“We have an opportunity to be part of the solution, to restore true choice in education, and to regain liberty and prosperity. It starts with us, with our families, and with our resolve to make a difference.”
Alex Newman
Recently on the Schoolhouse Rocked podcast, host Yvette Hampton had an enlightening conversation with Alex Newman and Leigh Bortins on the Declaration of Educational Independence, and about the urgent need to redefine education in America. This thought-provoking interview discusses the reasons behind the growing recognition that the current public school system is failing our children and proposes an alternative approach rooted in the fundamental principles of family government.
Recognizing the Problem:
As the communication delved into the issue of government involvement in education, both Newman and Bortins stressed the importance of defining the end goal and principles underlying the educational system. As Newman states, “We need an end goal. We need to define what success looks like in education so we can start moving in that direction.” They were careful to explain their opposition to the idea of the government funded alternative education “school choice” programs.
Both guests highlight the necessity of separating education from the civil government. Drawing on biblical principles and the role of government, they propose the creation of a document that outlines the fundamental principles and end goals of education, aiming for a complete separation of civil government from the educational system. Bortins affirms, “We need to separate education and the civil government in order to maintain true choiceand uphold liberty.”
The Declaration of Educational Independence:
During the podcast, the guests dove into the creation of the Declaration of Educational Independence. This pivotal document was developed by a group consisting of educators, politicians, parents, pastors, and leaders of universities, all passionate about reestablishing the rightful, God-given authority of family government in education. Newman explained the process, saying, “We worked on the Declaration together, then received feedback for weeks before finalizing it.” The Declaration was released on September 5th and has already garnered significant attention and support. You can read and sign it here.
The discussion emphasizes that throughout history, parents and families have been considered responsible and authoritative in education. However, the public-school system’s encroachment on family government has led to devastating consequences for society—consequences that need to be rectified. Bortins powerfully asserts, “Returning to family-led education is crucial for regaining peace, prosperity, and liberty in the United States.”
The Role of Divine Providence:
The guests also stress the importance of recognizing Divine Providence and seeking God’s guidance in the fight for education. Acknowledging that losing the battle for education may jeopardize other aspects of society, Newman urges, “Relying on God’s protection and guidance is crucial in reclaiming our authority and securing a flourishing society.”
The interview featuring Alex Newman and Leigh Bortins provides a timely and informative discussion on the urgent need to redefine education in America. It sheds light on the importance of separating education from government and restoring the God-given authority of family government. By signing the Declaration of Educational Independence listeners can join the movement to reclaim our children’s future and reaffirm the vital role of families in guiding education.
As Newman poignantly states, “We have an opportunity to be part of the solution, to restore true choice in education, and to regain liberty and prosperity. It starts with us, with our families, and with our resolve to make a difference.”
Take action today and listen to the full interview on the Schoolhouse Rocked podcast, and sign the Declaration to be a part of this revolutionary movement to empower families and redefine education in America. Together, we can restore the rightful authority of family government and establish an educational system that sets our children on a path to success, liberty, and lifelong learning!
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How does the concept of education as a family responsibility differ from the prevalent view that it is the government’s responsibility?
What are the main arguments made by the speakers against government involvement in education? Do you agree or disagree with these arguments?
In what ways do you think the current education system is failing? Can you provide any personal experiences or examples to support your answer?
What are the potential implications of government funding and control of alternative education options, such as homeschooling?
How do you interpret the biblical and patriotic references made by the speakers in relation to education? Do you believe there is a strong connection between faith and education?
The Declaration of Educational Independence emphasizes the importance of defining principles and goals for education. Do you think this is necessary? Why or why not?
What role do you believe parents should play in their children’s education? Do you think they are the most qualified individuals to teach their own children?
How do you think education should be separated from civil government? What steps do you think need to be taken to achieve this separation?
The Declaration of Educational Independence calls for a return to family-led education. How do you think this would impact society as a whole? What benefits or challenges do you foresee?
