Posted on 08/17/2002 1:08:44 PM PDT by CPI News
California Dept. of Education slams homeschooling; 'Outside the law' By William Holzer -- CPI Exclusive
Click below for story: http://www.cpinews.net/archives/2002-q3/ca-dept-edu.slams.homeschooling/index.htm
The California Department of Education is once again trying to stop the fastest growing educational movement in the country. According to a new letter that is circulating through California school districts, "Parents who home school their children are operating outside the law."
The homeschooling community in California has begun to feel the affects of the latest attempt to change homeschooling policy. In a recent letter by Deputy Superintendent Joanne Mendoza, homeschooling is described as "not an authorized exemption from mandatory public school attendance."
Homeschooling has drawn increasing attention in America with homeschoolers going 1-2-3 in recent National Spelling Bees, as well as entering prestigious colleges like Harvard and Yale. It’s widely believed that the number of homeschoolers in America is between 700,000 and 1.2 million, with many studies showing homeschoolers scoring higher than their public school peers in academic tests.
Not everyone is happy. The National Education Association (NEA) – in their 2000-2001 resolutions – states that the NEA "believes that home schooling programs cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience."
The school district receives funds relative to the number of students attending public school, students that homeschool don’t fill the coffers of the bureaucracy. The per head revenue in California is roughly 4,500 dollars for each child that attends public school; the total amount of funds granted is determined by the average daily attendance (ADA) of the school.
The amount of money the school district could gain – if homeschoolers attended public school - is estimated at upwards of a quarter of a billion dollars per year.
This is part of the reason incidents between homeschoolers and the school system are common. The homeschooling community in California is prepared for action, lead by organizations such as the California Homeschool Network (CHN). Karen Taylor, the president of CHN, described the current trouble as "the same old story" and "some new employees trying to shake things up."
Another worry that has been expressed by homeschoolers is what junior colleges will do with this new development. Homeschoolers have historically used junior colleges as a supplement to high school level courses, as well as a method to finish general education requirements before entering college.
Despite attempts to stop homeschooling by the school district, it’s unlikely that junior colleges will stop admitting homeschooled students. Homeschoolers are extremely good students and unlikely to dropout of classes. Colleges do not run as much risk of refunding money to students that are unlikely to quit.
It's dream is to have doped-up kids absorbing Marxist-Homofascist indoctrination in the public schools.
It's nightmare is drug-free, God-fearing, independent-thinking children learning at home.
Unconvicted of a crime, you will, or your children will, appear at the places and times as dictated by the government. See, liberty and freedom. Just obey as you are told and nothing happens to you or the kids. What is so hard to understand about that?
They like the cachet of these schools, and are suddenly willing to throw away the very principles they SAY they espouse, in giving these places money and opprobrium to continue their vile slanders against America.
I'd have to say that if the kids haven't been inoculated against looney ideas by that age, then there's something wrong. There have been plenty of conservatives that have graduated from the Ivy League, so it's clearly possible to pass through without getting your ideology warped.
I just wish he had Emergency Competence to go with them.
My grandchildren are homeschooled, and I'm confident of their future skills against the progessive/liberal (or whatever they'll be calling themselves in 10 years) devils.
That's not the point. You are "aiding and abetting" these schools with your support.
That's RANK hypocrisy.
How about looking at it as diluting the concentration of leftists at the school?
Personally, I would not pay to send my children to an Ivy League communist indoctrination center; however, I do not necessarily fault parents who do. Hopefully, my children will have values instilled in them by the time they go to college and will recognize left wing bias when they see it. In elementary school, they are just too vulnerable to liberal brain washing.
Translation: "We are unable to indoctrinate home-schooled children in Marxist liberalism and political correctness and neutralize religious teaching from the home."
No thanks. I'm not interested in the NEA's comprehensive education experience. We've got our own comprehensive education experience going on here at home and we are having a blast!
Talk about topsy-turvy times in California politics. They consider punishing well intentioned parents who only want to provide the best possible education for their children, but at the same time they reward illegal aliens who are causing some of the very problems in our public schools that are causing these parents to take their children out of public schools.
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