Republican state senator Aaron Osmond of Utah questioned mandatory education in a post on the state Senate blog on Friday. He wrote that mandatory education has put teachers into the role of parents and that schools take on the responsibilities of parents and families. He mentioned that prior to the mandate, education was perceived as an “opportunity” and parents were actively engaged in the academic life of their children, and how teachers were more respected at that time.
Senator Osmond wrote in his blog post that a number of parents completely stop caring and don’t bother to look after or worry over their children’s education. They let the schools handle everything and worry about the child, as if it were the main concern of the public school system. Teachers have become the new parents, counseling kids, providing nutrition, sex education, and ensuring college and career readiness.
His blog post continued, “Unfortunately, in this system, teachers rarely receive meaningful support or engagement from parents and occasionally face retaliation when they attempt to hold a child accountable for bad behavior or poor academic performance.”
In the post senator Osmond wanted parents to be able to decide whether or not their children should go to school, and asked that the 990 hours mandate be questioned. He wrote that the state shouldn’t control the amount of time a child spends in school but rather the school districts should decide.
On his own website the senator discusses education issues and considers that along with the compulsory education mandate, state government should allocate funding for the schools as well as discussing some current problems with the education system. According to the Huffington Post, Osmond asked that local school boards take up more of the educational responsibilities. He also wanted more people to take an active role and participate in the academic life of their children in their community by attending more school board meetings.