HEF:? We?re all pretty excited about the fact that we may have the first homeschooling president in the White House.
Sen. Santorum: Well, not the first? because everybody used to homeschool!
HEF: We were actually having a little conversation about that the other day. I suggested that you could probably characterize Teddy Roosevelt?s education of his children as homeschooling. Maybe even the Lincolns with their boys . . .
Sen. Santorum: That?s right. You can go through a lot folks who had their kids living with them in the White House.
HEF:?? The folks who read our magazine are most interested in your ideas about education policy. The department of education is playing a huge role in local school districts around the country and to some extent begins to intrude and impact home educating families. Please tell us about your ideas about the federal role in education and what sort of changes you would make if you are elected president.
Sen. Santorum: I believe the experimentation with the federal government overseeing education has ultimately not done very much at all to improve the quality of education in this country. The nub of it is, we need to get parents more engaged and involved in the education of their children. It?s the parents? responsibility to educate their children. Most of the problems, I believe, that we are having in the schools are the fact that parents and schools are not working together to educate their children and creating the best environment for children. The federal government involvement is not doing anything to move that ball forward. To the extent possible, I would eliminate, repeal ?No Child Left Behind?; repeal federal funding for education, with exception of some funding that will help out school districts that have a high proportion of special needs kids.
Other than that, I don?t see that we are going to improve the quality of education in this country with federal government involvement. We need to remove it, to the extent we can. I?d like to remove it, with that one exception. And, I?d make the argument that we need to reduce state involvement in education. The more we can get it down to where parents can get the kind of education that they believe is in the best interest of their children, the better off we will be as a country.
Obviously, there is a local government component to education that I continue to support. But basically, government run and government controlled schools have been? an abject failure. We need to have parent centered education where we get parents engaged ? making sure that they can provide for their children, the best possible educational environment for each child.
And that goes beyond, by the way academics, which is another real failing of the system. Because of the courts and litigation and legislation, the left has basically taken every bit of morality and character and virtue and faith out of the public schools and we now have this naked school system which only cares about academic achievement. I don?t know of any employer who only cares about the academic scores of the people that they hire.? The biggest problem is not academic achievement? the problem is character, virtue, and hard work and the other things that are vitally important and are missing in a lot children today.
HEF: That the public schools don?t seem to be able to do a very good job of instilling?.
Sen. Santorum: Well, they can?t! That?s the problem. There are so many lawyers and court cases and so many rules and regulations that school districts just stay away from these issues. Even if they can do it they don?t do it because they?re afraid that someone will complain and will cost them more money.
HEF:? Let?s talk about reducing federal funding and the federal role. One of the platform planks of the Republican Party back in the ?80?s under Reagan and then into the 90?s when you were in the House and the Senate was to abolish the federal Department of Education, fold it back into HEW and reduce its power. Would you still be in favor of that?
Sen. Santorum: I would consider that ? but there is always going to be an education function in the federal government. I?m not one that goes around and talks about eliminating departments. That makes for nice sound bites, but the bottom line is we have to eliminate the federal role of education when it comes to primary and secondary education. You do that, you accomplish what you want to accomplish. There are other things the Education Department does, workforce training, things like that, most of which I?d like to push back to the states. But if you say you want to abolish the department of education, then you?ll wind up defending yourself against the charge that you don?t believe in education. I?d rather talk about what I want to do rather than just create sound bites. I?d rather talk about what I?m going to do with various departments of the federal government.
HEF:? What about the idea of vouchers? Much talked about. There was an experimental program in Washington, DC, that was eliminated under the Obama administration. Do you see a role for a voucher program?
Sen. Santorum: I think ultimately, what we need is a customized education for every child. That means that parents should have the ability to put their children in the environment that best meets what the parents believe is in the best interest of their children,? in consultation with others who might advise them in that process. Vouchers would be one possible option to accomplish that.
HEF:? Shifting gears, your website mentions the fact that you and your wife home school your children. Why did you make the decision to home school, and what difference has that made in your family experience? What?s been the impact on your children?
Sen. Santorum: I was in the Congress. We had just moved our family to northern Virginia and I had just been elected into the Senate. We wanted to have some flexibility because we traveled a lot back and forth to Pennsylvania. My schedule was not the most predictable, and not family friendly. We had run into somebody at our church who was a homeschooling advocate and a friend of my wife Karen. She suggested that we look at this as an option that could create a good environment for us. I would have the opportunity, with a more flexible schedule, to spend more time with the kids, to be able to travel and to do the things that would produce a better, coherent family life. It was pitched with the advantages from an academic as well as social perspective of homeschooling. It was driven mostly by what would be the best family life given the intricacies of my schedule. We tried it for one year and it went very very well. Elizabeth, our oldest, was a great homeschooler. She responded terrifically. She was an easy homeschooler to teach, even in first grade and so, we just continued. Homeschooling has always been a year to year affair with us. It?s not the easiest thing to do. It?s a lot of work for us. A lot of work especially for Karen. Given the stress and strains on our lives it?s always been one year to the next for us. I can?t even tell you how many curriculum changes we?ve made before we settled on things that we were comfortable with.? But that?s sort of how we worked through it.
HEF:? [laughs] You sound like most of the other homeschooling families I?ve talked to. Everyone takes a little while before they find the curriculum that fits them the best. It sounds like it?s been successful for you. You said it was a year to year decision and you?re still doing it a number of years later. You must think it?s working for your family?.
Sen. Santorum: Oh, there?s no question. With Elizabeth, we homeschooled her until she got to 11th grade. There were some things going on with us, in my life, with respect to leaving the senate, and she decided to go to school. We sent her to a high school. We went to basically homeschooling our children thru grade school and then putting them in a traditional school for high school.
