Today’s News: November 30, 2021

Heritage Foundation Sues Biden Administration to Stop Vaccine Mandate

Daily Signal – The Heritage Foundation is suing the Biden administration to stop its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private employers, calling the requirement a “gross abuse of power.”

“The mandate clearly encroaches on the police power of states expressly reserved by the 10th Amendment [to the Constitution],” argues the complaint filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The lawsuit adds: “It also exceeds the federal government’s authority under the Commerce Clause.”

Heritage Foundation President Kay C. James and the think tank’s incoming president, Kevin Roberts, who takes office Wednesday, both issued statements on the lawsuit.

“Dr. Roberts and I, along with the Board of Trustees, unanimously agreed The Heritage Foundation has a vital role to play in the courts to protect and secure the freedom of all Americans to make medical decisions for themselves,” James said, adding: 

To all of our members, to the conservative movement, and to Americans concerned by this unacceptable overreach by President [Joe] Biden and his administration, I say this—Heritage’s leadership is united behind this lawsuit, and we are going to fight tooth-and-nail and send the message that our freedoms are not up for debate.

Heritage’s court action became one of the latest challenges to the vaccine mandate, which imposes a Jan. 4. deadline for businesses and other organizations that employ 100 or more to require their employees either to be fully vaccinated or produce the results of weekly tests for the coronavirus. Heritage has about 270 employees. 

The American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative legal group, filed the lawsuit on behalf of Heritage, which is the parent organization of The Daily Signal.

Judge Blocks Biden Administration’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate for Health Care Workers

Epoch Times – A federal judge on Nov. 29 halted the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers, although the ruling only applies to 10 states.

The mandate, promulgated earlier this month by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), required approximately 17 million workers to get a jab or face termination.

But CMS lacks the authority to impose such a broad mandate, U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp, a Trump appointee, ruled.

“Plaintiffs are likely to succeed in their argument that Congress has not provided CMS the authority to enact the regulation at issue here,” Schelp wrote in a 32-page ruling that granted a request for a preliminary injunction.

“Congress did not clearly authorize CMS to enact this politically and economically vast, federalism-altering, and boundary-pushing mandate, which Supreme Court precedent requires.”

The request came from Missouri and nine other states, which asserted that the health care worker mandate was unlawful in part because it was arbitrary and capricious, which is prohibited by the Administrative Procedure Act.

Schelp repeatedly agreed with the plaintiffs, finding that the mandate was arbitrary and capricious for several reasons, including the CMS “lack[ing] evidence showing that vaccination status has a direct impact on spreading COVID in the mandate’s covered healthcare facilities.”

The judge also rejected the agency’s argument that it bypassed requirements to give notice and entertain comments on a proposed measure because the COVID-19 pandemic constitutes an emergency.

CMS waited nearly two months after announcing the mandate before releasing the text and delayed its implementation another month, Schelp noted. The agency also waited more than 10 months after two COVID-19 vaccines were cleared by drug regulators to impose the mandate.

“While today’s ruling is a victory, there’s a lot more work to be done,” Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican, told reporters in Columbia. “Let me clear: My office will not back down in this fight. I will continue to push back every step of the way on the tyrannical overreach of government that we’ve seen, every single time and in every level of government.”

Vaccine Mandate Would Worsen Supply Chain Problem, Trucking Company CEO Says

Daily Signal – In the midst of a supply chain breakdown, the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate is likely to make matters much worse, says the CEO of a Minnesota-based trucking company.  

“We’re not able to haul all of our customers’ freight as it is now,” Eric Lawrence, chief executive of Rochester-based Lawrence Transportation Co., told The Daily Signal. “Most of the trucking companies are in the same position … . We’ve got too much capacity to haul, and we need more labor so we can invest and continue to grow and add more capacity to help the supply chain. And [the vaccine mandate] is going to do the opposite of that. It’s going to take capacity away from this market.”

Lawrence Transportation, established in 1957, is among the companies nationally suing to stop the vaccine mandate. The Job Creators Network, a small-business advocacy group, is representing the Minnesota refrigerated-truckload carrier, along with five other firms in a lawsuit filed in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 

“I’m not anti-vax, but there’s a good number of people in the trucking industry that are just not going to get vaccinated,” Lawrence said. “I think [the mandate would] push some people into early retirement. They’re just going to leave the industry altogether.” 

