An Idaho Story NOT Coming To Montana
"Montanans should be grateful, though ever vigilant, that the Shippy story is not likely to be relived here in the Treasure State."
Almost forty years ago, a terrible injustice unfolded in neighboring Idaho. Thanks to changes in Montana law, nothing akin to it is likely to happen here.
I know this story close-up. I was living in Idaho in the mid-1980s and as a journalist, I wrote about it. It chilled me to the bone, as it did many other Idahoans at the time.
Without warning on January 10, 1985, armed sheriff’s deputies banged on the door of Sam and Marquita Shippy’s home in New Plymouth, Idaho. “We’ve come for the children,” they announced, as they then grabbed the Shippys’ four boys and two girls. Kicking and screaming, the frightened youngsters were stuffed into cars and driven off. A day later, the distraught parents were told the whereabouts of their children, who were now under the foster care of their compassionate government. Sam and Marquita’s visiting rights were limited to just two hours each Sunday.
What crime could those parents have committed to justify such an assault? Neglect? Abuse? Endangerment of some kind, such as beatings or starvation? Lousy test scores? Were they “indoctrinating” the children in dubious educational fads or anti-Americanism? Not at all. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Only weeks before, a local judge told a state representative who was acting on behalf of the Shippys that he didn’t know of “a finer, more upstanding, honest, productive family in the community.”
The “crime” here was that Sam and Marquita didn’t enroll their children in the New Plymouth public schools or in an approved private program and instead, were educating the kids at home. The rules for such matters, said an Idaho congressman at the time, were “quite rigid and were obviously written to discourage home teaching.”
Do you think anyone from the public schools came to the defense of the Shippy family? They’re supposed to be “for the children,” right? It’s far more accurate to say, most of the time, that they are “for the money” and in this case, they were cheering on the cops. Every Shippy kid not in the public (government) schools represented thousands of dollars those schools did not receive for not educating a child.
Stung by widespread criticism, the State of Idaho reached a settlement with the Shippys. If the family moved to another county in the state, they could teach the children at home, unmolested. So, that’s what they did. But in the land of the free, no American should ever have to move an inch to do what’s best for their own youngsters.
Forty years later, the Shippy kids have children and grandchildren of their own. All are fine, upstanding, honest, and productive—just as that judge said they were. One of them will be a new state senator in Boise shortly.
Homeschooling nationwide is growing, and homeschooled students are in demand at universities and businesses. Meantime, public schools across the country—especially in major cities—are in constant crisis, beset with poor test scores and appalling graduation rates.
Prior to the 1980s, homeschooling was virtually illegal in Montana but as in Idaho eventually, good sense prevailed and now it’s a viable and respected alternative to traditional public schools in both states—and in most other states too. The Shippy case was a major factor in changing Idaho law in favor of parents and homeschooling.
Efforts to crush homeschooling in Montana arose a half dozen times in the decades since it was legalized in 1983. Each time, they were beaten back by informed, activated parents and the organization formed in 1988 to assist and defend them, the Montana Coalition for Home Education (MCHE).
Steve White, a MCHE champion and hero to many Montana parents, has written a history of the period, available online here. All these years later, Steve remains, in the words of Cheryl Tusken of the Frontier Institute in Helena, one of the chief guardians “of the laws that he and others so valiantly fought for.”
“The home is the first and most effective place to learn the lessons of life: truth, honor, virtue, self-control, the value of education, honest work, and the purpose and privilege of life,” wrote author David O. McKay. “Nothing can take the place of home in rearing and teaching children, and no other success can compensate for failure in the home.”
The Shippy family of Idaho paid a price for living to those high standards. Montanans should be grateful, though ever vigilant, that the Shippy story is not likely to be relived here in the Treasure State.
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Lawrence W. Reed writes a monthly column for the Frontier Institute in Helena, on whose board he serves. He is president emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education and blogs at www.lawrencewreed.com.