Top 10 reasons to criminalize homeschooling

Funny!

"In an effort to increase the public drumbeat for criminalizing homeschooling, a memo has been distributed containing the top 10 reasons why public schooling is better than homeschooling. Here is an excerpt from that memo: 

Most parents were educated in the under funded public school system, and so are not smart enough to homeschool their own children. 

Children who receive one-on-one homeschooling will learn more than others, giving them an unfair advantage in the marketplace. This is undemocratic. 

How can children learn to defend themselves unless they have to fight off bullies on a daily basis?

Ridicule from other children is important to the socialization process. 

Children in public schools can get more practice "Just Saying No" to drugs, cigarettes and alcohol. 

Fluorescent lighting may have significant health benefits. 

Publicly asking permission to go to the bathroom teaches young people their place in society. 

The fashion industry depends upon the peer pressure that only public schools can generate. 

Public schools foster cultural literacy, passing on important traditions like the singing of "Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg..." 

Homeschooled children may not learn important office career skills, like how to sit still for six hours straight."

While this is a snarky tongue-in-cheek list, it has its basis in the real questions often put to homeschoolers.

Full article: The Examiner

Will Obama Stand Up for These Kids?

The District of Columbia's school voucher program is under assault.   Sen. Dick Durban has created a provision that will remove the voucher program unless Congress takes action.  Thus, no one has to actually stand up and declare that they do not like vouchers, they can just let it fade away.

"And it points to perhaps the most odious of double standards in American life today: the way some of our loudest champions of public education vote to keep other people's children -- mostly inner-city blacks and Latinos -- trapped in schools where they'd never let their own kids set foot.

This double standard is largely unchallenged by either the teachers' unions or the press corps. For the teachers' unions, it's a fairly cold-blooded calculation. They're willing to look the other way at lawmakers who chose private or parochial schools for their own kids -- so long as these lawmakers vote in ways that keep the union grip on the public schools intact and an escape hatch like vouchers bolted."

The article also quotes Obama (but doesn't give the specific citation):

"The biggest source of resistance [to reform]," he said, "was rarely talked about . . . namely, the uncomfortable fact that every one of our churches was filled with teachers, principals, and district superintendents. Few of these educators sent their own children to public schools; they knew too much for that. But they would defend the status quo with the same skill and vigor as their white counterparts of two decades before."

When I first began to research homeschooling I joined a very large and eclectic homeschooling group.  Early on I realized that well over half the homeschoolers had been or still were teachers.  They had chosen to homeschool their own kids based on personal experiences in the classroom.  This observation was crucial to my own decision to teach my children at home.

Full article: The Wall Street Journal

Homeschoolers Get Blamed, Again

Recently posted on the Homeschool Legal Defense Association website:

On January 22, a committee of the Rapid City School Board implied that homeschoolers were to blame for the school system losing thousands of dollars in funding. Just six days later, the Clear Lake Courier blamed homeschoolers for the loss of $41,000 in school funding.

When homeschoolers are wrongly accused of creating financial problems for public school systems, it’s time to respond. HSLDA attorney Scott A. Woodruff sent the following letter to the editor to the Clear Lake Courier:

Dear Editor:

By leaving the blame for the school system losing $41,981 at the door of area homeschoolers, your recent article, “Students and aid lost from open enrollment,” encourages your readership to think that homeschoolers are the problem.

But it’s perfectly logical to reduce a school’s funding when it serves fewer students. If there are fewer students, the school needs less money.

The question that then remains is: “Since the opportunity to serve someone is a privilege, not an entitlement, what does the school plan to change to reduce the erosion of confidence among area families?” That’s the $41,000 question that went unasked and therefore unanswered in your article.

Next time the Clear Lake Courier talks about schools “losing” money because of homeschoolers, please mention how much homeschoolers save the taxpayer by educating their children at their own expense—not the taxpayers’. Homeschoolers are some of the best friends the taxpayer has.

Sincerely,
Scott A. Woodruff, Esq.

Source : HSLDA

Pasco girl Jessica Howard, 7, pushes petition to change online education law

She is a homeschooler trying to change a law that restricts access to the state's virtual school program.  The Board of Education requires that a student spend at least one year in the public school system in order to use the virtual program.

Why?  Its all about the money.

"Limiting the program to kids already in public school would simply shift resources while freeing up classroom space"

Thus, the schools can effectively keep their enrollment numbers up ($$) without having  pay the "extra" costs of educating them. ( i.e. teachers' pay, overhead for buildings, lunches, custodians, etc.)

Jessica is collecting signatures and attracting the attention of lawmakers.  Rep. John Legg is actively researching her claim that this is unconstitutional.

"Legg is conferring with lawyers, staff analysts and virtual education experts to determine whether the state has the right to tell one set of children they have the right to a public school program while others are kept out. The state allows homeschooled children to play on public school sports teams, after all."

Full article: St. Petersburg Times

UK schools have 20,000 unqualified teachers

This is an interesting article considering the tone and outcry reflected in  this recent post about creating youth apprenticeships in the classrooms. 

The number of unqualified staff, who include those currently in training on a "fast track" into the profession, and foreign teachers whose qualifications are not recognised in the UK, has mushroomed from just 3,000 when Labour came to power in 1997 to more than 20,000 last year, government figures have revealed.

 

How, then, can the call to allow only certified teachers/parents to homeschool be justified?

Here is a cryptic line... with no analysis to explain it.  Why is this so?

Last year, research found that pupils from poor homes are more likely to be taught by unqualified teachers than those in well-off areas.

Full article: The Independent

Children: Recess Found to Improve Behavior

This is news?  Any parent knows  that kids need a break to get the wiggles out!

Children who had at least 15 minutes of recess scored better than the others on teachers’ behavioral ratings. Dr. Romina M. Barros, a pediatrician and assistant professor at Albert Einstein, said the data were important because many new schools were being built without adequate outdoor space for students.

“We need to understand that kids need a break,” Dr. Barros said. “Our brains can concentrate and pay attention for 45 to 60 minutes, and in kids it’s even less. For them to be able to acquire all the academic skills we want them to learn, they need a break to go out and release the energy and play and be social.”

For most homeschoolers this is not an issue.  If the kids are squirrelly... out they go!  If they are spacey... out they go!  If they are completely lost and frustrated... out they go!   They return refreshed and ready to learn (MOST of the time).

Full article: New York Times

Committee Urges Schools to “Recruit” Homeschoolers to Fix Budget

This is something of a thorn in many homescholing communities. Many see these public school programs as simply luring homeaaschoolers back onto the books for the state's financial gain. After all, they get the same amount of money per student whether they are teaching them or the parent is teaching them....

A committee of the Rapid City School Board wants to fix the system’s broken budget by recruiting homeschoolers.

The Rapid City School Board created a committee last summer to examine budget issues for the school system. On January 22, their recommendations were made public. The report suggested that the school system could find additional revenue sources by “recruiting more homeschooled students into the district.” Other recommendations were made, as well.

Homeschoolers already feel somewhat taken advantage of. Not only do they pay for an expensive public education for the children of others, but they pay the full cost of educating their own children at home. Of the thousands of dollars of tax money they send to the school system to educate other people’s children, they do not even get back one dollar. The idea of homeschooled children being recruited to repair a school system’s broken budget is unacceptable. If the school system built too many buildings and hired too many staff, the solution is to reduce the use of buildings and reduce staff—not lure homeschool families to give their children back to the public schools.

Article from: HSDLA

States get D-plus on teacher reviews

A new study reports that nationwide good teachers are not being kept, while bad teachers are not being fired.

States were given letter grades in the study, earning a D-plus on average. The group gave its highest overall mark, a B-minus, to South Carolina, saying the state does better than any other at allowing ineffective teachers to be fired.

more...

It said just 15 states require a look at whether kids are learning when teachers are evaluated. In addition, the study gave poor ratings to 35 states that don't explicitly connect bonuses or raises to evidence of student achievement.

This quote was interesting. If not based at least primarily on their ability to increase learning, then what criteria are used to evaluate teachers????

Homeschoolers will notice this aspect of the study: education degrees and quality of teaching are not related...

Also, 20 states insist that teachers take additional classes that don't specifically help them improve. Five states make teachers get advanced degrees to be get professionally licensed, despite research indicating those degrees don't necessarily help people teach better. Some 18 states require that teachers with advanced degrees be paid more.

It will be interesting to see what effect (if any) this study will have on the school system.

Full Article: Associated Press
Full report: National Council on Teacher Quality

Two bills raise red flags among Oklahoma homeschoolers

This is frightening. One of the bills will require more oversight of homeschoolers, the second will allow police or truancy officers to question and detain children not in school. (!!!!!)

Wilson cited potential abuse among some of the homeschooling parents as the reason behind the bill.

Some parents are not teaching their children but are putting them in front of a television, he said.

"I call that child abuse,” Wilson said.

Sarcasm alert:
Perhaps we should just put cameras in all homes. Then we wouldn't have to legislate based on the potential of abuse, we would know immediately if abuse is occurring. Video surveillance would be much cheaper than case workers and truancy officers.

Or better yet, we could just take all children away to be raised by the state at the age of 6 (possibly earlier) to ensure their proper, safe upbringing. If that is unreasonable we could simply mandate 6-8 hours of state approved and certified supervision and moral training.


Other possible definitions of child abuse:

• Any religious teaching (Richard Dawkins)
• junk food in schools
• extraordinary amounts of homework
  
• teaching to the test
  

Read the article: NewsOK

5 Myths About No Child Left Behind

What are the five myths?

1. No Child Left Behind is an unprecedented extension of federal control over schools.
2. No Child Left Behind is egregiously underfunded.
3. Setting academic standards will fix U.S. schools.
4. The standardized testing required by No Child Left Behind gets in the way of real learning
5. Certified teachers are better than non-certified teachers.

This is a great education article that hits on most of the arguments against NCLB. Unfortunately it doesn't go into as much depth as I would have liked. For example, just because LBJ expanded federal controls over schools (myth #1) does not mean that further expansion is desirable or acceptable.

One quote that homeschoolers will give the nod to:

There's no solid evidence that state certification ensures classroom effectiveness -- and the booming success of programs such as Teach for America, which sends recent college graduates into troubled schools, suggests that certification may be wholly unnecessary. By requiring certified teachers in every classroom, No Child Left Behind makes it harder for district and charter schools to attract energetic and capable people who want to teach but take a less traditional route to the classroom.

YEAH!

Home-schoolers: There is no hope in Obama

Great editorial on homeschooling and possible changes (or lack thereof ) with the new establishment. A couple of excerpts that caught my eye:

Even as America's students have dropped to their lowest level on standardized tests compared to students internationally, and even as drop-out rates soar past the 50 percent mark in most of the largest urban school districts, President-elect Barack Obama has shown contempt for school choice-even as he exercised school choice in enrolling his own children in the most expensive and exclusive private prep school in Washington, D.C.

and later:

These parents have seen home-schooled children win spelling bees and other awards (such as when home-schooled Cheyenne Kimball won NBC's America's Most Talented Kid at age 12). They have seen how top colleges are now seeking out home-schooled kids, and have noticed that home-schooled children out-score traditionally schooled ones on the ACT. Home-schooled children have an average ACT composite score of 22.4, compared to the national average of 21.1.