This whole option of testing once a week, I think, is fine, if you were in a static position with a factory. But our people are moving all over the country, and the sheer logistics of trying to get everybody tested every week is nearly impossible.

The transportation industry could lose up to 40% of its workforce, he said. 

Several other litigants have sued across other federal courts to stop the mandate from going into effect. 

mRNA Vaccines Put You at Risk for Acute Coronary Syndrome

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola – 

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

Using the PULS cardiac test, researchers have found Pfizer and Moderna mRNA COVID shots dramatically increase biomarkers associated with thrombosis, cardiomyopathy and other vascular events following vaccination.

Pre- and post-injection PULS tests for 566 patients were compared. On average, their PULS scores went from an 11% five-year risk for acute coronary syndrome, to a more than double, 25%, five-year risk.

Those who got the injection for fear that COVID-19 might adversely affect their heart now face the grim reality that they’ve exchanged a potential risk for a more certain one.

Another paper details how the mRNA shot can cause thrombocytopenia (low platelet count) through a mechanism that involves the activation of platelets by antibodies against the spike protein (anti-spike antibodies).

A mystery that remains to be solved is why only certain people with antibodies to the spike protein (anti-spike antibodies) go on to develop symptoms of platelet activation and thrombocytopenia. One hypothesis is that only a subset of the anti-spike antibodies formed after vaccination can activate platelets and cause thrombocytopenia

Sudden Surge in Stillbirths and Menstrual Changes

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola 

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

At Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver, British Columbia, 13 babies were allegedly stillborn in a period of 24 hours; all of their mothers had received a COVID-19 injection.

At a rally outside the hospital, doctors launched an official complaint with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police against executives at the College of Physicians & Surgeons of BC, alleging conflicts of interest influencing their policies, decisions and statements made to the people of British Columbia.

Scotland has also experienced an unusual rise in infant death rates; during September 2021, at least 21 babies under 4 weeks died — a rate of 4.9 per 1,000 births, up from an average of 2 per 1,000 births.

As of November 12, 2021, there were 2,620 cases of fetal death or stillbirth among women who received a COVID-19 injection reported to the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

The CDC-sponsored study that was widely used to support the U.S. recommendation for pregnant women to get injected “presents falsely reassuring statistics”.
When the risk of miscarriage was recalculated to include all women injected prior to 20 weeks’ gestation, the incidence was seven to eight times higher than the original study indicated, with a cumulative incidence of miscarriage ranging from 82% to 91%.

CNN’s Chris Cuomo Used Media Sources to Dig into Andrew Cuomo’s Accusers 

Breitbart – Chris Cuomo, host of CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time, used his media sources to dig up info on his brother, former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s, sexual harassment accusers, according to texts and interview transcripts recently revealed.

Text messages released by New York Attorney General Letitia James show Chris Cuomo had frequent contact with Melissa DeRosa, Andrew Cuomo’s top aide at the time.

In early March, the New York Times reported that the former governor tried kissing a woman, Anna Ruch, without her consent. Three days after this report, Chris Cuomo texted DeRosa, “I have a lead on the wedding girl.”

Other messages indicated Chris Cuomo’s willingness to help with his brother’s response and preparation on the sexual harassment allegations. “Please let me help with the prep,” Cuomo told DeRosa in one text.

In another text, Chris Cuomo sent DeRosa a fully written statement for the governor to use publicly:

I will not resign, I cannot resign. I understand the political pressure I understand the stakes of political warfare, and that’s what this is… And I understand the conformity that can be forced by cancel culture.

DeRosa texted Cuomo, “Rumor going around from politico 1-2 more ppl coming out tomorrow. Can u check your sources?” Cuomo replied with, “On it,” then followed up with, “No one has heard that yet.”

Cuomo and DeRosa also discussed an investigative story from New Yorker reporter Ronan Farrow four days before it was published on March 18. “If If ronan has nothing better than boylan thats a great sign,” Chris Cuomo texted DeRosa on March 14.

