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It's not about the tests anymore .... it's about the freedom to live your life away from a government intervention. I'm sure those kids can ace the tests.

Well we'll see how good your assurances are when they try to get jobs or go to college. "Well, you havent proven that you have a minimum amount of knowledge to attend here, but your parents assure me you're smart enough, so have fun!"

Please. Take the tests. There has to be some standards, otherwise its just anarchy.

Well we'll see how good your assurances are when they try to get jobs or go to college.

If they want to go to college, they will voluntarily take the SAT's. Big difference.

No. They should NOT have to take the tests when private schools do not, the Amish do not, and other instances. Do you really think that being in government school assures one of getting a minimum education to get a job or go to college? Please! Half the kids out there drop out and I'm appalled and how poorly educated most of them are who stay in.
It is easy to see what is behind this. The government does NOT want you homeschooling your children not because of education at ALL but because of your "social" education. You might be taught something the government doesn't like!

"Well, you havent proven that you have a minimum amount of knowledge to attend here, but your parents assure me you're smart enough, so have fun!"

Don't all colleges and universities give their own entrance exams? Don't all government schooled kids have to take them? Why should homeschooled kids take a state test then?

Well we'll see how good your assurances are when they try to get jobs or go to college. "Well, you havent proven that you have a minimum amount of knowledge to attend here, but your parents assure me you're smart enough, so have fun!"

Please. Take the tests. There has to be some standards, otherwise its just anarchy.

Actually, we have finished the homeschool grind, the kids went to college, and are doing just fine. Most colleges have a basic skills test to place you into their system. Since we choose to place them into their system, I have no objection to those tests.

HOWEVER, I do have a problem with forced tests. We hired a private company to test our kids periodically, but this was for OUR INFORMATION and use for curriculum choices. Believe me, it is NOT in the parents best interests to raise lazy, do nothing, know nothing kids. Usually the lousy homeschool parents give up after a few years.

...but then again, I only have 11 years in this game to go on, what do I know.....

Well we'll see how good your assurances are when they try to get jobs or go to college. "Well, you havent proven that you have a minimum amount of knowledge to attend here, but your parents assure me you're smart enough, so have fun!"

If this argument had any real meaning, the public school system in america (particularly in urban areas) would have been radically changed by now. The public schools consistently fail, consistently turn out "graduates" who can barely read and write, and yet nothing is done about the horrible public school system. So why should it matter whether these particular two children are educated any better than the millions in LA, NYC, Miami, Boston, etc.? I am willing to be that the odds are in favor of these two children receiving a better education by their parents then at public school (based on evidence of home-school results v. public education results on such tests). Therefore, society should embrace home-schooling, not be afraid of it.

Moreover, I don't understand why people believe that EVERYONE needs to be well educated / intelligent in America. Society needs ditch diggers as much or more then engineers. Even if every person in America was educated to a decent college level - there would not be enough high paying jobs to satisfy everyone and someone would still have to dig a ditch. Only now, b/c they have been over educated, they would be much more unhappy digging the ditch then if we simply let the "market" of labor sort itself out by people and families individually deciding on whether or not to pursue education.