Politics / Home Rule
Norquist, Grover G.
Home Rule by Grover G. Norquist W hile home schooling in the sixties and seventies was largely a liberal phenomenon—parents who wanted their children out of the conformist, bourgeois public...
...Yates criticized NASCAR for turning a rural pastime into a successful business, and criticized Golenbock for missing this "greed" aspect of the story...
...Miller's vote makes clear in retrospect that the intent of the school bill has from the beginning been to regulate home-schoolers...
...insertions...
...They didn't know when, but they were ready...
...union in the country recently tried to pull a fast one on them and got burned...
...Stay tuned: Farris is now examining the Clinton health care plan for its impact on home-schoolers, in particular Hillary Clinton, Donna Shalala, and Joycelyn Elders's insistence on school-based clinics dispensing health care independent of parental notification or approval...
...None does...
...The phone blitz continues...
...And while their strong reaction mighthave surprised congressional members, Farris notes that home-schoolers are battle-tested veterans of fifty fights at the state level over the last ten years...
...Golenbock's unfounded and irresponsible allegations directly caused thedestruction of NCSU basketball (which, of course, is the only sport that Carolinians revere as much as they do stock car racing...
...They were defending their homes and their children...
...The groups have close links to parents who send their children to private schools as well...
...Friday, February 18...
...At 10 p.m., a thousand people gather in Dallas at a home-school rally...
...At 1:57, Armey asks for—and receives—Unanimous Consent of the House to modify his amendment...
...Rather than criticize Golenbock for writing a shallow book, Yates should have explained why the book is as it is...
...But ten days later, the home-schoolers won an overwhelming victory...
...Thomas Simcox Cresskill, New Jersey Crying Wolfpack I had trouble believing that it was, indeed, The American Spectator in which I read the Brock Yates review of Peter Golenbock's book on stock-car racing (American Zoom, TAS, February 1994...
...Only Miller votes no...
...Dick Armey notes that it is always easier to get people to fight to protect a liberty than to acquire new freedoms...
...2) They went for total victory, not simply protecting themselves from attack, but rolling back the other threats to home-schoolers in the bill and also protecting private schools...
...Your ad(s) will begin with the first available issue...
...At 9 a.m., Democrats on the Rules Committee introduce a wrong version of the Armey amendment for the day's votes...
...Bill Goodling, the ranking Republican on the Education and Labor Committee, undermines Armey's efforts by publicly denying that Miller's amendment threatens home schools...
...George Miller (D-Cal...
...Farris adds that home-schooling is the central organizing principle of the lives of hundreds of thousands of parents...
...Within 72 hours, a majority of evangeli52 The American Spectator June 1994 cal churches have been alerted...
...Cranston has made it clear the liberals have a moral vision, in all its simplicity, where the state as the moral agent distributes fairness to its citizens...
...Ad Classification...
...Call The American Spectator's Subscription Department at 1-800-524-3469...
...Congress voted 374 to 53 to pass an Armey amendment that not only exempts homeschoolers from teacher certification, but goes on to exempt home-schoolers and all private schools from the entire thousand-page H.R...
...Armey announces that he will lead the fight for the Home School/Private School Freedom Amendment which has the support of seventy congressmen by nightfall...
...The letter's petulant tone and personal attacks elicit a letter from Armey protesting that Miller's conduct violates House rules on collegiality...
...He refused to compromise, knowing that almost every member of Congress from the speaker on down had promised home-schoolers in their districts that they would vote for his amendment and that compromises like the Ford amendment would not suffice...
...Roll Call reported that more than 800,000 calls rained in on members—more than they received over gays in the military, the Clinton tax increase, and NAFTA combined...
...Two Christian school associations, the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) and the American Association of Christian Schools (AACS), join the home-schoolers' fight, and send out mailings and fax alerts...
...A number of congressmen instruct staff to stop answering all calls...
...called the National Center for Home Education (NCHE) to ask if an amendment offered by Rep...
...Within an hour, they got their answer: it most certainly could...
...Farris estimates that there are between 700,000 and a million children currently being schooled at home by 250,000 to 300,000 families...
...The American Spectator June 1994 91...
...within an hour, Moakley's staff announces that Moakley will support Armey's change...
...solicits and then sends out a letter from the Catholic Conference attacking Armey...
...Within forty-eight hours of the fax alert, more than a thousand Christian radio stations have covered the story...
...Other restrictions may apply...
...Home-schoolers in Massachusetts call Moakley...
...Tuesday, February 22...
...Another leadership fax goes out to make it clear that Miller's language remains unacceptable...
...Dick Armey (R-Tex...
...They are exhibiting enormous personal responsibility in their families and they want enormous personal freedom...
...It further protects home-schoolers by rewriting the federal definition of a school to exclude them...
...264 courses in 91 languages...
...Armey was willing to fight it out...