Lindsey Boylan was a former aide to the governor who alleged that Andrew Cuomo said to her, “Let’s play strip poker” while on a private plane.

Amid these text messages, CNN parent company Warner Media denied the former governor used his brother’s prepared remarks. “The claim that Chris dictated his brother’s statements is false,” a Warner Media spokesperson told Business Insider.

However, CNN said they would be doing a “thorough review and consideration” of the recently revealed documents.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal: ‘Why Should I Distinguish Between White People and Racists?’

Breitbart – Incoming Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who will shortly replace Jack Dorsey as head of the far-left social media company, uncritically repeated a quote in 2010 suggesting that there should be no need to “distinguish between white people and racists.”

“If they are not gonna make a distinction between muslims and extremists, then why should I distinguish between white people and racists,” tweeted Agrawal, in quotes. It is unclear who he was quoting.

While anti-white racism has become common in many U.S. institutions, including its top corporations, Agrawal made his comment in 2010 — years before the Black Lives Matter movement would arrive to push American corporations even further towards the left on issues of race.

Relatively unknown in Silicon Valley until now, Agrawal was announced as Jack Dorsey’s successor shortly after the Twitter co-founder announced he would step down from his role after a six-year stint as its CEO.

Dorsey, who presided over the company’s shift from what his predecessor called “the free speech wing of the free speech party” to a platform that censors conservatives on a regular basis, including the banning of President Trump, has often been denounced by conservatives.

Yet close observers of Twitter’s internal politics, including its former employees, have observed that the real engine of censorship inside the company was not Dorsey himself, but the “trust and safety” department, which sets censorship policies for the company.

The “trust and safety” department became increasingly influential as the media pushed for more social media censorship of conservatives. In 2020, Politico ran a gushing profile of trust and safety global lead Vijaya Gadde, portraying her as the driving force behind the policies that censored Donald Trump.

Agrawal appears to have similar priorities. In an interview with the MIT Technology Review last year, while he was CTO of the company, Agrawal said free speech was no longer a focus for the company.

“Our role is not to be bound by the First Amendment, but our role is to serve a healthy public conversation and our moves are reflective of things that we believe lead to a healthier public conversation,” said Agrawal.

“The kinds of things that we do about this is, focus less on thinking about free speech, but thinking about how the times have changed.”

Greece reveals age groups to be fined monthly if unvaccinated

RT- Older people in Greece who fail to get vaccinated against Covid-19 will face a monthly fine of €100 ($113.64), Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Tuesday, in the first of such measures imposed by an EU country.

To start, Covid vaccines will be mandatory for individuals aged 60 and over, as Greece seeks to protect its health service from a potential resurgence of the virus throughout the coming winter months.

The prime minister’s announcement marks the first measure in the EU to target a specific age group with mandatory vaccination, as officials seek to protect at-risk individuals and emergency workers from Covid. 

Defending the decision, Mitsotakis stated that it was “the price to pay for health” and that it was important to make the Covid jab mandatory to protect elderly Greeks who have not yet been vaccinated.

“We are focusing our efforts on protection of our fellow citizens and for this reason their vaccination will be mandatory from now on,” Mitsotakis stated. 

Over-60s who have failed to book their appointment for a first Covid vaccine dose by January 16 will face a monthly recurring fine of €100. Mitsotakis called the penalty a matter of “protection, not punishment.”

White House in meltdown: Democrats considering ‘nuclear option’ to get rid of Kamala Harris

The Western Journal – What to do with Kamala Harris?

With President Joe Biden at age 79, pushing 82 by the time of the next presidential election in 2024, and already of questionable acuity, there’s growing consensus he will not be running again.

In a normal world, the mantle would be assumed by the vice president, Kamala Harris. But with dismal poll numbers and no apparent knack for her job, the buzz in Washington is that Harris has got to go.

There’s been talk of a “nuclear option,” which is defined as getting rid of Kamala Harris by putting her on the U.S. Supreme Court, according to the U.K’s Telegraph.

Such a move is reported to admittedly be “improbable,” but reflects desperation on the part of the Biden administration, wrestling with not only its own low poll numbers but with those of Harris, which are even lower.

This raises the question: How did Harris get to be vice president to begin with, especially when her presidential run in 2020 was so poor that she had to make an early exit from the campaign?

