Senior Counsel for the Home School Legal Defense Association
Senior Counsel for the Home School Legal Defense Association and author of Home School Heroes: The Struggle and Triumph of Home Schooling in America; parent of seven home-schooled children (in Virginia)
Is Home Schooling a Challenge to Public Schools? Home schooling is on the increase as an alternative to what's called the "cultural monopoly" of public schools. After decades of courtroom battles, the practice is legal in every state, some of which regulate it while others don't, and has become an increasing challenge to what's called "the monopoly" of public schools. Most home schooling is still for religious reasons, but secular families are getting in on the action, too. Do home-schooled children get the preparation they need to compete in a complex, high-tech society? Should they be monitored and tested by government, or is the whole point that education should be left to parents alone? What about the rules of democracy and learning to live where religious and ethnic diversity are facts of life?
Will the Senate write a healthcare bill in secret? While Democrats and Republicans argue White House relations with Russia, another question is being decided behind closed doors: who gets help buying health insurance and who doesn't? We hear how the pros and cons are being shrouded in secrecy.
Trump's new look at civil rights and global warming President Trump is reportedly ready to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We look at the possible consequences. On the second half of the program, we hear about cuts in Obama-Era civil rights programs called for by the Trump Administration's first budget plan.
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.