has a journal, and they have to fill it with articles. And if you want to find out what is happening in education, you have to read these journals of education. There, they speak rather plainly to one another, even though they use this behavioristic language. You have to get used to their terminology. They use the behavioral, behavioristic language or Marxist vocabulary. That's how you find out. But they talk to the public in this language that puts the public to sleep. And that's exactly their intention, to anesthetize the general public so that the public becomes so bored with education Then it says, oh, let's leave it up to the educators. And of course, what happens is nothing happens, or things just get worse. That's what happens. Yes, sir? Well, as you say, there are a number of MFT chapters in the state, and now they're similar to the NEA. The MFT is a slightly different organization. First of all, the AFT, American Federation of Teachers, was started as a union. They concentrate more on teachers, benefits, salaries. They're not into curriculum as much. They're not into changing America as much. As a matter of fact, Albert Shanker, who was the head of the AFT, He's an old-line anti-communist. He's more in the George Meany mold. And while the NEA is much more pro-communist, for example, the AFT was for aid to the Contras. The NEA was against aid to the Contras. So on the issue of communism, there is quite a difference. But on the political issue of who to vote for, the AFT and the NEA, since they are both unions, generally back the liberal, democratic candidates in the Congress and the state legislatures. So from a political point of view, there's not much difference to expect. Yes, ma'am? The question is that the educators may use the notion that there will be physical child abuse among homeschoolers. How do we answer that? Well, criminal actions are criminal actions, whether it's among homeschoolers or whether it's among anybody. Now, it's true that in the St. Louis area, when a school superintendent heard of a homeschooling family, he immediately called the social welfare office and said that that was a child abuse case. And immediately the social welfare people would go out to the homeschooling parents and begin harassing them. Well, then what the homeschooling parents did there is that they organized a class action suit against the superintendent and the welfare bureau, and they've gone to court on that. Now, I don't know what the final disposition of that case was, but that's what parents have got to do. If they are being harassed, by the authorities on these false charges of child abuse, they have to go to court with that. But of course, if the state legislature now passes a child abuse law in which they include keeping a child out of school as a form of abuse, then you're going to have a problem. That's what you've got to be very careful of, you've got to be aware of. Well, shall I take one more question? Do we have time? Are we running short? Okay. We'll be able to answer a couple more questions. It's just that the audio tape is going to end in about a half a minute.