Read the full transcript:
Yvette Hampton:
Hey, everyone. This is Yvette Hampton. Welcome back to the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast. We have such a great episode. This one’s going to be a little bit different than what we’ve talked about, what we normally talk about. But you are going to be so very encouraged. I’ve got Alex Newman, who you are very familiar with. He’s been on the podcast several times. And I know most of you are familiar with Lee Bortins as well. She’s the founder of Classical Conversations. Just both of them have had a huge hand in the success of homeschooling in our world today. And I’m so grateful for both of them and their ministries and all that they do to serve and support the homeschool community, not just in America, but worldwide. And so this week, we are going to talk about something big that’s going on in the Homeschooling community. Well, Alex and Lee, welcome to the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast. I am so delighted and honored to have both of you with me today. Several months ago, we got an email from Alex, actually, and he said, we’ve got this document. It’s called the Declaration of Educational Independence, and we’d like to know if you’d be willing to sign this. So we looked it over and we’re like, wow, this is amazing. And we felt so honored to be part of that first group of people to have access to this and to be invited to be one of the signers of this Declaration. And so as we’ve read through it and rocked through it and prayed through this along with so many other people, we have just been so blown away by the wisdom and the thoughtfulness that has gone into this Declaration of Educational Independence. And before we get into it, I’m going to have Alex actually read it. It’s not super long, but I’m going to have him read through it. But before we get into that, I want to just get a picture of what the multiple spheres of government are, because it’s not just federal, it’s not just state, it’s not local, but it also includes family and church and God. And over all of that is God. God the Creator. Right? He is the one who controls all government. He made all government. He’s the primary government over everyone and everything. And I think sometimes we tend to forget that, right? But first it’s God. He’s our primary government. And then it’s family, because the family comes under God, and even the family is governed a certain way, right? You’ve got God, then you’ve got dad, then you’ve got mom, then you’ve got kids. And then the church government comes after that. And then we’re looking at state government, we’re looking at federal government, we’re looking at our local government. But they all have their proper jurisdiction in our lives and in the world. And so I want to talk about God’s authority, and he is the one who established government, right? And so as we look at this document this week, I want you guys to really I mean this is going to be a thinky week. We’re going to have to think through some of this stuff. But like I said, so much has gone into this Declaration and so we’re going to talk through it. But first Alex, would you mind just starting at the beginning and reading the Declaration of Educational Independence to us?
Alex Newman:
Thank you. Vet honor to be here and honored to be able to read this. So we start off with a little introduction which we will skip now. But the Declaration itself begins with we, the undersigned, endowed by nature, and nature’s God, with certain inalienable rights, do declare that the authority to direct the education of citizens rests with family government and not with civil government. We affirm and declare that a flourishing society is built upon families that are free to exercise those rights in order to fulfill their obligations and responsibilities to future generations. And further declare that education, which is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to the other, is the natural and proper jurisdiction of family government and not of civil government. That the bond between man and woman is so sacred and its effects on their sons and daughters so incalculable that all institutions are obliged to respect, defend and maintain that bond. That all forms of government, self, family, church and civil are ordained by God to preserve the life, liberty and property of its members in accordance with the laws of nature. Further, to reverse the civil government’s usurpation of the proper functions of family government, we declare that both elected officials and unelected bureaucracies must act in accordance with the natural and constitutional limitations that circumscribe the powers of civil government. Civil governments must make no laws restricting the free exercise of each family to associate for educational purposes through policy, enforcement or funding and any such laws or regulations must be removed. Therefore, to restore education to the proper jurisdiction of family government. We propose that citizens recognize their role as members of families and secure and maintain the natural obligations of such, including all of the costs and consequences of educational choices that family members, with the assistance of voluntary mutual aid societies, support. Private entities that offer the public a variety of educational resources, services and scholarships. We, the undersigned, in the name of life, liberty and the responsibilities inherent to the pursuit of happiness, solemnly publish and declare that the establishment of education is reserved for family government, its members and voluntary associations. For this Declaration, we pledge our support with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence and that’s it short and sweet.
Yvette Hampton:
I love it. I love that last line. For this Declaration, we pledge our support with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence. And that’s really what it’s all about, right? I mean, God has given us a great responsibility and jurisdiction as a family. Lee, I want to ask you and welcome to the podcast. I’m so glad that you’re with me as well. Where did this come from? I mean, how in the world did this even come about? Whose idea was it? Kind of walk us through the process that’s gone into this. How long has it taken to get to this point?
Leigh Bortins:
Yeah, so basically what happened is over the last two dozen years well, I’ve been a freedom maximalist since I was twelve. But over the last two dozen years I started to realize that most people weren’t. And as I saw more and more government encroachment occurring on my family and my businesses and I bit my tongue for quite a while because even though I was always personally against public education, I knew the majority of people I loved and worked with all embraced public education. But during COVID with the mess that occurred first before with the MeToo movement, then afterwards with all the shutdowns and the various just the silliness that went with it, I felt repentant, like I should have said something a lot sooner than I did. And so I began talking to folks like Alex and people that I knew were like minded and trying to figure out what we could do to work together. And we belonged to a group called the Christian Education Initiative, which was already working on trying to get organizations to promote Christian education. But something funny, you know, three of us were considered odd. Then all of a sudden we were superstars. And then everybody wanted to bring classical education, not Christian education, but classical education to all the school systems. And people who were not like minded with us were coming to me that used to be I wouldn’t say opponents, but they definitely weren’t in agreement with us and saying, all right, what in the world is it you’ve been doing? Please explain it to us. And I had a number of people in high political office come to me and discuss this. And when I would explain what we were doing and I would say, why are you supporting all this, IEW. Socialism through vouchers and ESAs and all the funding and these private public partnerships? I don’t understand how you say you’re a free marketer and you’re against universal basic income, but you’re for a universal public education. That didn’t make any sense to me. And I want to clarify that I actually am for a universal public education. I’m not in favor of universal public schools. I think that’s a horrible way of going about educating people. But meanwhile so what was happening is these legislators and people I was talking to were saying to me, I have never heard any of this before. I thought either you paid a lot of money to go to private school, you were in public school, or you had to do everything by yourself as a homeschool. And I was like, no, there’s thousands of options and they began to want to know more. So I called Alec and a few other friends and said could we get together and kind of write a statement that a few people wanted us to write public policy statements, a few of us wanted to write kind of bullet points. But I wanted first as a classicalist to write a declaration to first say where the presuppositions all come from and why we believe what we believe. And so that’s where the declaration came from and so it’s been really well received and I hope that more people will sign.
