|
?:reviewBody
|
-
In June 2016, rumors began circulating on social media reporting that the state of Texas had declared that children whose parents believe the Rapture is imminent are not subject to laws pertaining to compulsory education. One version of the rumor was published by the web site Winning Democrats: The article was heavy on editorial content and light on facts, omitting the basic who, what, when, and where aspects of the story. However, an Associated Press article provided a far more detailed and nuanced account of the court ruling in question, which actually dealt with the issue of state laws requiring that home-schoolers meet basic educational goals without any imposing any requirement for testing to demonstrate those goals are being met: The article identified the parents in question as Laura and Michael McIntyre, owners of a motorcycle dealership. The McIntyres have nine children, the article stated, and a family member reported them to the local school district because he never saw the children do much of anything educational and he also overheard one of the children tell a cousin 'they did not need to do schoolwork because they were going to be raptured.' In essence, the legal debate was not about the family's religious convictions, but rather about a relative's complaint that their children were being insufficiently educated (and the reason why they were being insufficiently educated was not relevant from a legal standpoint). According to the Associated Press, in response to the relative's report, a school attendance officer attempted to determine whether the family was making sufficient effort to educate their children. In turn, the McIntyres filed suit, citing their 14th Amendment rights (unrelated to religion), and alleging that the school district was anti-Christian. The family denied claims involving their belief in an impending Rapture, asserting that a relative had fabricated the Rapture element due to an unrelated business dispute: The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) maintains a state-by-state list of regulations for homeschooling parents. Summarized in a map, the list indicates that Texas requires little to no regulation of homeschooling parents, irrespective of their religion (or lack thereof). An in-depth assessment [PDF] of the state's laws from the perspective of that homeschooling advocacy group asserted that the sole requirements established in a 1987 court case were that [h]omeschools must be conducted in a bona fide manner, using a written curriculum consisting of reading, spelling, grammar, math and a course in good citizenship; no other requirements apply[.] Standardized testing requirements do not apply to homeschooled students in Texas. The Texas Education Agency's Home Schooling page reiterates the state's relaxed stance on homeschooling: Although a copy of the ruling isn't publicly available, news reports indicate that the court didn't intervene to compel the McIntyre children to attend school or subject the family to additional scrutiny. But more to the point, the parents involved expressly did not argue that their belief in an imminent Rapture exempted them from following state homeschooling laws. The parents instead refuted a relative's claim regarding that religious belief, asserting that a complaint had been lodged against them in retaliation for a familial business dispute. Irrespective of the family's religious beliefs, Texas homeschool regulations are among the least restrictive in the country and require little in the way of enforced curriculum or testing.
(en)
|
![[This page as RDF]](http://data.gesis.org/claimskg/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}