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a federal prohibition in the No Child Left Behind Act that forbids states to require homeschoolers to take the state assessment.

IMHO this is sounding like a controversy designed to make lawyers rich at student expense. In the first place education is (or should be) a state activity. We homeschool our kids with materials bought from the State of Texas school system and it's great. They send us standardized tests that are proctored by a local teacher and that helps us prove to others that we taught our kids right.

"In the first place education is (or should be) a state activity."

Show me the part of the Constitution that states the above.

"They send us standardized tests that are proctored by a local teacher and that helps us prove to others that we taught our kids right."

That's a subjective measure, do you really want that out of your hands?

"We homeschool our kids with materials bought from the State of Texas school system and it's great."

That's if you live in Texas. In Massachusetts, you'd get math programs like "1 gay man + 1 gay man = 2 married men". Also, if your children are special needs and learn faster/slower than most children, the school's curriculum won't work.

We homeschool our kids with materials bought from the State of Texas school system and it's great. They send us standardized tests that are proctored by a local teacher and that helps us prove to others that we taught our kids right.

What's the point of homeschooling if you aren't going to take advantage of the unlimited amount of good educational resources available and just do the same thing that the local school is doing? That seems boring to me...jmo.

In the first place education is (or should be) a state activity.

WRONG! If the child is a ward of the state then it's the states responsibility, However my children's education is MY responsibility and no one else. That's why my wife and I work our asses off and send them to private school. By the time they are out of High school we will have spent nearly 100 thousand dollars of our own money to educate them. It's our choice and not the states. This is in addition to the property tax increase that we have to pay to finance the building of new public schools. Once again it's our CHOICE.

In the first place education is (or should be) a state activity.

Maybe I'm a bit slow on the sarcasm pick up today, but you've got to be kidding. You can't possibly be serious.

The curriculum used in public schools today is a PC riddled, homosexual promoting, revisionist, godless mash that is assembled by committees. It is boring, filled with error, and outright lies. Why use the govt. pablum when there are better things to use to instruct your children?

It is a new world out there, a world that needs leaders, thinkers, and conscientious citizens, not people trained to be factory workers and mind-numbed followers of the godless state. The school systems are 50 years behind the modern world. If you are using public school standards, you're putting your children behind from the start.

I apologize for coming on so strong. It's just that your statement was breathtaking in its naivety. You can read books by John Taylor Gatto for a more informed view of how the state schools operate. He was teacher of the year in the state of NY. He gives real eye opening information about how the school systems work.

It sounds like it would be best for everyone if you put your children back in public school and stopped pretending you're homeschooling. The only common ground between homeschooling and what you're doing is that you do your thing in your house.