Yvette Hampton:
Kit lee, tell us as you were writing this, what was the goal? What are you hoping to accomplish through know?
Leigh Bortins:
I’m not trying to convince everybody in the United States or know cece global homeschooling is global to agree with me. What I was trying to do was give words to the people who do agree with us but don’t have the words to explain it and to let them know there was a place and a group of people working really hard to educate folks on freedom education. Because like I said before, legislators and leaders were coming to me saying I don’t know how to explain this. My gut tells me not to expand socialism but everybody thinks public education is an inherent right and I don’t have the words to explain things. So it would be wonderful if next week something happens and all the public schools close down overnight because that can happen. We saw it with COVID People keep telling me this is a long term thing and I’m like, no, I’m a believer in miracles but I’ll accept long term too. So the goal is to really use the declaration, whether you agree with all of it or some of it, to begin conversations and have a place where our terms are defined and our little bit of history is referred to and some classical language is involved. So the leaders of leaders have a place to, hmm, what do I think about this and not just accept the status quo.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah, Alex, I want to hear from you. So as Lee came to you and you started hearing about this and just starting to write down some of what the thoughts were and like Lee said, putting into words for other people what they know but didn’t necessarily know how to express, what were your thoughts on this? Why did you jump on board and decide to be part of this?
Alex Newman:
It’s a really cool story actually. We end it with a firm reliance on divine Providence. When Lee called me and said, hey, we’re having this meeting, can you come? Wow, divine providence. Kit just so happens that I’m going to be driving through North Carolina that very day on my way to New Hampshire. Imagine that. So I stopped in and Lee and I had had a lot of conversations about this and a lot of the others involved in our movement. We need an end goal because there’s a growing pragmatic understanding that the public schools, the government schools, are not working. At least on the conservative side of the spectrum, there’s now an almost universal recognition that we’ve got to get the children out, but then we have this movement, well, the government should just give people money. My thought is, and I’ve had this on my mind for years and years, and we need to define the ultimate objective and we need to define the principles that underpin this. It’s not just a pragmatic argument. It’s not just, well, the government schools aren’t doing a good job, so let’s find another way to do it. It’s why is the government involved in educational in the first place? Where do you find that in the Bible? So forget the pragmatism for 1 second and the pragmatic argument is fine, it’s obvious the government schools are a total failure. But even if they weren’t, the principle at stake here is do we want the coercive machinery of government to be operating the educational institutions? There are many principled reasons why we shouldn’t want this, starting with the biblical one. The civil government has a job description. That job description is to punish evil, to protect the good, to deploy the sword for the stopping of evil. Nowhere, no matter how you read the Bible, sideways, upside down, doesn’t matter. You’re never going to find any delegation of authority to Caesar, to civil government over the education, the minds of young people or anybody else. It’s just way outside the bounds of what government should be doing. And so my thought was, let’s put this document together where we define our principles, where we state our ultimate objective. We all know, right, everybody on our side of the spectrum here knows that we’re not going to shut down the government’s indoctrination centers tomorrow. It’s a trillion dollar a year goliath. It’s a monstrous beast with more money than any of us could ever even imagine. We’re not going to shut it down tomorrow. But by defining the principles and defining an end goal, a total separation of civil government from education, we’re moving the ball in the right direction. We’re moving the overton window over to where it needs to be. And we’re also helping to articulate for people who are on our side, but don’t quite understand the principles beyond the pragmatic argument that, look, there is a goal, there is a principle at stake here. This is what we should be pursuing. And it’s only been out for a little while and already I think it’s accomplishing that purpose. I’m thrilled to see the response so far.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah, it has been amazing. And we’re going to get to the document for our listeners. I actually want to walk through, piece by piece, the document itself. I know Alex has already read it, but then I want to kind of pick it apart who were the original signers of this document?
Leigh Bortins:
Well so it depends what you mean by original signers. So there was twelve of us that met to originally get together. Myself and somebody I hired who wasn’t even at that meeting did the research on the biblical and patriotic history of education and pulled together things from Locke and Chesterton and the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and kind of gave us a very flowery set of ideals that we could pick from. And then there was myself and Alex and a few folks from classical conversations, my son Robert included. And then we had two leaders from the Freedomship Institute which is a lobby organization that promotes homeschooling as well as some retirees from the Republican Leadership Movement. And we none of these people are really big big names but they’re people that I know new than big names. I’m trying to think who else was there Alec to help me remember? Oh, I know some leaders of universities. So there was educators as well as politicians and a few parents that we just wanted feedback from. And some of them weren’t from homeschooling, they were from private education trying to support us. So we worked on it for a day and then afterwards that gave them about two weeks and they went and got feedback and chewed it up. We had pastors, I forgot the were there also. And over the next two weeks I met with my writing team again and we took all their ideas. And the Declaration you see now is what we came up with. And then over the last month while each of us that were the original writers were finding a handful of leaders of leaders to be co signers along with us, they gave us corrections and some feedback and we tweaked it a little bit more. And so what you see published was really six weeks of type A personalities. I’m telling you it was herding cats. I’m sure I was persevered and it happened. And what’s interesting to me, Yvette, is a handful of people said no it’s not strong enough, I won’t sign it. And a handful of them said oh you’re too mean, I’m not going to sign it. So of the dozen original folks I think two did not sign it and all the rest did. And so we’ve been spending just this last week, it’s been released September 5 and today’s just September 10 or 11th getting the word out and we have a couple of hundred signatures now but we’ve emailed probably 1000 friends and leaders of leaders by this point waiting to see their response.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah that’s amazing. I want to walk through this piece by piece and kind of exposit this document because I know that it’s available for anybody to sign. There are the original signers of it. But this is a document that we want everybody to read, everybody to consider. And if it’s something that you agree with you have the opportunity to be part of this and this is part of history. I mean, I think it’s so cool. It really is part of the educational history of our country and so we get to be just a little part of it. And we are so honored to do that. And so you are listeners, you have an opportunity to be part of this as well. So we will put links, of course, to everything having to do with this document in our show notes so that you can participate in that. Let’s kind of read through the first paragraph and let’s just dissect this as we go because it is so well written and so well thought through. I can’t imagine, like you said, Lee, it was like hurting cats to try to get so many people to agree and to write the different parts of Kit. But it’s very beautifully written. As you read through it, it makes sense, it flows, and it really makes you think through what our responsibilities are. So Alex, can you read for us the first paragraph and then talk through that with us?
Alex Newman:
Happy to do it. Thank you. Yvette. And so it begins with we, the undersigned endowed by nature, and Nature’s God, with certain inalienable rights, do declare that the authority to direct the education of citizens rests with family government and not with civil government. We affirm and declare that a flourishing society is built upon families that are free to exercise those rights in order to fulfill their obligations and responsibilities to future generations and further declare and so, right at the beginning, I’m sure people who got a decent education will recognize some of this language, right? A lot of it is very family. To people who’ve read the Declaration of Independence, which starts off with we hold these truths to be self evident. It starts off with Nature and nature is God. Of course, we didn’t invent this language. We borrowed this language from the incredible tradition that led to the establishment of our incredible republic. And in fact, Thomas Jefferson, who primarily wrote the Declaration of Independence, did not invent this language. A lot of it was borrowed from some of the greater thinkers that came before him. In fact, this whole concept of nature and nature’s God, this was a concept that was explored by Sir William Blackstone in Commentaries on the Laws of England. There’s a very profound significance to this language, and I think it’s important that we started that way, because we’re starting here with something that’s transcendent. It’s not like this is our opinion and so pay attention to our no, no. This is something rooted in transcendent truth. God is the author of nature. God is the author of nature’s laws. And so this is very, very significant that people understand this isn’t just the opinion of some people who came together and wrote a declaration. These are principles that are rooted in the eternal that god has revealed through nature and also through revelation. And our founding fathers built on that in the declaration of Independence, of course, that paved the way for our great republic. We’re hoping that reminding Americans of these principles will help pave the way to once again having a flourishing society like we at least at one time in our history had.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah, as I was reading through it and I was kind of highlighting different parts of it, i, of course, highlighted and bolded the endowed by nature and nature’s God. Because, again, that’s where it all starts. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and then in John one, one in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. Like Jesus God. He is the creator. He is, as we talked about in Monday’s episode, he is the one who rules over all creation. Right? Because he’s the one who created it. And so that’s where our authority is established. But then I love that it goes on to say that the authority to direct the education of citizens, being our children little citizens, rests with a family government and not with civil government. And so that’s where this points back to as a homeschool family and as a mom, like, I just think about that and think, man, it is my responsibility to direct the education of my children. And we know, of course, that education is discipleship, and that’s a huge deal for us as parents to understand that it’s not just about we talk about this on the podcast all the time, but it’s not just about reading and writing and math. It is about pointing our kids to Jesus. And we have a great responsibility to do that. It is not the job of the civil government to do that. And the Alex you mentioned, it says, we affirm and declare that a flourishing society flourishing. I love that word. I love that you guys put that in there. Is built upon families that are free to exercise those rights. That’s where I think we’ve lost so much in our society today.
Alex Newman:
Yeah. And I do think the emphasis on families is really important here. We don’t want just atomized individuals. Family is really it’s an institution that’s ordained by God, and it is the building block of any flourishing or even decent society. When you get rid of family as the building block for civilization, what happens is a horror show, and we’re kind of seeing the fruit of that today in our society. It’s an absolute atrocity.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah, absolutely. Lee, would you take the next section?
Leigh Bortins:
Do you mind if I just clarify something very hard? With citizens rest with the family government, and I loved your interpretation of it, but when I was writing it, I was thinking of my college age students and my grown adult children, even though they’re adults who pay their own bills and make their own decisions. They do so in light of the gospel I shared with them. They call my husband and I for advice. They know that they are still part of a family. Because this document doesn’t apply to K Twelve education. It applies to all education in the United States and worldwide. That even our state schools, which are really struggling right now and becoming very apparent, and there we are trying to save them rather than recognizing they shouldn’t exist in the first place.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah. Oh, that’s great, Lee. I hadn’t thought of it that way, and I think because I’m the mom of young girls, know they’re still in our home. And so I’m not yet at that point where I’m thinking about adult children. But that is such a beautiful picture of what the family looks like. Right? I mean, once our kids grow up and are out of our home, they don’t stop being our children and we don’t stop being family. It’s not like this dismembered family who goes off in their own different directions. Everyone doing their own thing, or at least that’s not God’s design for family. And so I think it’s amazing. I love that your kids still come to you and that you still get to be part of their lives in speaking truth and encouragement and giving advice and all of those things. I mean, that’s such an important part of parenting and family. So thank you for thinking through that in that aspect. Lee, would you take the next section and walk us through that?
Leigh Bortins:
Sure. That education, which is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to the other, is the natural and proper jurisdiction of family government and not of civil government. That the bond between man and woman is so sacred and its effects on their sons and daughters so incalculable that all institutions are obliged to respect, defend and maintain that bond. That all forms of government, self, family, church and civil are ordained by God to preserve the life, liberty and property of its members in accordance with the laws of nature which we referred to in the opening. And so, because it is the soul of a society from one generation to the next and the next to the next, that’s why our families matter for decades, not till our children are just 1819 years old, because we want to help them also to make the adult decisions that help for a flourishing society. And then, of course, the second part, that bond between man and woman is so sacred that all institutions are obliged to respect, defend and maintain that bond is a direct contradiction to what we see going on now with all the dysphorias occurring. And then we wanted to remind people because everyone says the government should do it. And we’re like, but which government should you learn to self govern? Is it your family that’s working together on this? Is it your family of families, your church and then the civil government afterwards. But all of those are ordained by God to preserve life, liberty and property in accordance with the laws of nature, not the laws of what I decide on Tuesday.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah, it’s interesting to me that you put property in here because as we think of a civilized government as opposed to a socialist government, and we think through the idea of property, right? I mean, it’s so interesting to me that people think we actually should live in a socialist society, but it’s because people have been taught that in the public school system and so they think, oh, this is good and this is best. And you’re so clear in this document saying that’s not it. All forms of government self, family, church and civil are ordained by God to preserve the life, liberty and property of its members in accordance with the laws of nature. And I think it’s so important that you put in there also the bond between man and woman. And you mentioned this kind of alluded to this as well. But we look at what’s happening in the public school system and they have it so backwards. I mean, the family unit, again, has just been so torn apart intentionally, and it’s so scary what’s happening. We’re looking at California what’s happening with laws in California and parents not being able to say to the little girl, you’re a little girl, and they’re a little boy, you’re a little boy. They have to affirm them in their insanity, really. And parents are encouraging this. And if you don’t affirm them, you’re somehow being abusive to your kids. I mean, this is insane. It’s true insanity. And so this really does come back to God’s Word. And what does God’s Word say about the family? And that’s really what we have to look at. Alex, can you take the next part of it and pull that apart for us?
Alex Newman:
Happy to do it. Yep. It says further. To reverse the civil government’s usurpation of the proper functions of family government, we declare that both elected officials and unelected bureaucracies must act in accordance with the natural and constitutional limitations that circumscribe the powers of civil government. Civil governments must make no laws restricting the free exercise of each family to associate for educational purposes through policy enforcement or funding, and any such laws or regulations must be removed. So I think the word usurpation here is critical. And I think this is something that’s critical for conservatives, for Christians, for everybody to understand. What we’re dealing with here is a relatively modern phenomenon, the idea that government should be responsible for education. And secondly, it is a usurpation. That means it was a function that was stolen. It was usurped from its proper sphere, which would be, of course, family government. And so we declare that elected officials and unelected bureaucracies must acknowledge these limits. And this was always understood. I mentioned earlier, sir. William Blackstone. He actually writes in Commentaries on the laws of England that any law that is contrary to God’s laws as revealed in nature and through revelation is a fraud and is not a law at all. But the transcendent laws of God and nature are binding over the whole globe in all places at all times. And so that applies to every elected official in this country. It applies to every unelected bureaucrat. And of course in this country we were very blessed to be born in the United States of America where the US constitution is the supreme law of the land as it says in the Constitution. This is the document that actually underpins the existence of the government. Without this charter, without this contract if you will, there is no permission for these elected officials or unelected bureaucracies to exist in the first place. So for them to go outside of what the constitution allows, which is now happening on a regular basis, usurping. Powers from other levels of government, usurping. Powers from other branches of government and usurping powers from families and even individuals, this has got to stop. And so that’s why we tried to frame it in these transcendent terms. And then of course the corollary to that is that any laws or rules or regulations that restrict these freedoms that are God given freedoms that are inherent in the individual and the family must be removed. Now we recognize that’s not going to happen tomorrow or even next week. But again, we’re defining an objective here. We’re defining principles here that exist independent of what the government may be doing at this moment. And I think it’s important that as people who are in this movement are going out and trying to make the case, we not rely just again on the pragmatic argument well, government’s doing a bad job. Yes, the government is doing a bad job. Of course the government’s doing a bad job. That’s because it is not proper what they’re doing to begin with. And so I think a lot of that is encapsulated right here and we need to remind government and we need to remind citizens we’re supposed to be a self governing republic where we the people are in charge. We need to remind citizens that a lot of these activities that are being undertaken by the federal, state and even local government are unconstitutional. They are immoral and they should not be happening.
Yvette Hampton:
Go back to you said at the very beginning of that how the government did usurp our authority as parents in the education of our kids, that that’s a modern idea. And Alex, I know you could talk for days and days and days on the past but go back a little bit before this modern idea of the government taking over for us. What did Kit look like in past times?
Alex Newman:
I think this is so important for people to understand. I can’t emphasize this enough. Throughout 2000 years of Church history. Parents and families have always been regarded as the primary source of responsibility and authority in dealing with education. That was true all the way up to a few hundred years ago. The Reformation came along martin Luther, some of the other reformers argued that maybe the Church should play a little bit of a more significant know of course the role of the Church. One of the roles of the Church is to equip the saints. And so some of the reformers said, well, maybe the Church can come alongside parents here and help a little bit. But the idea that this function would be removed from the family and put in the sphere of civil government it’s a very, very new innovation. The ancient Greeks flirted with it a little bit. It was a total disaster. I mean think sparta. And then it was resurrected in the early 18 hundreds by a man who rejected the Bible, who rejected private property, who rejected the family as an institution. His name was Robert Owen set up this ridiculous communist compound in Indiana called New Harmony total failure. And he came to the conclusion that it failed because children had been educated by families in a Christian society. And so the solution to that in his view was having the government take over that idea snowballed and culminated in this atrocity we have today called the public school system. We’ve got to recognize this is first of all a new institution. It has been a very harmful harmful is really the understatement of the century. This has absolutely devastated our society and we’ve got to get back to an understanding of what came before so that we can understand what these principles look like in action and we can appreciate the benefits. The fruit of family led education was the United States of America, the peace, the prosperity, the liberty that that produced. And if we want to get back to those fruits, we’re going to have to get back to the tree that produced those fruits. And that begins by getting rid of this usurpation that has now hijacked the minds of multiple generation of Americans.
Yvette Hampton:
Let’s go through this next one. And Lee, I’m going to let you take the next part of it and then I want to talk about a few more things. So if you could read that I’m starting with therefore and we’ll go from there.
Leigh Bortins:
Good because this is the happy part, the solution. It is therefore to restore education to the proper jurisdiction of family government. We propose that citizens recognize their role as members of families and secure and maintain the natural obligations of such including all of the costs and consequences of educational choices. And that family members with the assistance of voluntary mutual aid societies support private entities that offer the public a variety of educational resources, services and scholarships. In other words, we want to remind everybody even if you are a lonely orphan, you are once part of a family. We all come from somewhere. And to recognize that role, that your family is your safety network, not the government. And that you as a family. And we use the word mutual aid societies because there’s no really good word to describe the myriad of people and organizations who can help you. But you as a family, you as a member of a family, you as the family of families at the church or as a group of families, you’re at a hospital guild or anything like that, that’s a mutual aid society designed to help one another. That is where you go to when you are having financial difficulties as well as all the NGOs and opportunities for private educational resources. And if we had time, I could go over a long list of places where if folks like they don’t have the resources for private education, you can go somewhere like Slash Classical Conversations and you’ll see that we have a scholarship fund for families that are struggling. HSLDA has one all over the place. There’s money available and there’s all kinds of options available to help families who will secure their obligations and be responsible for them.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah, I want a rabbit trail just for a second here, Lee, because I know one of the things that a lot of parents, especially Moms, I think the reason that they resist homeschooling is because they feel like they can’t do it. And again, this goes back to our documentary, our movie Schoolhouse Rocked the Homeschool Revolution. We addressed this in the film. So again, if you haven’t seen it, you can watch it for free schoolhousrockedmovie.com. But even though we talk about this in the movie, Lee, talk really quickly to that parent who just says, you know what? It’s a great idea. I agree with this. I want to be on board, I want to homeschool my kids. I know the Lord’s calling me to do this. I know that it’s biblical, but I just can’t do it. I don’t have what it takes. I don’t have the patience, I don’t have the education, I don’t have the time. I don’t have what it takes to be able to educate my kids at home and to disciple them. What encouragement can you give to that parent?
