Mississippi homeschool families have significant educational freedom compared to the curriculum public schools adhere to, although that may be about to change.
Democrat State Rep. John Hines’ new bill would force Mississippi’s homeschoolers and private school students to learn the same Mississippi History and U.S. Government courses that public schools are required to teach. (RedState)
From HB188:
Comprehensive courses in Mississippi History and United States Government are required for all students to be administered between Grades 9 through 12. The Mississippi history course must provide students with an examination of the history of the State of Mississippi from the age of discovery and colonization to the present with particular emphasis on the significant political, social, economic and cultural issues of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries which have impacted the diverse ethnic and racial populations of the state. Similarly, all private, parochial and home-based school programs shall provide the same curriculum requirements to students enrolled in Grades 9 through 12.
Sound harmless? Is it a slippery slope to particular mandatory content? And when will such requirements be made in other academic areas?
The Mississippi Center for Public Policy is definitely opposed.
Here’s part of their statement:
This would give the state authority to dictate what parents teach their children and how they teach it. Those rights belong with the parents who choose to homeschool, who generally make that choice because they want to set the curriculum that’s appropriate for their children free of state mandates. Whether or not homeschool families in Mississippi teach Mississippi history or government – and we know most do – that is the choice of the parents, not the state.
AAN Staff
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