You know the answer — and it was voiced on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson program by Larry Elder, talk show host and unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial candidate.

“The only reason, in my opinion, she became vice president is because she checked all the boxes. The Democrats in this woke era are no longer going to have two white males on the ticket,” Elder said.

“It’s got to be at least a person of color, hopefully a person of color who was a female. So [Biden] checked all the boxes. It’s proven itself to be basically utterly incompetent,” he continued.

“She has even accused Joe Biden of being racist. She’s not unwilling to pull the race card in order to defend herself. That has offended a lot of people.”

EPA Says Glyphosate and Other Herbicides “are likely to harm more than 1,600 protected plant and animal species”

Activist Post – By B.N. Frank

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a long history of not protecting the environment and Americans from disabling and sometimes deadly chemical toxins.  In regard to glyphosate (used in the controversial Roundup weedkiller), it was reported in August that the agency may have been aware of a probable link between it and Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma for years.  Now the EPA seems to be trying to make up for lost time.

From Common Dreams:

Big Ag Furious After EPA Determines Top Herbicides Driving Vulnerable Species Toward Extinction

“It’s long past time for atrazine to be banned, and the EPA needs to crack down on the reckless overuse of glyphosate.”

As Big Ag fumed Monday over a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determination that herbicides including the endocrine-disrupting atrazine and carcinogenic glyphosate are likely to harm more than 1,600 protected plant and animal species, environmentalists pointed to the agency’s findings as proof of the need for stricter limits on the use of the dangerous poisons.

After decades of refusing to comply with its obligations under the Endangered Species Act, the EPA on Friday released its final biological evaluations for atrazine, glyphosate, and simazine in order to comply with a 2016 legal agreement with the advocacy groups Center for Biological Diversity and Pesticide Action Network. The EPA evaluations concluded that the chemicals are likely to adversely affect 1,676 animals and plants on the federal threatened or endangered species lists.

“It’s no surprise that these chemical poisons are causing severe harm to imperiled wildlife since U.S. use exceeds 70 million pounds of atrazine and 300 million pounds of glyphosate every year,” Nathan Donley, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.

Both atrazine and glyphosate have been re-approved for use in the past two years. Earlier this year, the EPA was denounced by environmental and consumer advocacy groups after the agency argued that Bayer’s glyphosate-based Roundup—the world’s most widely used herbicide—should remain on the market despite acknowledging that a Trump-era review of the chemical was flawed and required reevaluation.

Bayer announced in July that it would end U.S. sales of Roundup for residential use by 2023.

In 2019, the administration of former President Donald Trump moved to increase the allowable levels of atrazine, which has been linked to hermaphroditic amphibians, and birth defects, cancer, and other ailments in humans.

While green groups welcomed the delayed evaluations, commercial agricultural interests expressed anger over the EPA’s findings. Several Big Ag lobby groups including the American Farm Bureau Association and American Soybean Association claimed the agency failed to use the “best available science and data” when formulating its decision.

The EPA’s findings will now be reviewed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service, which will determine what steps to take to protect affected species and ensure that the herbicides do not further harm animals and plants at risk of extinction.

“It’s long past time for atrazine to be banned, and the EPA needs to crack down on the reckless overuse of glyphosate,” Donley added. “Without real conservation action, these pesticides will continue to push our most endangered wildlife closer to extinction.”

Republican Senate Candidate J.D. Vance: ‘Shut Down the Government Until Vaccine Mandate Ends’

Breitbart – Author J.D. Vance, an Ohio U.S. Senate candidate, proposed Monday that Republicans should shut down the government until President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate ends.

Speaking at an Ohio GOP Senate Forum, Vance said Republicans should avoid giving Democrats a “bipartisan flag to wave around” as they did with the infrastructure bill, setting his sights on the upcoming debt limit.

“We gave the Democrats a bipartisan flag to wave around Washington DC that they are going to use to spend more money,” asserted Vance.

“Now, what should we be doing? Right now, we have the Biden administration enorcing a vaccine mandate down people’s throats,” he continued. “At the same time, we have a debt limit coming up. Instead of giving them a bipartisan flag to wave, we should shut down the government until the vaccine mandate ends.”

