My daughter Alana and I are featured in an article in today’s Daily News about the New York State Education Department’s stupid decision to deny special ed services to homeschoolers. While we homeschool my daughter, she receives physical therapy, occuational therapy and play therapy weekly to help with ADHD and gross motor skills development. Until now, the Board of Education had paid for these services, just as they do for public school students and even elite private school students. Now it looks like they are going to revoke those services, just for homeschooled kids.
Some libertarians may question whether I’m being hypocritical by receiving services from the state while opposing the welfare state and government schools. I might be making that same argument if I were in someone else’s shoes. However, the way I see it, I’m still paying way more in taxes than I’ll ever get back in services. Until they let me stop paying taxes, I’m not going to feel too bad about taking some of it back. Also, our daughter’s therapists our private contractors we choose, not part of the government education bureaucracy. And of course, if I have to choose between being the purest libertarian of them all and helping my daugher, the latter wins by a mile.
Now if I were taking matching funds for a political campaign, then I’d be a baaaad libertarian… 🙂