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  • NO FRIEND TO HOMESCHOOLING

    Filed at 9:16 pm under by dcobranchi

    Every time I cross paths with PAhomeschoolers’ Howard Richman, I come away convinced that he must really be an NEA plant. How else to explain his anti-freedom positions? Here are his responses to the Akron series from last month. A couple of choice quotes should suffice:

    However, the Akron Beacon Journal case that homeschooling relatives are murdering homeschooled children at a greater rate than would be expected is actually quite strong.

    Here Smith ignored the preponderant evidence collected by the Beacon Journal that child abuse was actually higher amoung homeschoolers… The problem is that Smith´s group, HSLDA, has tried to take out all child protection from homeschool laws, as when they supported House Bill 2560 of 2002 in Pennsylvania. Judging from HSLDA’s ranking of homeschooling laws across the country, their ideal law is one that gives parents the right not to educate their children. Such laws provide convenient shelter to parents who decide to “homeschool” in order to hide child abuse.

    Actually, there is one other explanation. It’s called a conflict of interest. From what I remember from the debate on 2560, Richman makes money from the continuation of PA’s terrible homeschooling laws. More freedom means less money for him. Making money off of homeschooling is good old-fashioned capitalism. Doing it at the expense of homeschooling freedoms makes you an enemy of homeschoolers everywhere. (Hat tip: Dave)

    3 Responses to “NO FRIEND TO HOMESCHOOLING”


    Comment by
    Hser from PA
    December 29th, 2004
    at 11:48 am

    It is actually worse than a few comments on Richman’s for-profit message board (that unsuspecting homeschoolers think is unbiased inf0rmation). Richman is *currently* using the ABJ articles in his effort to make the PA law worse! There are efforts by some statewide groups to work with legislators to improve the law and Richman is quoting the ABJ articles to try to make the law more restrictive. He is truly evil.


    Comment by
    Kay Brooks
    December 29th, 2004
    at 2:53 pm

    My first contact with Mr. Richman came when I discovered he was using wrong inf0rmation about Tennessee to bolster his view against freedom for homeschoolers. It took me months to get him to remove the wrong inf0rmation. I finally posted my request for change to his message boards and the inf0rmation was promptly removed.

    But Mr. Richman isn’t alone in the conflict of interest crowd. It’s something we need to consider when evaluating the viewpoints and actions of many of our leaders and opponents.


    Comment by
    Eric Holcombe
    December 31st, 2004
    at 11:20 am

    I found it sort of funny that he suggested the Fallacy Detective unit study for this series after his comments on the “statistics”.