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The government is under no obligation to provide taxpayer funded services to home schoolers but by the same standard the government shouldn't place obstacles in front of parents wishing to educate their children at home. Either the government accords home schools a place in our nation's education system or it compensates them for whatever governmental roadblocks are erected to retard and frustrate their growth and development. If its the latter, fighting home schooling can get expensive for the government pretty quickly. The bottom line is that whether the government likes it or not, home schools are here to stay.

Homeschooling is the biggest threat to government education because it empowers the individual and is not limited to a single interest group.

The government is under no obligation to provide taxpayer funded services to home schoolers

Only if homeschoolers got a rebate on taxes they paid to the gov't schools, which they do not.

... under no obligation...

Would sound better if you said "under no legal obligation under the current government interpretation of the government's responsibilities"

An easy argument is that they have a moral obligation to at least return my school taxes to me. The law does require them to provide for my childrens' education - no where does it say that they must intentionally fund a bad (government) education.

The government is under no obligation to provide taxpayer funded services to home schoolers but by the same standard the government shouldn't place obstacles in front of parents wishing to educate their children at home.

If it is a federally funded taxpayer service, it should be available for ALL federal taxpayers, or at the least it should not discriminate against some of them.

My understanding of this is that any college may accept a homeschooler, but is not allowed to demand any additional standardized testing beyond which it requires of any graduate of any public or private school. A school may require a portfolio, which all homeschooled teens looking to get into college should have anyway. The college may not require a diploma from an accredited high school, but the Fed. Financial Aid office does. If the applicant doesn't have the diploma, he or she has to take the GED. Frankly I think this is discriminatory. If the portfolio of the student, and acceptable SAT or ACT scores are enough to pass muster with the college, the Financial Aid office should be required to accept it also. Besides the fact that taking the GED is a waste of time for the homeschool graduate, the person holding it is looked upon as a lesser scholar than the graduate with a diploma.

I hope some bright light in the Dept. of Education will write some new regs that deal with the reality of homeschoolers today. The kids coming out of homeschools are for the most part better educated than their public school counterparts, and are scoring much better on SAT tests. Some large colleges are actively recruiting homeschoolers because they, as a rule, tend to be better able to work independently and are good thinkers. This should come under departmental regulations and shouldn't require dealing with Congress and the Dem. toadies for the NEA!