A family that fled Germany in order to homeschool their children was about to be deported by the Department of Homeland Security.
Now the DHS has reversed its stand. The family may remain in Tennessee.
Homeschooling has been illegal in Germany for a century. The German state does not want competition for control over the minds of children. The U.S. Department of Justice agrees.
[amazon asin=0865716692&template=*lrc ad (left)]Last March the Home School Legal Defense Fund (HSLDF), the organization defending the Romeikes, created a White House petition asking President Obama to protect the family’s asylum. Obama declined to respond, but his Department of Justice sure went on the offensive.
In its June 26, 2013, brief to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, Obama’s DOJ essentially argued that the German government is right to take children away from their parents and force them into government schools because “teaching tolerance to children of all backgrounds helps to develop the ability to interact as a fully functioning citizen of Germany.”[amazon asin=0393067084&template=*lrc ad (right)]
Tolerance, yes. Tolerance of the state, not tolerance by the state.
We can be sure that the DoJ has the same view of public schools in the USA, but it knows it cannot enforce this view here.
The DoJ did not reverse itself. The DHS did.