...The wave of calls into Washington builds...
...Armey's language is updated and a national fax alert goes out to homeschoolers with the most recent language...
...Home-schoolers arrive on Capitol Hill from Georgia, Missouri, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, as an ice storm hits Washington...
...But the most powerful Grover G. Norquist is the president of Americans for Tax Reform...
...Farris tapes an interview with Pat Robertson's "700 Club...
...While it got scant coverage in the mainstream press, this was a battle that will be studied by conservative activists—in and out of Congress...
...If true, it surely would have resulted in decreased attendance rates...
...Box 549, Arlington, Virginia 22216-0549 9406 Questions about your subscription...
...Thursday, February 17...
...These were, Armey observes, "real people who saw their personal liberty at risk...
...Thursday, February 24...
...Rush Limbaugh discusses the home-school telephone blitz of Congress...
...With Audio-Forum's intermediate and advanced materials, it's easy to maintain and sharpen your foreign-language skills...
...Catholic Conference, which has refused to join the fight against teacher certification, complains that Armey's amendment might endanger their members who receive federal funds...
...Timothy R. Wyatt Raleigh, North Carolina NORQUIST (continued from page 53) "Put down that gun, and we'll talk...
...At 2 p.m., debate begins on the final language of Armey's Home School/Private School Freedom Amendment...
...for Name (Please PrInt): State: Zip...
...Wednesday, February 23...
...What follows is a blow-by-blow account of the showdown: Monday, February 14: Within an hour of discovering the threat to home schooling, Dick Armey offers an amendment in committee to exempt homeschoolers and private schools from the teacher-certification requirement...
...Our 22nd year...
...6 (the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act...
...In secular Washington, their affiliation with born-again Christianity has led allies and adversaries alike to underestimate the home-schoolers' political sophistication...
...Home-schoolers see the compromise as a fig leaf...
...5) Home-schoolers were sophisticated enough to know what procedural votes were important, and didn't allow Congress to fool voters with meaningless votes that are canceled out by procedural motions...
...Unionized teachers outnumber home-schooling parents by a factor of five...
...It was Golenbock's repentant side that ignored the issues of NASCAR moneymaking, apparently much to Yates' displeasure...
...Two problems arise: anti-home-school congressional offices misinform callers, telling them that their concerns have been taken care of...
...Send ad copy with payment and this form to: The American Spectator Classified Department, P.O...
...An hour later, he gives a two-hour interview to Marlin Maddoux, host of "Point of View," a syndicated radio show that reaches four million listeners...
...At one, Farris tapes an interview with James Dobson whose radio show will reach 1,500 stations on Monday, February 21...
...Personal Fouls was filled with criticism of Wolfpack coach Jim Valvano for his supposed "greed" in capitalizing on his success...
...Farris's group has 38,000 members who pay $100 in dues each year.•His newsletter is published six times a year, and his emergency fax system goes out to 140 groups that in turn connect with 3,000-4,000 city support groups, who contact the individual families...
...We offer introductory and advanced materials in most of the world's languages: French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Greek, Russian, Arabic, Korean, and others...
...4) Within ten days, Farris had sent out five faxes to his network, and his message went out repeatedly to all Christian radio stations, so that homeschoolers knew, hour by hour, the exact state of play...
...A rmey gives credit to the homeschoolers for being prepared...
...0 1 Address...
...Yates's contention that commercialism came at the expense of racing's "characters" is false...
...in a week and a half...
...Farris hires several local printers to print 38,000 copies of a letter outlining home-schoolers' fears, which are out the door to all HSLDA members within 56 hours...
...CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 83) 1994) should ring in the ears of conservatives like a fireball in the night rather than any cause for celebration...
...Their pressure was unrelenting...
...Other members of Congress who watched the precision drill of Dick Armey in the House and Mike Farris and the home-schoolers on the outside attribute the home-schoolers' success to several factors: (1) They picked the right champion...
...Yates must have appreciated that...
...By noon, Miller's office has stopped answering calls and turned on its answering machine...
...Monday, February 21...
...They were defending a freedom they already enjoy...
...H ome schoolers had the home court advantage...
...Conservative activist Paul Weyrich, now a media maven with his own National Empowerment Television channel, reminds us that the Christian Right was created not in 1962 in response to the elimination of prayer in public school, not in 1973 with the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, but in 1978 with President Carter's assaults on Christian radio and threats against the tax status of Christian private schools...
...might be interpreted to require certification for parents who teach their children at home...
...Over the weekend, many members are met by home-schoolers in their districts...
...Pennsylvania Rep...
...Pre-payment required for all ads...
...The phone calls continue...
...Most importantly, Speaker Tom Foley is confronted by dozens of homeschoolers and promises to support the Armey amendment...