HEF:? When you move into the White House, will you continue to homeschool your kids?
Sen. Santorum: Yes. We have two we homeschool now and we anticipate continuing to homeschool them thru grade school. They?re ten and twelve now.
HEF:? Do you get a chance to do any of the teaching yourself? Especially with the older kids? Is there any particular subject that you sit down and teach yourself?
Sen. Santorum: I did years ago but not as much now. I did all of the homeschooling with one of my kids, my son Daniel. I did his homeschooling in first grade. I wanted to use the curriculum developed by Bill Bennett, called K-12. We used that as a homeschooling curriculum. The first year it was out, it was very computer based. Karen really didn?t want to do that.? She didn?t want to sit in front of the computer. She didn?t want to deal with all of the lesson plans on the computer. This was a long time ago. Daniel?s a junior in high school now. Karen said ?If we?re going to do K-12, then you?re doing it.? I said, ?OK.? It was a great experience, I loved it.
HEF:? Do you think it made any difference in your relationship with Daniel as he got older that you were his teacher in 1st grade?
Sen. Santorum: Oh yeah! The whole homeschooling thing was great. It?s wonderful from the standpoint of building a relationship with your kids.
I can tell you in the last few years our homeschooling has changed. We have a special needs girl in our home now who is 3 1/2. As a result of that, we had to bring in someone to help Karen. She has been, almost full-time, taking care of Bella. So, we have someone come in to help teach several subjects and then Karen still teaches a couple of subjects. You have to adjust when you have a special needs child in the house. You have a responsibility. Karen felt a special responsibility because she was so young and fragile, health-wise.? Karen?s devoted more of her attention to that.
HEF: We were all praying for Bella. Is she doing better now?
Sen. Santorum: Thank you. She is doing better. She is a lot of work and a great, great blessing. She has her regular routine. She feeds with a feeding tube. She?s got respiratory issues that we have to deal with. She has physical therapy and all sorts of other things. Karen wants to do that all within the home and does a lot of it herself. It has pulled her away from doing homeschooling full time. Instead of hiring a nurse to take care of Bella, we have hired someone to help home school the kids.
HEF: Sure, a tutor, or a governess ? it?s always been the Cadillac form of education ? to have a private tutor for your kids.
Sen. Santorum. It is, and in a sense, that?s what homeschooling is. Who can be a better private tutor than your parents? My wife is very accomplished. The most accomplished thing she is, is that she really loves her kids. It?s the best ingredient to make sure you have a great teacher.
HEF:? I want to go back to the political realm, because I know a lot of our readers are interested in your positions on the great social issues of the day: abortion and sanctity of marriage. These are the two social issues that are not going away and our society is wrestling with. Your positions are probably well known, but many of our readers might not be aware of where you stand. How do you approach those issues philosophically, and what would you do about them as president?
Sen. Santorum:? I approach these issues through both faith and reason. I?m motivated to get involved in these issues because my faith considers these to be vitally important issues to the foundation of our society. The institution of the family as well as the intrinsic value of every human life compels me to get involved in these issues and motivates me to take a bold stand. My responsibility as a public figure is to make the justification for the positions I hold available to everyone thru reason. I bring a reasoned argument as to why the positions I have are important from a societal point of view and are important for everyone, not just people of faith. I try to make a compelling, reasoned argument as to why marriage should be held up by society, as a bond between a man and a woman for the purposes of giving children the best possible opportunity to be raised in an environment with a mother and father. It?s best for men, it?s best for women, it?s best for society, for men and women to come together and marry and to raise children. There are other relationships that are certainly valid relationships, in the sense that people can have all sorts of relationship?both amorous and friends?and relational from the standpoint of family, but they are not the same. They are important. They have value to society, value to the people who have those relationships, but they do not have the same kind of importance that marriage between a man and a woman has.
I take the same position with respect to abortion. It?s not a belief that life begins at conception, it?s a biological fact. I believe that we should have a very expansive view about how the Constitution views persons. All persons should equal all human beings. If all human beings are persons, then, as far as I?m concerned, they should be entitled to rights under the Constitution.
HEF:? What differences would that make in your presidency? What actions do you see the president being able to take on the abortion issue?
Sen. Santorum: We have to push for recognition of life in the womb and protection for that life. I have been very clear about why I think Roe vs. Wade is bad law.? I would like to do what we can through the courts as well thru legislation to establish the fundamental right to life for all human beings. Some have suggested we need a constitutional amendment, others have suggested we can accomplish this through a statute that defines personhood under the 14th amendment to include the unborn child. There are all sorts of efforts we can make. I will certainly advocate to stop the killing of 1.2 million children every single year.
With respect to marriage, I?ve long supported a constitutional amendment to define marriage between a man and a woman and have that be the law of the land in our country.
HEF:? Is there anything else you would like to say to our home educating families? They are a broad and diverse group, although they tend to be conservative and very pro-life and pro-family. Anything in particular you?d like to communicate to them?
Sen. Santorum: It will be a great thing for homeschooling in this country, as it comes out of the shadows (as it has in the last several years). It certainly will be a front and center issue in this campaign. I don?t doubt that the left will make this an issue that we?ve homeschooled our children. It?s an opportunity for people to learn about homeschooling.? Just like Bella?s sickness was an opportunity for people to learn about children with disabilities. So too, is this an opportunity to learn about the world of homeschooling and how wonderful and great it is for the children who are homeschooled, for the families who homeschool, and society at large.
HEF: On behalf of Home Educating Family Magazine, we thank you for your time! And we wish you the best!
Source: http://www.homeschoolconvention.com/blog/eavesdrop-on-a-chat-with-senator-rick-santorum/
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