January 7, 2008
Huckabee and the home schoolers
I had been puzzled by the touting of a homeschoolers endorsement for Mike Huckabee, given that the candidate also received an endorsement from the New Hampshire NEA. That made some sense, because I know he increased teacher salaries in Arkansas. I did not know what might motivate any homeschoolers organizations to support him.
Some further information comes from a series of posts on the website Spunkyhomeschool.
Huckabee has been endorsed by the Home School Legal Defense Association PAC (HSLDA-PAC), which is headed by Michael Farris, who also heads HSLA itself. But HSLDA has not endorsed Huckabee.
Spunkyhomeschool writes:
HSDLA-PAC did endorse Huckabee, here's the link. HSLDA-PAC is the connected PAC of HSLDA. HSLDA cannot endorse candidates. According the HSLDA-PAC the PAC was formed to "allow HSLDA to engage directly in the political arena." But as I previously posted, Ned Ryun the former director of the PAC alleges that this endorsement was done unilaterally and for all intents and purposes was a Farris endorsement. He was not told of the endorsement until after the fact.
According to Marc Ambinder of the Atlantic, Farris is also working as an upaid advisor to Huckabee.