The suggestion solicited applause from the audience.

“We keep on getting out played, so as long as we keep sending people to Washington to get outplayed by the Democrats, we’re going to keep losing our country,” he concluded.

Los Angeles Begins Enforcing Vaccine Mandate at Gyms, Restaurants, Businesses

Breitbart – The City of Los Angeles began enforcing its vaccine mandate on indoor businesses Monday, including gyms, restaurants, and other facilities, with inspectors able to impose thousands of dollars in fines over time.

Fox 11 KTTV reported:

Los Angeles Monday began enforcing its law requiring Angelenos patronizing indoor restaurants, gyms, entertainment and recreational facilities, personal care establishments and some city buildings to show proof of full vaccination against COVID-19.

The law went into effect on Nov. 8, but beginning Monday, the Department of Building and Safety can issue administrative citations to businesses that violate the ordinance. The citations will include a $1,000 fine for a second violation, $2,000 fine for a third violation and a $5,000 fine for a fourth and subsequent violations.

The city’s SafePassLA ordinance is one of the strictest mandates of its kind in the nation, requiring people over the age of 12 to show proof of vaccination at several indoor public spaces.

…

People can be exempted from the mandate if they have medical conditions that restrict their ability to get vaccinated or a “sincerely held religious belief,” according to the ordinance. Those exemptions will have to be reviewed by the location the person is trying to enter.

Los Angeles County has its own vaccine requirement, which is less strict and went into effect Nov. 4.

To Fight COVID Tyranny, California City Declares Their Independence, Becomes ‘Constitutional Republic’

Free Thought Project – Over the summer, as Florida and other southern states experienced the seasonal and entirely predictable surge of coronavirus cases, the media took to raking Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott over the coals for refusing to turn their states into COVID prison camps. They were called “covidiots” for standing up for the rights of their people and the seasonal surge used to bolster questionable claims that mandates are needed to control the virus.

Fast forward to now and as the North Temperate section of the country is seeing their seasonal spike, Florida, Texas, and the other “covidiots” in the south are looking pretty good — in spite of Team Doom claiming the lack of mandates was going to result in a blood bath.

Not only is Florida not a blood bath, but the “covidiots” in that state — without mandating masks, lockdowns and jabs — have just reported the lowest daily coronavirus case count per capita in the entire nation.

To those who have been following the actual science and not the mass hysteria in the mainstream media, they have known for some time that covid appears to be seasonal. This is now being admitted by the mainstream and it makes the case for mandates and lockdowns even worse.

As folks watch places like Sweden — who refused to lockdown since the beginning — go back to normal without turning their country into a police state, they begin to look at the tyrant class and their unscientific mandates as the enemy.

A city in California — one of the most tyrannical states in the country in regard to covid — has apparently had enough of the nonsense. A town in Northern California has declared independence from the state and has made itself a “constitutional republic” in response to the unscientific mandates and lockdowns which their politicians have been caught frequently violating. 

“Any executive orders issued by the State of California or by the United States federal government that are overreaching or clearly violate our constitutionally protected rights will not be enforced by the City of Oroville against its citizens,” read the declaration passed this month by the City Council.

“Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts,” Mayor Chuck Reynolds said of the resolution passed earlier this month. “A constitutional republic makes America a successful nation. Rights are by the people, for the people.”

The resolution was in response to forced vaccinations, vaccine passports, lockdowns and other mandates in the state. Councilor Scott Thomson, a proponent of the resolution said he’s not anti-vaccine but noted that the state has no business forcing children to take the jab.

“Now that the mandates have gone from not just putting something on the outside of your body or modifying how you run your business, but now shoving something inside your body that nobody knows the long-term effects of, that’s just like, OK, now you’re, in my opinion, crossing the line,” Thomson said.

“Every entity should stand up. Silence is compliance,” Thomson said.

After much discussion, mostly in support of the resolution, it passed with a 6-1 vote with councilor Krysi Riggs being the lone nay vote. Riggs also wants to stand up against the mandates but she felt the judicial system would have been a better option.

“We’ve been in this situation for 20 months, and I think the general feeling is fatigue,” she said. “When does this come to an end? Yes, there are some lights at the end of the tunnel, but those come with uncertainties and risks as well.”

