Thursday, February 12, 2009

Horace Mann prophecy watch

Horace Mann, the homeschooling father of three who is generally regarded as the father of America's current public school system, once prophesied: "Let the Common School ... be worked with the efficiency of which it is susceptible, and nine tenths of the crimes in the penal code would become obsolete; the long catalogue of human ills would be abridged."

It hasn't quite worked out that way, of course. Not only have the crimes not become obsolete, they are now occurring in the schools themselves. So it is that Oklahoma's most powerful labor union, the Oklahoma Education Association, finds itself lobbying for something called the School Protection Act. "House Bill 1598 will provide significant protection for teachers and education support professionals against violent students and parents," the OEA said yesterday.
The bill would:

* Make it unlawful and punishable by law to make a false criminal report against an education employee.

* Prohibit students from assaulting or causing harm to an education employee.

* Require suspension or restrict enrollment for students convicted of assaulting a school employee.

No comments: