Faith.
A brief review of the high points of our previous discussions:
- There are three societal organizations ordained by God-the home, government and the local church.
- Each of these has specific areas of responsibility
- From the first state laws on education (Massachusetts) to the Northwest Ordinance (Wisconsin), the purpose of public education was to teach reading, so that the students could read the Bible and be taught religion and Biblical morality.
- Biblically, education of the children is the responsibility of the parents, not the government.
- There is no Constitutional authority for the federal government to be involved in education of our children
We will finish this topic with a look at educational choice in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, with the results of the April election in Wisconsin, we now have both a governor and a Superintendent of Public Instruction who are opposed to parental choice in education and whose goal is to have all students propagandized in government schools. And we now have a liberal majority in the Wisconsin Supreme Court of activist judges, whose goal seems to be the elimination of Biblical, Constitutional and historic principles.
In April,1986, Marv Munyon founded The Christian Research Institute of Wisconsin, name changed to The Family Research Institute of Wisconsin, which then became Wisconsin Family Action/Wisconsin Family Council as it is now known. Their mission was/is “to inform, educate and involve the general public and policymakers in the development of public policy that strengthens the stability of marriage and family.” Marv Munyon was very active working with the Wisconsin legislature to protect parental rights.
A brief history- In 1983, Laurence Popanz (a homeschooling father, who had incorporated as a private school as a way of attempting to homeschool legally) was charged with truancy on the grounds that their home was not a private school. The Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed to hear the case and on April 26, 1983, declared that Wisconsin’s compulsory school attendance law was “…void for vagueness since it fails to define ‘private school.’” (State v. Popanz) In other words, the Court ruled that if families were going to be prosecuted for failure to attend a private school, the statutes first needed to be changed so people had a clear definition of a private school.”
Working with organizations such as the Wisconsin Association of Christian Schools and the Wisconsin Homeschooling Parents Association, Marv Munyon essentially wrote Wisconsin Act 512 which was passed by the state legislature in 1984. Act 512 defined a private school and also made legal home-based private education in Wisconsin. Wisconsin was a national leader in this movement as well as being the first state in the Union to have a School Choice program, when the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program was established in 1989 under the leadership of Governor Thompson.
In summation, education of the child is the responsibility of the parents. In Wisconsin, parents have a wide variety to choose from: homeschooling, private schools (religious and non-religious) or government schools. Even military academies and on-line learning, Any attack on these parental rights should be vehemently opposed. Be alert and contact your state representatives when these attacks come to fruition.
Dr. Lonnie W. Stine, Pastor
Badger Community Church
11198 Badger Drive, Waupaca, WI
An independent, Bible teaching, local church
Sunday: 9:00 am Bible Study, 10:00 am Morning Worship
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