The attorneys challenged the fact that a child could receive adequate education and socialization by a parent, in spite of volumes of evidence to the contrary. They even tried to link home schooling as the cause in another case in the court in which the parental rights of a couple were terminated. The psychologist in that case claimed that the young husband had severe issues that his own mother failed to address when she homeschooled him.

Of course, no one tries to make such arguments against public schools when a public school teacher is guilty of abuse or neglect. In fact, public education is not even attacked when teachers in the same elementary school in California are charged with child molestation. Nor should we judge schools or educational methods on anecdotal evidence. The empirical data in support of the fact that home schooling as a very viable educational alternative is overwhelming.

However, while these attacks against home schooling in this particular custody case are made to accomplish the father’s and grandparents’ goal to take this mother’s children from her, there are growing attacks against home schooling for philosophical reasons as well.

In a post last year, I commented that the “Occupy Wall Street” (OSW) movement had listed as one of its goals the outlawing of home schooling. I had several responses from home schoolers who support that movement that this was not really the goal of the group, but in fact it was listed by the group in an “unofficial” list and continues to be posted on its official website.

Last week another liberal website posted an anti-home schooling article chastising their fellow progressives who homeschool or support home schooling. The article says that home schooling is “unevenly regulated” by the states and that even the liberal literature on home schooling has “overheated hostility toward public schools.”

“Of course, no one wants to sacrifice his own child’s education in order to better serve someone else’s kid,” they say, but that is exactly what the author advocates. He says, “. . . [G]overnment is the only institution with the power and scale to intervene in the massive undertaking of better educating American children, 90 percent of whom currently attend public schools.”

What this liberal group is really advocating is that we need to make sure that we force people into the public education system so we can make sure that they adopt the value system and worldview that we want all Americans to have. Many years ago I had a conversation with a Republican candidate for a statewide judicial office who voiced similar concerns. He was worried what might happen to the public school system if all the good students like my children were taken out to homeschool. My response was that I was concerned about doing what was best for my children and that I was not willing to sacrifice doing that in order to try to help solve the ills of public education. My progressive home school friends still agree.

Last week I attended a conference at which I met a couple with a ministry in Germany, and we discussed the total opposition of the government there against home schooling. The German government believes that it is in the state’s interest not to allow individual parents to indoctrinate their children in place of the state. It appears that we may be moving in that direction in this country as well, with the Obama administration’s new directive requiring religious institutions to provide contraception services, including abortifacients, in spite of the religious objections of individuals, churches, and religious organizations. Many view this as an attack on religious freedom and conscience.

We must be wary of the growing level of political opposition to home schooling based not on academic concerns but on philosophical grounds. We must vigorously defend home schooling at every opportunity lest we, too, come to that place where we are told that our religious convictions and our rights as parents are overruled by the state and we find that we cannot teach our children at home.

Santorum 39%
Romney 27%
Gingrich 15%
Paul 10%

Santorum’s Surge is Real
By Gary L. Bauer
Santorum’s surge is real. Three national polls released in the past 24 hours have Senator Rick Santorum essentially tied or leading Governor Mitt Romney in the Republican presidential contest. As a result, Santorum has overtaken Romney in the RealClearPolitics.com average of polls.

Only Solution to ObamaCare’s Tyrannical Attack on Religious Freedom is Full Repeal
Posted by Senator Jim DeMint
Well, we can’t say they didn’t warn us. Nancy Pelosi famously decreed that Congress must first pass ObamaCare to find out what’s in it.

Rick Santorum: No longer such a long shot
By Brian Montopoli
After Saturday’s Maine caucuses, we’ve come to something of a lull in the Republican presidential race. The next nominating contests don’t come until February 28, when there are primaries in Arizona and Michigan. There is only one debate scheduled before those contests, on February 22 in Arizona. Other than that there’s not much action until Super Tuesday, on March 6, when ten states hold their contests.

How Dumb Do You Think I Am?
Posted by Michael Hammond
We don’t have all the specifics. But it is pretty apparent that Obama’s “deal” on contraceptives is a trick. As to Catholic institutions, Catholic hospitals and universities would pay insurance companies premiums, which would pay for contraceptives and abortifacients. Evil doesn’t become good because it’s laundered through a third party.

Obama to Increase Spending Again
Posted by Daniel Horowitz
On Monday, Obama is slated to release his annual budget proposal for FY 2013, along with a 10-year budget (2012-2021) outlook. One would think that after talking incessantly about cutting spending, Obama would spend less money next year than this year. Yet, in Obama’s world, a spending cut means spending less than you were slated to spend, even though it is still higher in nominal terms.

Team Obama Fumbles Ruling, Offends Catholics
By Scott Rasmussen
Every sports fan knows that close contests are often decided by mistakes rather than heroics. In this year’s Super Bowl, Tom Brady threw just one interception, but Eli Manning didn’t throw any. Manning’s team won.

Santorum Surging
By Gary L. Bauer
The latest Fox News poll finds Senator Rick Santorum surging into a tie with Governor Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination. In the final two days of polling conducted after Santorum’s sweep in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, Santorum and Romney both earned 30% support, followed by Gingrich at 16% and Paul at 15%.

Rick Perry rises from the ashes at CPAC – ‘Chance to offer a strikingly different view of America than the Democrats’
By Jerome R. Corsi
Former Republican presidential candidate Gov. Rick Perry called for his party to run against Obama this year by adopting the theme “to take this nation back.”

Santorum Strong In Ohio
By Gary L. Bauer
For the second time in as many weeks, there is polling data suggesting that the strongest Republican candidate in Ohio is not Mitt Romney but rather Rick Santorum. A Rasmussen poll released this morning finds that Barack Obama leads Mitt Romney 45% to 41% among likely Ohio voters, whereas Santorum and Obama are tied at 44% each.