Naturally, team doom and the rest of the pro-lockdown crowd are sounding the alarm and/or ridiculing the city for choosing to assert their independence. The LA Times this week referred to the resolution as a “reckless tantrum” that will certainly lead to more death. But does anyone take them seriously anymore after they called Larry Elder, a black man, the face of white supremacy?

In reality, these voices are slowly being drowned out by the data and actual science. Even covid dictator Gavin Newsome admitted earlier this month that covid is seasonal.

The fact is that people are tired of watching their livelihoods get wiped away and their freedoms turned to dust. Even those who used to support the lockdowns are being forced to reckon with the fact that no amount of tyranny can stop a virus.

This is why anti-lockdown protesters have taken to the streets across the planet to protest the lockdown tyrants. And how do the lockdown tyrants respond? They impose more restrictions. Clearly we can no longer rely on them to make decisions which benefit freedom and liberty.

While this resolution may be in a single small town in California, it is certainly representative of a much larger, pro-freedom sentiment. It is time Americans and the rest of the world realize that freedom is not some commodity to be doled out by rulers in exchange for our obedience. Freedom, true freedom, is inalienable.

Homeschooling Is on the Rise. Here Are 4 Tips to Effectively Homeschool Your Children.

Daily Signal – COMMENTARY BY Eve Deborah

Eve Deborah is a homeschooling mother of three. She blogs at The Homeschooling Mama of 3.

I wish I had been given more advice about homeschooling when I first started about eight years ago.

I didn’t know the first thing about home education. I felt unsure and nervous. The weight of responsibility on my shoulders was nerve-racking.

I can’t say homeschooling is easy, but it is rewarding. If you are thinking about homeschooling or have recently started homeschooling, I can promise that as the years go by, your children will grow in their education.

As long as you show up daily, put in the work, and remain persistent with their education, their growth will shine through. Trust yourself and the process of learning. Here are four tips to help get you started.

1. Make Sure You Understand Your State’s Homeschooling Laws

Make sure you have met the legal requirements to homeschool in your state. You can find out what is required by looking on your state’s Department of Education website or check out Home School Legal Defense Association. It will bring you peace of mind to know exactly what is legally required to homeschool, and to know that you have all of your bases covered.

It’s important to ensure that you are bona fide homeschooling and not just saying you are. Most states will not require you to keep time records, attendance records, portfolios, or test your children. Make sound judgements on what you would like to keep track of.

My advice would be to invest in a homeschool planner. Write down the days and times that learning is happening. This can be a challenge, especially when homeschooling, because learning happens all the time—but do the best you can. Make portfolios of their work throughout the year.

With homeschooling, it’s better to have more than enough to show that learning is happening. The majority of the time you will not need to prove anything to anyone but ultimately it depends on the state you homeschool in. If your homeschool is ever called into question, you will be relieved you kept track of all the things listed above. 

2. Figure Out Your Child’s Learning Style

Throw what you know about schooling out the window. Homeschooling is meant to be a completely different approach to education. You will want to learn your child’s learning style.

That begins by spending some time “deschooling.” I know the thought can be difficult to grasp but you must first learn that homeschooling isn’t public schooling.

Deschooling is a transition period that a child goes through while adjusting from public schooling to homeschooling. It is can take days, weeks, maybe months to get accustomed to home learning. It can be a confusing time for children. They may say things like, “That’s not how we did it in school.” They can resist the new learning environment and it takes some adjusting for both parents and children.

Do you have an auditory, visual, or kinetic learner? Understanding your child’s learning style will help in the long run. It will give you the ability to teach more effectively in the way that’s best understood. If you both are on the same page, you will be less likely to bump heads.

3. Get a Curriculum as a Safety Net

Find a curriculum that caters to your child’s learning style. Treat curriculum as a guide. It will help you stay on track with your child’s education but by no means should a curriculum cap your homeschooling teaching style.

Mold the curriculum to fit your family—not the other way around. Nonetheless, having a curriculum will ease your mind that things aren’t slipping through the cracks, especially when starting out.

Just remember, even if something does slip through, we aren’t meant to know everything. When you think back to your school days, do you remember it all?

