Parents challenge restrictions on home schooling

newsday.com ^ | May 30, 2004 | KATHY HENNESSY

[LadyShallott]

TRENTON, N.J. -- Public education bored Tim Haas, so he and his wife decided they were better suited to care for and educate their two sons than the state. But Haas and the thousands of other New Jersey families that homeschool now face what they say is an unnecessary and unfair intrusion by the same state regulators they tried to escape. A bill in the New Jersey Legislature would require home-schooled children to get state-mandated annual physical exams and take standardized tests required of public school children.

[LadyShallott]

[TxBec]

ping

[Sacajaweau]

I certainly believe in home schooling in some extreme cases BUT the better way is to CHANGE THE SCHOOLS".

[WinOne4TheGipper]

These people have done such a great job with public school. Why shouldn't they intrude on home schools?</sarcasm>

[Calpernia]

ping

[TxBec]

I have changed the schools. My kids no longer attend.

[tioga]

Tried changing your schools lately? The International Bacalaureate Program has invaded our school courtesy of our gay superintendent.

[Imagine]

iSlamic school should be considered child abuse.

[SLB]

I certainly believe in home schooling in some extreme cases BUT the better way is to CHANGE THE SCHOOLS".

Forget to take your meds this morning?

[leprechaun9]

But these standardized tests are NOT given to private schools. My understanding is that the NJEA (New Jersey Extortion Association) objected because the private school students score much better!

This is a piece of legislation to help one of the largest unions in the state that is very politically active for those who share their Socialist, Hate America views!

[netmilsmom]

In actuality, we who homeschool are working to change the schools. It is the free enterprise system at work. The product they put out is inferior, therefore, I take my child out of it. They district no longer gets my money (although the state does) If enough parents take this route, the schools will change. They must. When my daughters beat the crap out of the public school kids (academically) along with the other HS kids, people take notice. Eventually the schools will change to keep up.

However, right now I have one chance with my children to make them fine adults with a good education. I will educate them now and change the schools by example later.

[SpeakingUp]

One of the many responsibilities of a parent is to educate their children. Another is to participate in the advancement of the community. We are not obligated to preside over the decline of a portion of society. Our schools are in decline.

Life is not a contest to be played out with our children. Nor is life's goal to level the playing field for all participants. Bad schools level the field, good schools educate the children. If the public schools help you as a parent, use them. Else, be a parent and do the right thing.

[ladylib]

Wouldn't it be something if homeschooled students took those tests and did so well that they really made the public schools look bad? I believe that happened in Arizona. The homeschoolers made public schools look so bad that the legislature did away with testing them altogether.

[dakine]

The smugness of home-schoolers is fun to watch, parents sending their kids to public school are committing child abuse......just kidding...

[savedbygrace]

The education establishment pretends homeschoolers merely prefer to do their school work from home. It's kind of like an adult wanting to wrok from home for the same comany rather than than running their own business from home.

Homeschoolers generally don't want an equivalent education to one they could get in a public school; they want a better education. They want better course material, they want the liberty to work on the course material at their preferred pace, and they don't want to be forced to take a test that requires them to be indoctrinated with the same socialist-statist propaganda the public schools churn out.

They generally don't mind taking a test that actually tests knowledge and competence in the academic subjects they cover, but they strongly object to tests that require them to take the same inferior public school courses just to pass the test.

You see, many tests today test political attitude as much as academics and in some cases more so.

[ladylib]

"I certainly believe in home schooling in some extreme cases BUT the better way is to CHANGE THE SCHOOLS"

It is impossible to change public schools. People have been trying for the past 30 years.

When my sister-in-law who taught math and science (and one time developed curriculum for the county) in the same Maryland district her daughter attended school had absolutely no influence with school officials over choosing a decent math curriculum, you know that parental input is not appreciated.

[Steve Eisenberg]

This is a piece of legislation to help one of the largest unions in the state that is very politically active for those who share their Socialist, Hate America views!

How would it help them? Wouldn't home school kids outscore public school kids, making the unionized teachers look bad?

I am all for homeschool. This law is clearly aimed not at homeschoolers, but at the small minority using false claims that they homeschool as a dodge to not educate their children at all. Those abused children who are not public-schooled, not private-schooled, and NOT homeschooled deserve our compassion. If this isn't the way to identify them, suggest another.

[savedbygrace]

wrok = work