Bulletin #36 The UN and Homeschool Sovereignty 08/26/2004

Did you know? If we allow homeschooling to be federalized, and the US continues to support the efforts of the UN regarding Global Education, homeschooling may become extinct by 2015.

http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/news_en/20.04.04_EFA2004.shtml

U.S. Senator Clinton Unveils Plan For Global Universal Education

Tuesday, April 20, 2004 By Fanen Chiahemen U.N. Wire

About four months ago U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton announced a planned legislative effort which is designed to provide universal education to children all around the globe. She claimed that the United States and other developed countries need to boost the efforts to achieve the U.N. Millennium Development goal of having all children in school by 2015. She promised to introduce legislation to provide $2.5 billion for universal education by 2009 to fund UN education programs, and make this effort in developing countries one of the top U.S. foreign assistance priorities. Senator Clinton's statements were a significant part of UNESCO's "Big Lobby" day, a high point of the UN-sponsored "Education for All Week," during which "children around the world [were] lobbying policy-makers to support universal education."

It should be noted that the Bush administration has also pledged to increase US support for UN global education initiatives.

One of the UN's long-standing goals, which was first clearly stated at the 1994 population control summit in Cairo, is to use global education as a means of indoctrinating children (particularly girls) in the tenets of "sustainable development"- that is, UN-directed central planning on behalf of a "global society".

For more information about these goals please refer to http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

There are eight U.N Millenium Development goals. They were developed by the 191 UN Members and they are all working to have these goals accomplished by 2015.

1) Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty

2) Achieve universal primary education

3) Promote gender equality and empower women

4) Reduce child mortality

5) Improve maternal health

6) Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

7) Ensure environmental sustainability

8) Develop a global partnership for development

They seem like pretty noble goals however, we are concerned about goal number 2, which is described as having all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling. Let's take a closer look at some of the information being collected.

There are graphs available showing the progress being made in Africa and Asia which show rising enrollments of children in primary schools, http://millenniumindicators.un.org/unsd/mi/mi_goals.asp

The statistics are being compiled by UNESCO which cover enrollment numbers and other indicators. It is interesting to note that the United States enrollments have been cited for 2001 as being 92.7%. This indicates that 7.3% of the school aged children in the United States are not enrolled in school. The goal of course is 100% enrollment. It is interesting to note the definition that they are using for school enrollment as well as some of the other definitions (European spelling is used on their website, so please pardon any words which do not match American spelling) :

school attendance [code 198] Attendance at any accredited educational institution or programme, public or private, for organized learning at any level of education at the time of the census or, if the census is taken during the vacation period at the end of the school year, during the last school year. Instruction in particular skills, which is not part of the recognized educational structure of the country (for example, in -service training courses in factories), is not normally considered "school attendance" for census purposes.

educational enrollment [code 250] Persons enrolled and/or registered in a programme of education.

educational level [code 173] For international comparison, data from the population census are needed for three levels of education: primary, secondary, and post-secondary. (33, para. 2.156) Programmes at level 1 are designed on a unit or project basis to give students a sound basic education in reading, writing and mathematics along with an elementary understanding of other subjects such as history, geography, natural science, social science, art and music. In some cases religion if featured. The core at this level consists of education provided for children, the customary or legal age of entrance being not younger than five years or older than seven years. This level covers in principle six years of full-time schooling. The contents of education at level 2 are typically designed to complete the provision of basic education which began at ISCED level 1. In many, if not most countries, the educational aim is to lay the foundation for lifelong learning and human development on which countries may expand, systematically, further educational opportunities. the programmes at this level are usually on a more subject-oriented pattern using more specialized teachers and more often several teachers conducting classes in their field of specialization. The full implementation of basic skills occurs at this level. The end of this level often coincides with the end of compulsory education where it exists. Level 3 of education typically begins at the end of full-time compulsory education for those countries that have a system of compulsory education. More specialization may be observed at this level that at ISCED level 2 and often teachers need to be more qualified or specialized than for ISCED level 2. The entrance age to this level is typically 15 or 16 years. The educational programmes included at this level typically require the completion of some 9 years of full-time education (since the beginning of level 1) for admission or a combination of education and vocational or technical experience and with as minimum entrance requirements the completion of level 2 or demonstrable ability to handle programmes at this level. (60)

Talk about "No Child Being Left Behind", it doesn't look like homeschooling is part of this goal. This should be of concern to all of us. What bearing does this have on homeschooling here in the United States as well as in other countries? Consider this: If we lose control of homeschooling freedoms to the federal government through regulation, and the federal government decides to relinquish authority to the UN...what planet do we move to in order to be free?

Right now our homeschool rights are governed by the State based on the Tenth Amendment (although we know there are unconstitutional Federal laws which exist). There are several states in the US that have little or no homeschool regulations, and we also know there are states that have lots of regulation. This means nothing if we allow our States to relinquish their rights to the federal government. Education is not a power of the federal government, and if we allow it to be, then we may ultimately lose those rights further to a more global entity. When the Federal government proposes regulations which contain the words homeschool, you should be concerned. When the federal government funds and promotes goals, which require ALL children be enrolled in an accredited "programme of study", you should be concerned. Just as the United States should be free of foreign entanglements, homeschoolers should be free of government intervention (especially federal government intervention). This is one reason why we need to keep homeschooling free and sovereign in the States that already provide that, and we need to work to eliminate regulation in the States that require unnecessary government oversight.

Attorney Deborah Stevenson - Executive Director of National Home Education Legal Defense. –

www.nheld.com or email : info@nheld.com

Judy Aron - Director of Research, NHELD – imjfaron@sbcglobal.net