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Starr taken to task by Ashland school officials By Sean Wolfe Ashland Daily Tidings Local school officials excoriated Oregon Sen. Charles Starr (R-Hillsboro) and questioned his fitness for office as the chair of the state education board. Reacting to a round of correspondence between the senator and one of his constituents - an activist who opposes home school education - Ashland School Board Vice-Chair Amy Amrhein questioned whether Starr should be asked to step down. "I believe that he needs to be removed from the Education Committee chairmanship, because in this letter he states that he is telling parents to 'run not walk' to remove children from public schools. Another quote is just outrageous - he says there's nothing worse than consigning all our youth to the public education arena," Amrhein said. "He is basically saying he doesn't believe in the public school system, and that it isn't educating our children. If that's his belief then how can we trust him to be the senate chair of the education committee?" Amrhein said she was speaking from her position on the steering committee for school funding, not in her capacity as vice-chair of the Ashland School Board. "I'm just one lonely voice," Amrhein said. School board member Chuck Keil joined Amrhein in criticizing Starr's words. "I cannot think of another time in the last several years that a letter from a public official has been so inappropriate and wrong-headed as Sen. Starr's letter. I'm almost at the point of being speechless to consider that this person who holds a position of such authority in our state Legislature can publicly state such antipathy for the public school system in Oregon," Keil said. "It's so far from reality, I wonder if he's spent any time in a public school and knows what's going on. I don't believe he has any objectivity about what's going on, and that letter illustrates to me a serious lack of understanding about the educational system." A recent correspondence from Starr to one of his Tualatin constituents exploded in controversy this week, once newspapers obtained copies of the document. In it, Starr expresses his sorrow for Michael Shearer, who had sent a letter to Starr decrying the quality of home school education. "I'm truly sorry for your sad experience as a home-schooled youth," Starr began. "You are totally out of touch with reality to the point of being mentally affected," is the next line. Star r goes on to say that he tells "any parent who will listen to run, not walk, to remove their children from public schools," that the "dumbing down of the population has reached such a level that we are the most illiterate our nation has ever been," and that "children are being taught the humanist/socialist world view." Starr has since apologized for the letter. As for the writer that inspired Starr's response, Shearer had been home-schooled in the 60s and said he continues to suffer from that experience, which cut him off from daily peer contact, the social skills associated with that contact, as well as other benefits of public education. "I would have loved to go to school. I was begging for it," Starr said. He has since lobbied to have a constitutional amendment guaranteeing a child's right to go to school, and against the home school movement. His tools have been letters to legislators, political action groups and former presidents, supplemented by flyers, faxes, opinion pieces in newspapers and television appearances. In the letter that Starr responded to, Shearer writes that the "utopia-protected, isolated home school lifestyle doesn't prepare children for adult life. The gaps in not learning peer social skills will negatively impact their entire lives and accomplish nothing of a positive nature by home schooling." Shearer was raised without siblings, and his family traveled extensively. He was home schooled for 8 years. His children are now enrolled in parochial school. Shearer said home-schooled children also lack the ability to discuss their educational materials with others of the same age who are learning the same thing. In addition, Shearer said many parents educate children at home for religious purposes, and that he considers that religion and education should be kept separate. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -