Nebraska Family Forum

It is the Mission of the Nebraska Family Forum (NFF) to promote education policies in our state that preserve and protect parental authority and the integrity of the family. In so doing, we will preserve the cooperative and respectful relationship between school authorities and parents, preserve a family-centered community, and provide a well-rounded education for our kids.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Memorandum of Understanding Causes Parents Significant Concern

I opened my inbox this morning to dozens of emails from parents and concerned citizens who responded to their reading of the Memorandum of Understanding circulating in regards to the Superintendent's Plan to Improve Student Attendance in Douglas and Sarpy Counties. It is of great concern that every sheriff, chief of police, county attorney, and county commissioner are being asked to affirm their support for incongruous Mission, Guiding Principles and Vision of the GOALS Initiative.

The law has already caused parents significant concern and caused families to suffer the humiliation of being treated like "criminals". Some of the beliefs that are stated as guiding principles for the GOALS initiative are significant steps designed to crystallize a paradigm shift and will make it significantly harder for parents to reclaim their rights lost in 2010 by a unanimous vote in the Unicameral which shifted discretion over school attendance form parents and principals to lawyers and judges.

One email in particular expressed the increasing concern caused by the onslaught of policy implementation hastily approved since the law passed. The unequivocal statement that school attendance is the "single most important element to the student's ability to learn and be successful in school and life" places too much weight on only one of many important factors that contribute to a child's ability to learn and be successful in life and is compounded by the inference that the state should intervene when parents "occasionally" struggle to meet their child's NEED to attend school daily with practically NO exceptions.

The letter reads as follows:

"It is 3:23am on November 12th, 2011. I am unable to sleep because of the anxiety I am having over winter coming and the possibility of my children missing school. Thankfully my children are generally in good health, however, we have already missed 3 days this year due to illness and it is only the beginning of November. There have been at least 4 other days that I would have kept my children home, except they weren't "sick enough". My thought process is now, "Send them today, just in case it is worse tomorrow" and "Don't use up all your allowed sick days at the 1st of the year". Sadly, we have had more illness in our home in the past 3 months, more than the previous 13 years. I 100% believe this is because parents are now forced to send their children to school sick. EVERY person I know with children has sent them to school sick. Maybe not violently ill, but enough so that germs and illnesses are being passed around again and again.

"Where did common sense go? If you are sick, stay home. Germs and illness are NOT things that should be shared. I am a responsible parent and I know what is best for my children. Each person I associate with is responsible and they know what is best for their children. If my children miss school, we (both me and my student) gather the missed work from the teacher and get it turned in within a day or so of returning to school. If necessary, they go in before school or stay after to make up anything that they miss. I understand that there are issues with truant children. Staying home sick is NOT truant. Websters dictionary defines truant as: one who shirks duty; especially : one who stays out of school without permission. My children don't skip school, they aren't EVER truant. If they are out of school, they do have permission from me, their parent. to It boggles my mind that we are all now sending our children to school because of FEAR. That is not a good environment for anyone to learn.

"We had a family reunion in October that we passed on because of this law. We are NOT going to be with family for Thanksgiving this year because of this law. Our Christmas holiday will be shortened because of this law. Our Spring break vacation is now altered because of this law. My husband is now looking for a new job in another state because of this law. I know of at least 5 other families that are looking to move out of Nebraska because of this law. I know of 3 families that accepted jobs in other states because of this law. I am awake at nearly 4am because of this law.

"Please, please, please - allow good parents to be parents. Work with us in raising our children, not against us. Restore the classic definition of truancy and restore a parents right to excuse their child from school.

Thank you,
Christine Bates

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The Personal Impact of Nebraska's School Attendance Law

We began collecting stories in April of 2011 and will continue to collect them as long as the law is abused. The stories we have collected demonstrate how our community has been impacted by Nebraska's school attendance law that counts all absences rather than "unexcused" absences for purposed of "truancy".

It may seem by the district by district breakdown that the law has impacted Millard Public Schools the most, but it is important to note that the Nebraska Family Forum grew out of the Millard Parent Society and therefore the awareness within Millard Public Schools is longstanding.

Out of the 3000+ cases referred to the Douglas County Attorney last year only 400 came from MPS. For every story collected here it is reasonable to assume that they represent dozens more who are affected who have not written their thoughts in a public way.

Nebraska Family Forum: What we Stand For

Mission:

NFF Guiding Principles:

Family is Key: We believe the family is the single most important element to a child’s ability to learn and be successful in school and life, and parents are the foundation upon which family success rests. For this reason, it’s imperative that the state honor the authority of parents as they exercise their natural rights, obligations, and responsibilities to raise, manage, direct, and educate their children.

Freedom in Education is essential: We believe that flexibility in education, school choice, stimulating curriculum, quality teachers, and innovative education reforms are essential to a family centered education. We support policies that will lead to greater parental influence in education innovation, curriculum, and choice.

Family struggles are a healthy part of life: We believe that the fundamental right of a parent does not cease to exist simply because a parent may fail to be a model parent. Parents often struggle to meet the needs of their children, but this is not in itself sufficient cause for unwanted and unwarranted government intrusion into family life. We join with Father Steven Boes of Boys Town in "proclaiming that not only are there no bad boys, as Father Flanagan taught, but there are no bad families.” There is always at least one person in a family that wants what is best for their children and is willing to ask for and receive the help they need.

Government Intrusion can be Harmful: We believe that the right of parents to raise their children without undue government interference is a fundamental liberty that has long been protected by the Constitution of the United States and is not void upon the enrollment of ones child in a public school. We warn that governments who seek to micro-manage the everyday choices of parents in pursuit prescribed outcomes, will do great harm to the integrity of the family and by extension, the well-being of children and society as a whole.

The Simple Truths

Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves. ~ Ernest Dimnet

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. ~ Oscar Wilde

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. ~ William Butler Yeats

Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. ~ B. F. Skinner

Education... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading. ~ G. M. Trevelyan

Every educated person is a future enemy. ~ Martin Bormann

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly. ~ Michel de Montaigne

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards. ~ Mark Twain

It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants. ~ John W. Gardner

No man who worships education has got the best out of education... Without a gentle contempt for education no man's education is complete. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowing, the rest is mere sheep-herding. ~ Ezra Pound

The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives. ~ Robert M. Hutchins

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education. ~ Albert Einstein

To the uneducated, an A is just three sticks. ~ A. A. Milne

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. ~ Albert Einstein

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. ~ Abraham Lincoln

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors. ~aya Angelou

Dad kept us out of school, but school comes and goes. Family is forever.

I hated school. Even to this day, when I see a school bus it's just depressing to me. The poor little kids. ~ Dolly Parton

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

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Saturday, November 12, 2011

Memorandum of Understanding Causes Parents Significant Concern

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