Memorandum submitted by Karen Rodgers

 

• What evidence is there that there was a need for further regulation ofhome-educating families?

• What is the statistical basis of Badman's slanderous assertion that home-educated children are at greater risk than schooled children?

• Why are such skewed and unreliable statistics being used as a basisfor the report? (W. Wallace BSc MSc MPhil FSS AFIMA http://ahed pbworks .com/LiesDamnedLjesStatjstics#StatistjcianComme

• How will this extra proposed regulation be funded?

• Why were only 90 local authorities asked about home-educatedchildren known to social care, and why did only 25 reply?

• Why is such a small self-selecting sample being taken as
representative?

• Why have the full figures still not been released for public scrutiny?

• Why has Lord Adonis not been listened to when he asserted in hisreport that" the party with the keenest personal interest in securing the best available education for a child ordinarily is, or ought to be, theparent of the child"?

• Can forced entry to people's homes and forced removal of theirchildren for interview without the presence or even permission of aparent, ever be justified in a country that likes to think of itself as ademocracy?

• It is proposed that local authority officers be required to visit andinterview home-educated children who do not wish to see them ; will this not directly contravene the requirement placed on them by section 53 of the Children Act 2004, to, where reasonably practicable, take intoaccount the child's wishes and feelings with regard to the provision ofservices?

 

There is a good summary of the objections to Badman here : hftp://bhhe.wordress.com12009106113/badman/

 

September 2009