...But, contrary to the later complaints of Democrats—oblivious to the size of both the home-schooling forces and Christian radio and TV broadcasting—Limbaugh was not the source of it...
...For FREE 56-page catalog call 1-800-345-8501 or write: BUDIDIFICIRUM® Room G538, 96 Broad Street, \.„ Guilford, CT 06437 (203) 453-9794 The American Spectator June 1994 53 CLASSIFIEDS r CLASSIFIED ORDER FORM Rates: $3.50 per word (10 word minimum) [+$14 extra per ad for TAS box number if desired.], or $170 per column inch for classified display ads (maximum 3...
...Copies are delivered to Congress and a "national fax alert" begins...
...While many parochial schools and home-schooling Catholics join the fight, the U.S...
...A single congressman could stop Armey from presenting the amendment he wants...
...0 n February 14, Dean Clancy, the education staffer for Rep...
...State Department—we offer foreign-language mystery dramas, dialogs recorded in Paris, games, music, and many other helpful materials...
...George Miller leads the entire Democratic side of ,the committee in voting down the Armey language...
...At 1:54 p.m., the Ford compromise amendment passes with 424 votes...
...As to the first, NASCAR should be applauded and emulated for the tremendous success and growth it has experienced in the face of government attacks on the tobacco industry that supports it...
...The waters are further muddied by the efforts of a fringe coalition of small moderate and liberal home-schoolers to negotiate compromise language—independent of Farris and Armey...
...ACSI reports it has contacted its 3,000 schools...
...No states now require such licensing, although the unrelentingly left-wing National Education Association—with annual dues of more than $165 million—has long fought for it...
...By four that afternoon, congressional staffers begin calling HSLDA, promising that their bosses will vote for a "Home School/Private School Freedom Amendment" and asking for an end to the calls from their districts...
...They knew the Clinton administration would make a move against homeschoolers on behalf of the NEA...
...3) They did not fall for the Democrats' ploy of "Get them to stop calling and then I'll vote for you" (as in (continued on page 91) cWant to brush up on a foreign language...
...At 3:38 p.m., the Armey amendment passes, 374 to 53...
...Miller sends out a "Dear Colleague" letter blaming "the far right" for the telephone blitz...
...They understood that "if we don't act in the next few days we'll be out of the home-schooling business...
...Some NCSU students still wear "Don't Be a Peter" T-shirts...
...And if you want to learn a new language, we have beginning courses for adults and for children...
...Now the president of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), Farris believes the present trend will continue over the next four years, and that home-schoolers, who today comprise 2 percent of all school age children in the U.S., will eventually reach 5 percent—leveling off there, since home-schooling requires that a family support itself with one wage-earner...
...Twelve percent of children are in private schools, a number that continues to grow, due to the founding of two to three new evangelical schools every day...
...Besides intermediate and advanced audio-cassette courses—most developed for the U.S...
...One Democratic congressman's chief of staff tells home-schooling leader Doug Phillips he has already received 600 calls today, and begs Phillips to ask for the calls to stop...
...Golenbock needn't have bothered...
...The reason, as Golenbock made clear in interviews, is that he wanted to repay the citizens of North Carolina by writing something positive about the state's sports, after his earlier book (Personal Fouls) about the NC State basketball team caused such disruption...
...He has not been, and will not be, forgiven...
...Enclosed is...
...Home-schoolers waged a grassroots campaign of phone calls, faxes, and personal visits to Congress that defeated the most powerful lobby in the U.S...
...His criticism was out of line each time...
...Stock car racing is a dynamic sport that evolves and adapts to meet spectator demand (as opposed to a static, never-changing sport such as baseball...
...Dick Armey sends out a "Dear Colleague" letter explaining that a compromise amendment by Education and Labor Committee Chairman William Ford will not protect home-schoolers...
...Armey wants to change the language of his amendment to allay the Catholic Conference, but the Rules committee chairman, Joe Moakley of Massachusetts, is the only person who can allow this last-minute, on-the-floor maneuver...
...Dale Kildee (D-Mich...
...City...
...Mike Farris spends an hour on Pat Buchanan's radio show...
...Conservatives must create a moral vision based on personal responsibility but avoiding the nightmares of modern individualism, or else, the Clintons will push us off a cliff while we whimper, "But, Bill, we're the good guys...
...Wednesday, February 16...
...Special Discount Offer: Pre-pay for 3 ads and get a 4th ad free...
...Mike Farris, who ran for lieutenant governor of Virginia last year, has been working with homeschoolers for eleven years...
...Commercialism of the sport is a natural reaction to market forces...
...Home Rule by Grover G. Norquist W hile home schooling in the sixties and seventies was largely a liberal phenomenon—parents who wanted their children out of the conformist, bourgeois public schools—the growth in home schooling since the late seventies has been among religious conservatives, evangelicals, and Roman Catholics...
Vol. 27 • June 1994 • No. 6