Leigh Bortins:
Well, that none of us do. And that’s why we need to rely on the Holy Spirit. If you or I or Alec’s wife and Alec and my husband, your husband, if we could do this by ourselves, we wouldn’t need any help at all. But we have not just the Holy Spirit and our church is behind us with a healthy church. Yvette and Alec and I have one another. And if you’re in classical conversations, we have an organization that purposely meets once a week with the family to help each other. And you have an advertiser that’s helping with online education. There are so many places to get help these days that nobody has to do it alone. And as homeschoolers, we’re homeschoolers. We’re not loan schoolers. And that’s probably my biggest message I like to get out is homeschooling is not what you think it is. It’s not school at home. It’s truly using all the resources available for your family to help them become lifelong learners.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah, I think of like Amblesight online and easy peasy homeschool. And there are several different avenues online that people can look at. And we’ll put some of those links in the show notes as well where they can get basically free curriculum, not actual books sent to you, but sometimes you can print out actual books that are in the public domain that they’ve set aside for you and it’s really cool. And then of course, we can utilize the library. A lot of churches have church libraries. You have friends who homeschool and so you can ask them, hey, and I’ve done this with friends. Can we borrow this science curriculum for the next year since you’re not using it? Or this history curriculum? And the homeschool world overall is very generous and we want because we’re part of a family, we’re a community, and so we want to help one another to succeed. And I think that’s so important is just being part of that community. So thank you for that. Alex, I’m going to let you take the end of this.
Alex Newman:
Well, I agree 100% with what Lee just explained. None of us are qualified. But if we are not qualified, how much less are total strangers who got a four year degree from a Kermie university that taught the revolutionary Marxism and gender studies in place of anything remotely resembling true education? So we are the most qualified individuals on the planet to teach our own children. There’s nobody in the world who loves them as much as mom and dad do. But there is this pervasive myth, and I think it’s put out there deliberately by the government, school sector, if you will, that homeschooling isolates children, that they’re not going to get properly socialized. That is all a total fraud. And anybody who’s been involved in homeschool world for even five minutes knows that’s not true. I could throw a rock from my house and hit ten different homeschool co ops. Every church around here has got homeschool families involved in it and it is truly such a joy. And as we explained in the declaration, it is the biblical model, it is the proper model for family to be dealing with these things. And to the extent that we need help, beyond that, it should not be, hey, let’s hire the government to go rob my neighbor so they can give me money to the extent that we need help. Beyond that, we go to voluntary society, we go to churches, we go to community resources and groups. We go to homeschool co ops. We go to organizations like Classical Conversations. My kids are in classical conversations. We love it. We wouldn’t trade it for the world. We’re part of different co ops here. So there’s a whole ecosystem of institutions, organizations, funds, et cetera. As a volunteer, I lead public school exit. We’ve got a scholarship fund. So where there’s a will, there’s a way, folks, don’t let the fake media or the government school establishment convince you that you cannot homeschool your children. You are better qualified than anybody else to do it. You’ll find tremendous resources out there and let’s start shifting the conversation. The government schools are now on defense. Let’s not come in and save the day for them by saying, well, but the government will still fund all of our other educational options. All that’s going to do is end up eliminating genuine choice and sucking us all right back into the system. That is unbiblical, that is unethical, and that we are trying to flee from. We need to have a real separation between education and the civil government. They have no business being involved here and if we allow them to start funding and controlling what we’re doing, we’re going to lose true choice. I’ve seen it happen before. We are school refugees along with hundreds of other families from Sweden. Trust me, I came from the future. I know what it looks like. We don’t want that here. And so folks, go to Educationalindependence Net and sign the Declaration. If you agree with us and if you’re not homeschooling yet, if you still have children in the government school system, pray about it and then treat it like the building is on fire. Grab your children and run as far as you can, as fast as you can. Right now, not next week, not after you’ve sorted out your finances. Do it now. The other things will fall into place later.
Yvette Hampton:
Alex, would you read the last part of this Declaration and let’s just pick that one apart.
Alex Newman:
Happy to do it. It says we, the undersigned, in the name of life, liberty, and the responsibilities inherent to the pursuit of happiness, solemnly publish and declare that the establishment of education is reserved for family, government, its members and voluntary associations. For this Declaration, we pledge our support with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence. So again, we have some of these concepts life, liberty, responsibilities of pursuing happiness. And so again, we conclude with this call to separate education from civil government. Kit is essential to the exercise of our rights and responsibilities, that we get this unbiblical, immoral idea out of our minds and that we pursue the proper understanding of this, which is education is for family government and for individuals and for voluntary associations. It is not the realm of civil government and divine providence. It’s a word that’s kind of lost its meaning in the modern era for most people, unfortunately. But the Founding Fathers, when they signed the Declaration of Independence, they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, and they put their trust, their reliance in Divine Providence, not in the strength of their arms, not in the strength of their military leadership. And they had great military leadership, and George Washington was a superstar, but ultimately, they were trusting in the divine and benevolent hand of God to protect them and to lead them. And that’s where we’re at as well. We’re not going to be able to win this battle in our own power. We’ve got to rely on God and divine providence. And so that’s why we ended with that. And we hope that others will join us. I’ve said this for many years now. I believe this is the most crucial battle facing us today, and that’s not to downplay the significance of the other is there’s a lot of important battles going on that we all need to be involved in. But if we lose on this education battle, we’re going to lose on every other battle. We’re going to lose our churches, we’re going to lose our families, we’re going to lose our country, we’re going to lose our liberty and our property and all the rest of it. So, folks, this is the key arena of battle, and we need to rely on Divine Providence and really establish clearly our terms and the principles.