A great book for helping you stay on track with home education is Rebecca Rupp’s “Home Learning Year by Year.” If you plan on homeschooling, it’s a great reference book. It gives a rough estimate of what children should know by the end of each school year. Think of your curriculum as a safety net, but the sky is the limit.

Don’t be afraid to stop using what isn’t working. You have a world of resources at your fingertips, so use them. You don’t need the most expensive curriculum. You just need something that works. Use more than one curriculum if you’d like. I use two or three different ones and make them work for us.

Check out used bookstores and yard sales and join a local homeschool group on social media. Many times, other families that homeschool in your community can be wonderful resources and can be very helpful in directing you.

As the years go by, you get a good sense of what should be taught, and you will be able to change the curriculum to meet your child’s natural interests.

If they have a passion in an area of their education, you can nurture it. It can determine what they will do in the future. That passion is what set apart those who simply learn the trade but do not thrive in it from natural talent.

You can tell when someone has a passion for what they do. You can see it in their work. They are dedicated masters in their fields. It will give our society experts in their fields, which is something we need more of in the United States.

4. Test Your Child Independently

Many homeschoolers may disagree with my next piece of advice because they want to get away from standardization. Testing your child isn’t about standardizing them … it’s simply about knowing where they are in their education.

The truth is, one day your child will need to know how to take a test. As much as tests can be awful—especially since you can’t measure a fish by how it climbs a tree—it is something they will nonetheless need to know.

Tests serve as a form of measuring a person’s abilities. They aren’t going away anytime soon. Testing serves as practice. There are placement tests out there that remove the pressures that standardize tests give as well. Look for them.

Some states require testing after certain grades. Don’t fear this. Your children will surprise you with how much they have learned throughout the year. It is rewarding to see how children develop each year.

I feel like testing my children has attributed to my success as a homeschool parent. I know where my children are in their education. I can homeschool confidently knowing where they place, which, as a homeschool parent, is essential. It’s what keeps you going. Doubt will more likely make you want to give up.

Private Schooling Status Update: Things Keep Looking Up

CATO Institute – Last month, I reported on Cato CEF’s most recent private school enrollment survey, which among other things indicated that majorities or pluralities of schools—depending on how pre‑K students were handled—saw enrollment increases between last school year and the current one. Unfortunately, our survey had a high margin of error due to low response rates, but new data are consistent with our findings.

Last week, The Economist reported on enrollment increases in Roman Catholic schools, which appeared to be hardest‐​hit sector during the pandemic, and are the largest private‐​schooling sector other than independent schools:

The National Catholic Educational Association is still collecting and analysing the latest pupil data, but its preliminary numbers show increases in most dioceses.

The Brooklyn‐​Queens diocese in New York, one of the biggest in the country, saw increases for the first time in a decade or more. Nearly 60% of its schools are growing, with many increasing by 10%. Partnership Schools, a network of Catholic schools in New York City and in Cleveland, saw a 16% increase. The diocese of Springfield, in Massachusetts, is up by 13%. Arlington’s diocese, which takes in the suburbs of Washington, dc, increased by 6%. The Archdiocese of Baltimore, the county’s oldest, saw a similar increase. Chicago’s archdiocese, which includes some suburbs, saw a 5% increase. Enrolment increased by nearly 4% in Catholic elementary schools in Philadelphia’s archdiocese.

What’s driving the increase? Consistent with previous findings on school responses to the pandemic, The Economist writes that Catholic schools, like private schools broadly, tended to re‐​open to in‐​person instruction more quickly than public schools. “Last autumn many public‐​school systems delayed reopening and did not offer full‐​time in‐​class learning,” says the article. “When Catholic schools reopened, most provided in‐​person learning. This appealed to families who struggled with remote learning.”

Since publishing our survey findings last month we also received two additional responses via ground mail, which had been disrupted when we were doing our data collection. Incorporating the information from those schools makes our results a bit more positive, with the share of schools reporting enrollment increases between the end of last school year and the beginning of the current one rising from 52.6 percent to 53.5 percent when looking at schools with pre‑K and including pre‑K students. Increasers rise from 47.1 percent to 48.6 percent when looking at all schools and excluding pre‑K students.