Feds shut down Amish farm for selling fresh milk
By Stephen Dinan
The FDA won its two-year fight to shut down an Amish farmer who was selling fresh raw milk to eager consumers in the Washington, D.C., region after a judge this month banned Daniel Allgyer from selling his milk across state lines and he told his customers he would shut down his farm altogether.

The paternal grandparents are prominent citizens in that small community and are represented by the new judge’s former law firm. The husband has made comments that they “own the courthouse” and will take the children from the mother.

The parents of the husband, who is a pilot and travels two weeks a month, are seeking to gain joint custody with their son. In spite of the fact that the attorney for the mother pointed out that the Texas Family Code does not allow the grandparents to be conservators in this situation, the judge postponed a decision on the matter saying he wanted to hear more testimony on the issue.

As I gave testimony as an expert witness on the matter, the attorneys for the father and grandparents challenged home schooling in general. I referred to the numerous studies supporting home schooling as a valid educational alternative. In fact, the argument being used as to why this mother should not have custody of her three children is that she home schooled, isolated her children, and is too protective. In her own testimony the mother clarified that it was the husband who required her to withdraw from the local support group because he thought they were “too religious” and also required them to withdraw from numerous other social activities.

There is a very real danger that the judge in this case will ignore the law and place the children with the grandparents. An upcoming hearing in this case is scheduled for next week, Friday, February 24th, in Cameron. If you live in this area or near there, I strongly urge you to attend this hearing and bring your friends to show strong support for this embattled home school mom and to observe the judge who is up for reelection this year.

More and more we are seeing families suffer at the hands of biased judges, and we must stand together as a community to support those who are under such attack. According to the evidence presented in the earlier hearing, this mom has amazing children who are doing very well academically. She urgently needs our prayers and support. I hope you will attend the hearing, and by quietly observing, I believe your presence will demonstrate your support for her and for home schooling. For details and more information contact Stacey Clark at selah8rose {at} yahoo.com.

Some years ago I was encouraged to read Dr. Smalley’s book, “The Five Love Languages,” and it was invaluable in giving me an understanding of the fact that each of us receives love in a particular way. It will be no surprise to most of you who are familiar with this book to know that my wife has a different “love language” than do I. So it was important for both of us to learn how the other felt loved.

While I am one of those “words of affirmation” people, my daughter once told me that those words of love that I was giving to her were, well, “just words.” My wife feels loved when I do things for her, and my daughter feels loved when I give her a gift. And so it goes. If we fathers are smart, we will learn how our wife and children receive love best, and we will express love to them in that way.

However, I couldn’t help but think about this issue of love in the last week or so as I read the news story of two different fathers. Josh Powell was a suspect in the 2009 disappearance of his wife and was denied custody of their two sons. On February 5th he killed his sons and himself during a supervised visit and burned his home to the ground. Some defend him saying that he was doing the only thing he could do to “protect” his sons. That is not love. It may be signs of what one family member referred to as his narcissism, but it is not love.

On the same day a Leander, Texas father and his family were enjoying a vacation in Big Bend National Park in far West Texas. Walking from the Chisos Mountain Lodge to a restaurant nearby, a mountain lion attacked the six-year-old son of the family. This brave father grabbed his pocket knife and stabbed the lion which then released the boy. The boy received 17 stitches to his face, but he is alive and safe. That father, my friends, truly loves his son.

Love your wife, husband, and children today in a way that makes clear to them that you love them indeed!

A Wealthy Backer Likes the Odds on Santorum
By Jim Rutenberg and Nicholas Confessore
Mitt Romney and Foster Friess, a wealthy donor to conservative causes, were walking out of an event together a few months ago when Mr. Friess broke the news: After backing Mr. Romney for president four years ago, he was getting behind Rick Santorum this time around.

GOP candidate Rick Santorum tells pastors he’s a man of faith, and reason
By Anna M. Tinsley
After talking about his faith and family for about an hour, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum stood in the middle of a small chapel Wednesday morning, bowed his head and closed his eyes – ready to receive prayers from more than 100 clergymen gathered there.

Santorum Shocks Romney/GOP Establishment
By Gary L. Bauer
When the dust settled in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado last night, the conservative grass roots had once again shocked the professional political class by making Senator Rick Santorum the winner in all three races. I was gratified by the results, of course, since I was one of the first leaders to endorse his then “long-shot” candidacy. It is considerably less of a long-shot this morning! I have been inundated with press calls today asking essentially “What happened?” and “What does it mean?” Here is my take.

Santorum Sweeps
Posted by Leon H. Wolf
As of today, Rick Santorum officially has no more delegates than he had yesterday. That said, as CNN is just now this moment calling Colorado for Santorum in a stunning upset, his clean sweep of the states who voted/caucused today is a stunning rebuke to both Romney’s purported march through February and Newt Gingrich’s position as the favored not-Romney candidate.

Texas Group Decries “Avalanche” of EPA Rules
By Kate Galbraith
The conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation on Monday renewed its criticism of the Environmental Protection Agency, as it released a report citing an “avalanche” of forthcoming rules on air pollution.

Komen official quits over Planned Parenthood dispute
By Ray Henry
The vice president of public policy at Susan G. Komen for the Cure who backed the breast cancer charity’s move to strip Planned Parenthood of funding resigned Tuesday, saying she stands by the now-abandoned decision that set off a storm of controversy.

Warren Chisum
Office: Railroad Commissioner
Website: chisumfortexas.com

Barry Smitherman
Office: Railroad Commissioner (unexpired)
Website: smithermantx.com

Richard Raymond
Office: State Representative, District 42
Website: richardraymond.com

David Bradley
Office: SBOE Member District 7
Email: david.bradley@att.net
SBOE Profile: tea.state.tx.us