Yvette Hampton:
Amen. We lean on Divine Providence for every bit of our lives. At least we should. If you’re not leaning on the Lord for everything, I don’t know how you’re living life. I often say. I don’t know how people get through this life without Jesus because it’s just so hard. And without having the hope of Christ, it seems impossible. So, Lee, in the last couple of minutes, just let’s give a quick application. What do families do? I mean, I know they can sign the declaration, and we will put links for them to do that in the show notes, but what do they do? What do they do from there? What do churches do? What do local homeschool organizations and co ops do? What about state organizations? How do we come together to bring this freedom about as we look at truly declaring our educational independence in our families? Yeah.
Leigh Bortins:
Unfortunately, on the website, we have some five points. One, you can sign the declaration like you said, but two, let’s join our movement, do like Alex said and run to your nearest private organization, homeschool Co op or Homeschool yourself. And then to lead our movement, you might be the one that starts the next successful classical conversations or the next successful Homeschool Co op. And then to support our movement, we’re asking you to if you’re worried about folks that aren’t financially secure, there’s so many scholarship funds being made now, donate to them. And then finally, all of us have some kind of social media or at least a phone. Call your friends and ask them to discuss this declaration and hopefully sign it.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah. And send them this podcast so that they will understand what it is that they’re signing, what they’re reading. I love that we just got to walk through this whole document piece by piece and really dissect it because we can read it and it makes sense. But it’s so much more fun to just discuss it, to have a conversation about it, because that’s what we do, right? As homeschool moms. We talk about things, we talk through things. And then I would say that next step, too, is to take it to your kids and help them to understand it. I think so often as a mom, I will read things and I will do things, but I will forget to bring it to my kids and say, hey, here’s this thing that we’re part of. And I just kind of assume that they know that we’re doing these things all the time. And then I realize, oh, wait, they have no idea what I’m talking about. And so make your kids a part of know, take your family and pray over this as a family because this really is a big deal. So thank you. Alex, do you have any last words of wisdom before we close out?
Alex Newman:
Yeah, just be in prayer and read your Bible. All of the greatest elements of the United States of Western civilization, all the benefits that we take for granted, they’re all a result of the principles that we tried to enshrine and distill in this declaration. Obviously, there’s more to it than that, but the key area of the battle right now is the education of our children. Right now, they’ve got something like 75% of our children in these indoctrination centers that are turning them against God, turning them against their families, turning them against our country. And absent some sort of miraculous divine intervention, our country is not going to survive another generation or two of this. We are in great peril, and I say that not to scare people. I don’t want you acting out of fear, but I want people to understand that everything is at stake right now. When people tell me they can’t afford to homeschool their kids or find a good Christian educational alternative, I say, look, you can’t afford not to. You’re going to lose everything if we don’t get this under control. And the benefits are just so great. So astounding any sacrifice you have to make to make sure that your family can follow the biblical model for education, the proper model of education is worth the sacrifice. I can guarantee it. And thank you, Vet. You and Garrett. You guys are just so wonderful. I so appreciate the opportunity to come on and talk about this, and I do hope people will sign the declaration and then get it out there. Talk to your pastor, the elders at your church about it. Let’s get the word out and let’s turn this around. Let’s define clearly the principles that we stand on and let’s make our stand and trust God with the results.
Yvette Hampton:
Amen. Lee, any last words?
Leigh Bortins:
I’m just so thankful for people like you and just all the folks that over the last 40 years have helped me and Alec and folks like us to speak the truth about being free. Indeed.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah. At the very end of the movie, Schoolhouse Rocked. It ends with a black screen and it says, Join the revolution. This is part of the revolution, you guys. This is part of it. Bring your kids home. This is part of the revolution of bringing them home and having the freedom to show them Jesus every single day. Thank you guys so much for being with us. Thank you, Lee, for all the work and years and years, really, of preparation that you’ve put into this. You are such a blessing to so many families and we’re so grateful for you. Alex, thank you so much for your wisdom that you share and just for the heart that you have for families and for truth and for sharing that with us. We love you both and we love you, our listeners, thank you so much for being with us this week. I hope that this has really impacted you and that you will be encouraged to sign this declaration. Again, read it with your kids. Read it with your families and share it with your friends. Share this podcast. If you’re on YouTube, like and subscribe and leave us comments, let us know what your thoughts are on this. We would absolutely love to hear them. And if there’s any way that we can be praying for you as a family, send us an email podcast@schoolhouse.com. You can sign up for everything on our website, schoolhouserocked.com. We’ve got a newsletter we would love for you to sign up for. Again, you can watch the movie, you can listen to our podcast. We are here to help you edge, educate your kids with excellence and to point them to Jesus. Have a great rest of your week and we’ll see you.
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