DEATH SENTENCE FOR PRIVATE AND HOME EDUCATION, COURTESY OF SUPREME COURT

NewsWithViews.com ^ | July 8, 2002 | Charlotte Iserbyt

[FreeTally]

Also, voucher programs let the parent choose between a number of different types of schools. Here in Florida, you can even choose another public school. The main purpose of the voucher program, in ANY state, is to allow the parents to choose what type of school, i.e., what type of education. The presumption is that the parent chooses a school that they agree with the rules and ciriculum. Because you have a choice, no parent can even ask the school to change this or that, and has absolutely no legal remedy in the situation where they are dissatisfied. They are free to find another school.

Without the "choice", like in your typical forced public school, then the government may have some type of interest to impose regulations. But that's not the case with vouchers.

[Slyfox]

The problem is in the public schools. There are better performing ones and woefully inadequate ones. It would be ideal if a parent could choose which public school to send their child to, within the district that they live. Can't do that in most places.

If parents could just send them to the next elementary school which has better tests scores, I think that would be great. Then, those kids may get a better education and there would be some incentive for the lower performing schools to clean up there acts. Why take the chance of messing up a good school just because the NEA-controlled schools aren't doing the job?

I am concerned that too many elected representatives, who will be tackling this issue, may not think some of these things through. The old adadge applies here, if it ain't broke leave it the heck alone.

[Alabama_Wild_Man]

"...Charlotte Iserbyt ping! "

Thanks !!

She's is one of the top three people that know the most about what is happening in, and to, this nation's Public Schools !! !!

[Aquinasfan]

You are forgetting the manner in which databases and testing will track EVERY kid for whether or not they are learning PC attitudes, not how well they are educated. That is how they will coerce home-schooling.

They only need mandatory testing to accomplish that, right? That's pretty much the same backdoor tactic that they tried in attempting to force the accreditation of (homeschool) teachers back in the mid-90's.

It's also encouraging that the Left hates vouchers.

[blackie]

Stop the attacks by the wacko, extreme left-wing,NEA-nazis terrorist's on our Freedoms !!

Freedom Is Worth Fighting For !!

Molon Labe !!

[TomSmedley]

Third, how do vouchers sound a death knell for home schools? Homeschoolers have always and will continue to go their own way, despite the left's attempts to halt them.

HSLDA has been warning folks against taking "the King's shilling" for quite a while. They refuse to accept as clients anyone who is using a governemnt "home" schooling program.

[sistergoldenhair]

Thanks for the ping.

[TomSmedley]

Seems to me the thrust of the article misses the point completely.

This author's target audience is comprised of folks who find it easier to bewail conspiracies "out there" than to take effective action right here, right now. Studying conspiracies is a way to avoid personal responsibility, personal action, success.

[kennyo]

Yep, that's why we created the Department of Education at the federal level.

This is a non-seqitur.

[EdReform]

Bump for later reading

[Brownie74]

Thanks for the ping and bump.

[Sandy]

the NEA sponsored propaganda is becomming relentless

Yeah, right. Not familiar with the author, I presume.

See also this old thread: Deliberately dumbing us down (Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt's The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America)

[KentuckyWoman]

track EVERY kid for whether or not they are learning PC attitudes, not how well they are educated. That is how they will coerce home-schooling.

DING! DING!! DING!!! DING!!! DING!!! We have a winner!!

Just as is already being done in Oregon, children across the nation are slated to receive Certificates (instead of the traditional diplomas) that will ALLOW them to go to work for CERTAIN businesses (think Germany). Without these 'certificates', children will be basically unemployable.

[Carry_Okie]

Iserbyt is an author who makes a series of valuable critical observations and does an incredible amount of indispensible research, but, in my opinion, fails to present a workable alternative to where we are going.

In my opinion, the "k-80 home education" principle is a wonderful prospect and the natural consequence of the Internet. It is not to be feared in principle (as Iserbyt does). The question really is, who is in charge of that system? If it is a bureaucracy run by a corporate fascist police state, no thank you. If is it an free and open market, where customers decide upon the educational product, that is another story.

Here are some excerpts from something I wrote for Bill Simon:

Home education is enjoying a renaissance in America, and religious freedom isn’t the principle reason. Parents are choosing to home school to assure educational excellence for their children, whose learning habits they know best. A family bond of patience and discipline is a critical factor in student success, especially in a challenging situation. What many people don't know about home-schools is that they have a high percentage of students with genetic, behavioral, and developmental disabilities that had often been poorly served by public institutions. Even with that statistical disadvantage, SAT, ACT, and STAR test scores strongly indicate that home education is producing superior results across the entire spectrum of individual ability.

So parents ARE competent to make choices about their children’s education, and home schools successfully manage nearly every type of specialized educational problem. So what are they doing right that we can apply to public institutions?

As home-educators have grown in number, they have been organizing into loosely knit education cooperatives that point to a new form of public education: a decentralized, customer-oriented network for lifelong learning, using products customized to meet individual interests and abilities. That promises what 21st Century public education could really become: a multi-disciplinary market of customized learning products and services.

We are already starting to see the effects of this change. Software and curriculum companies are finding a growing market of customers committed to gaining competitive advantage. Colleges and universities are offering online degrees because they need superior students to assure productive alumnae. Superior teachers could get rich transmitting their ideas and methods to a mass-market. Where better to develop those products and sell them to the world than California?

We can use private and home education as if they were R&D laboratories developing and testing proven learning tools and services. Public school parents on school boards could then select those products that the State would fund for use in public schools. It is a gradual transformation, from experimenting on our children with untested academic theories, to contracting for innovative tools and methods that have been proven in the marketplace.

All we have to do is let it happen and keep government from regulating new educational methods out of existence. If you elect me Governor, that is what I will do. Federal education dollars aren’t worth the price of Federal control and bureaucratic requirements. Private and home education both leave the State with more money to spend per-child and provide a competitive incentive for public schools to keep their customers.

Now that prospect doesn't sound nearly so bad as Iserbyt portrays.

[hsmomx3]

If homeschoolers and/or private schools accept federal $$$, then yes, the govt. will dictate curriculum,etc.

I am a firm believer that if one homeschools, stay away from any govt. program that appears enticing. This should be a no-brainer for parents who homeschool.

On the other hand, I do not believe that property taxes should be mandatory either. If people/businesses want to contribute to the govt. schools, let them.

Here in AZ, the Cave Creek area (north of Phoenix) turned down a 331% property tax increase while those residing in Deer Valley District are faced with an 89% property tax increase.