Herndon's constitutional proposal is concerning

Senator Herndon's Senate Joint Resolution 105, would add to the Idaho Constitution a provision guaranteeing rights to home schooling “free from government regulation.” 

The Idaho Constitution guarantees the freedom to home school: “The legislature may require by law that every child shall attend the public schools of the state ... unless educated by other means, as provided by law.” And homeschoolers can and should teach anything they want.

So what's the hidden point of the amendment? Guaranteeing home schooling “free from government regulation” would lay the basis for funding religious education. Again the constitution: “No sectarian or religious tenets or doctrines shall ever be taught in the public schools.” All public money has to be accounted for. Government expenditure without regulation will corrupt both church and state — and education — as Jefferson and Madison argued.

But maybe I'm wrong. If Senator Herndon doesn't intend to use this amendment to justify funding religious education (or other things not allowed in our public schools), let him swear publicly and to his god “no funding for homeschooling” — before the primary election May 21, please.

NANCY GERTH

Sagle