Posted on 05/18/2011 11:29:57 AM PDT by christianhomeschoolmommaof3
In her first address to West Virginia’s joint standing committee on education this week, incoming West Virginia State Superintendent of Schools Jorea Marple criticized homeschoolers. According to a West Virginia homeschooler who posted to an Internet group, Speaker pro tem and Delegate Ron Fragale told her that Mrs. Marple said “West Virginia homeschoolers need more oversight, better standards, better evidence of progress; homeschoolers have too much flexibility.”
Delegate Fragale told the homeschooler that “he’s not sure why Mrs. Marple is so negative about homeschooling. Perhaps there are some new board members who don’t have a good impression of it. However, the West Virginia Department of Education could create a new policy that might make homeschooling more difficult in the state.” He recommended that homeschoolers contact Mrs. Marple.
HSLDA Staff Attorney for West Virginia affairs Michael P. Donnelly noted that West Virginia homeschoolers do an outstanding job of educating children and that West Virginia has one of the nation’s more stringent homeschooling laws.
“Mrs. Marple’s comments reflect the outdated stereotypes typical of some narrow-minded government school bureaucrats,” Donnelly stated. “Mrs. Marple should get the facts before painting a bull’s-eye on West Virginia homeschoolers. If Mrs. Marple really cares about educational achievement for West Virginia students, she should study why homeschooling works so well and encourage it, not criticize it.”
“West Virginia already requires an annual notification and annual assessment from every family. Only a minority of the United States require this much interaction between homeschoolers and government officials,” he added.
Numerous studies affirm that homeschoolers outperform their public and private school counterparts on standardized tests of academic achievement. These studies show that increasing regulation on homeschoolers does not have any impact on academic performance. HSLDA is troubled by Mrs. Marples’ comments because they reflect an inappropriate eagerness to impose additional bureaucratic requirements on a population who are doing an excellent job of educating their children. Mrs. Marple should focus her attention on the 280,000-plus public school students who need her oversight, and leave West Virginia’s approximately 8,000 homeschoolers alone.
HSLDA is committed to defending the freedom of homeschoolers in West Virginia and calls on Mrs. Marple to retract her comments and to encourage homeschooling rather than seeking to impose additional and burdensome regulations on it. Mrs. Marples should remember that she is the new and 27th state superintendent of schools in a state where the motto is Montani Semper Liberi, or “Mountaineers Always Free.”
To contact Mrs. Marple:
By email: dvermill@access.k12.wv.us By Phone: 304-558-2681 extension 53304 By mail: Dr. Jorea Marple, state superintendent of schools 1900 Kanawha Blvd., E., Building 6, Room 358 Charleston, WV 25305
I don’t know how old she is. She looks like an attractive older woman with a nice smile who doesn’t know that she just kicked a huge hornet’s nest.
Hammer, meet nail.
“he’s not sure why Mrs. Marple is so negative about homeschooling”
Because homeschoolers steal money from the mouths of needy union bosses, who are almost certainly responsible for Mrs. Marple getting her position.
I never did figure where the stereotype of homeschoolers being a bunch of pushovers came from.
They don’t realize the strength of character it takes to fight the entrenched, established norm of sending your kids to public school when confronted with opposition from pastors, churches, families, parents, neighbors, the school district, and the ignorant moron on the street and in the supermarket to whom you owe no explanations of why your kids are with you during the school day.
Everybody thinks it’s their business what you’re doing about your child’s education and knows what’s best for them.
Homeschooling is not for wimps.
She’s going to be learning a lesson she won’t easily forget.
There's two issues there.
One is that that's fraud. They are getting federal funds for children not actually enrolled in the schools. How do they report their progress and grade advancement? Do they accept what the homeschool parents report themselves? Plus the fact that they are taking advantage of, and using, the homeschoolers without their express written consent to procure funds for the school.
The other thing is, if they do count them and receive money for them, are going to be handing them a diploma upon *graduation*? If they're taking credit for their education for the $$$$'s, then they ought to do them that courtesy at the least.
Yeah, because public schoolers don’t need more oversight. Oh no, sleeping with the teachers, killing the other gangbanging students, graduating without a speck of knowledge, can’t read, can’t write, can’t compute. Oh no, but we need to have more oversight over the homeschoolers.
So the evidence so far shows homeschooled students exceed public schooled students in learning and behavior, and we need more evidence?
Perhaps she has the answer in her statement.....
.....Public schools need more evidence of progress AND more flexibility.
Public schooling is being killed by liberal curriculum mandates, teachers unions, and lack of flexibility to teach as necessary.
Homeschooling has the flexibility that is a good thing, and they do not have the union & liberal mandate baggage to drag them down.
Wow! Then they should be supporting home schooling. They could demand they (the public schools) add one teacher for every twenty home schooled kids. The unions and teachers should love it. Then they could have teacher banks, just as the UAW has job banks, where teachers get paid for doing nothing while waiting for gainful employment.
If government institutionalized kids fail to make progress should they be forced to homeschool? ( That's a little homeschooling joke shared among homeschooling moms.)
Given the high rates of illiteracy ( even among high school graduates) and the need for remedial courses in college, I have an IDEA!!!
Yes!...Let homeschoolers supervise the government schooled institutionalized kids!
Poor MS Marples’
lost her marbles.
A pox upon Publik Skool Administrators!
Listen carefully and you will hear the classroom teachers cheering the above line.
Publik Skool administrators can understand irony?
When did this occur? Is this new phenomenon reliably verified?
My homeschoolers were admitted to college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13. All finished all college general courses and Calculus III by the age of 15. The two younger finished B.S. degrees in math by the age of 18. The oldest of these two was **teaching** math to college students at the age of 18 as part of the masters degree she earned at the age of 20.
The oldest will soon finish a masters in accounting an age typical of those who are institutionalized for their education, however, my son also spent two years working in Eastern Europe and is now completely fluent in Russian. He was also an internationally and nationally ranked athlete and traveled the world representing the U.S. as part of his sport.
“Guilty!”
Yes, but downright evil, too.
Well, we could appreciate it even if it’s lost on them.
I do not have the numbers to do a comparison, but I can tell you my home schooled 14 year old scored 1950 out 2400 on her first go round of the SAT.
There was a post following it that indicated that it wasn’t obvious, at least to that FReeper...
I just used it as an excuse to expound on his point, though.
Actually they need to be unemployed. Think of the huge advantage any state would have if they actually courted home school families to move to their state...
1. Home school families cost the state and local governments nothing for education...if they would leave us alone.
2. Most home school families I know live on one income with one parent staying home with the children...no need for day care assistance and less pressure on unemployment numbers.
3. The home schooling parents I know tend to be hard working and driven by a higher calling...they make great employees as well as good citizens...and are independent...lowering other governmental costs.
In conclusion...if a state could attract a large number of home school families to live with in their state they should be able to lower the cost of education with in the state as well as other forms of welfare. As a result of that they could then lower the taxes. The reduction of taxes along with good workers in the current generation (parents) and well educated future workers (home school students) should draw in more business...this should lead to economic growth...
“government schools need more oversight”
No...government schools need to be shut down!
If the majority could just look outside the box that we have been placed in, we could see the huge advantages of not having a government run education system.
Our school district requires us to have an evaluator go over a portfolio we prepare. Then they inform the school district whether they approve or not. They check standardized test scores and coursework.
I am not sire about the graduation stuff. We are very far away from that.
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