Sorry, but laws requiring that all home schooled children report to government officials every six months,
I'm not suggesting we haul them in for questioning under bright lights, just that they not be allowed to be totally isolated. Doctor visits should count. Also youth sports coaches. Probably librarians and other parents should count. I'm just trying to find a way to catch those families that deliberately use homeschool isolation as a cover for child abuse, without imposing any significant additional burden on parents who are doing things the right way.
This isn't Europe.
You're right, it's not. Our incidence of child abuse is much higher. In fact, we have some of the highest rates of child abuse in the entire world, and one possible explanation is the pervasiveness of opinions like Shane's.
Thankfully, in most parts of the US, parents still have the right to decide how their children are educated, not the state.
You technically have no such right. At least it's not written down anywhere. You do have that option, in practice, though, because the government allows you to have that option.
And more importantly, I'm not suggesting you should lose the option to control your kid's education. We're not talking about banning homeschooling, despite your immediate jump to the extreme cases in defense of your imagined rights. We're talking about giving kids (all kids) safe places to report abuse. You can still homeschool your kids. If you really care about their well-being, shouldn't you also want them (all of them) to have the option to tell someone if they are being abused?
It makes no sense to take away the rights and invade the privacy of millions of innocent homeschooling families
It is not an invasion privacy to ask that your kids interact with the outside world. It is an invasion of their human rights if you keep them in a cage in the basement and only feed them table scraps. That's what I'm trying to avoid by requiring interaction with the outside world.
bad parents with evil intentions who want to isolate their kids and abuse them will just ignore such laws anyway.
Aaahhh, that old chestnut? Are you maybe a member of the NRA? They love that specious argument too, often interjecting it into gun control debates with the pithy line "then only criminals will have guns."
If there's credible evidence of abuse, CPS should investigate
Wait, what? You just told us that parents should be allowed to keep kids isolated in the basement and never let them see the outside world, but now you think CPS should bust down your front door? By your rules, isn't that a much bigger invasion of privacy?
parents who choose to educate their children outside of the conventional public school system should be presumed innocent.
I think you can still be presumed innocent when your kid goes in for annual checkup at the doctor's office, or meets with a guidance counselor, or signs up for soccer. None of those things seem to presume you are guilty of child abuse. But they can be backstops against hidden abuse, for families that are trying to keep their kids isolated while they torture them with crossbows and boiling water (as we've recently seen in California) and who use homeschooling as a means of concealment.
The vast majority of homeschoolers are good people who shouldn't have to constantly worry that their kids might be taken away from them by some petty bureaucrats.
Why not? I think you absolutely SHOULD be worried that your kids will be taken away from you if you are abusing them. You think you have the right to torture a child just because it's yours?
The rest of us live with the constant knowledge that if we abuse our kids, the government will step in to stop that abuse. They may be relocated to another part of the family, or placed into foster care, and I could go to jail. I LIKE this system. I believe child abusers should be caught and prosecuted. If this thought gives you "constant worry" then I'm a little concerned about what goes on in your house.