Fra: THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20020623-529493.htm
EDITORIAL - June 23, 2002
Homeschooling and its foes
In 1985, JC Penney sold a T-shirt that displayed a rundown
trailer on the front; over the picture in sloppily scrawled writing
were the words "home-skooled." That same year, five families from
Florida were prosecuted for truancy, and one temporarily lost custody
of its children. All of that was because these families decided to
educate their children at home.
Today, home schooling has expanded its roots and emerged from a
scorned underground culture into a blossoming alternative to
traditional methods of education. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that
between 1.6 and 2 million students are now home-schooled, and predicts
that that number will increase by 15-20 percent a year. Currently,
homeschools, along with charter, magnet and specialty schools, are
just another manifestation of school choice.
However, despite improvements in society's perception, official
recognition of home-schooled students' rights remains minimal.
Furthermore, many school administrations criticize the form of
adjustable curriculum used by home-schooled students, claiming it is
ineffective. In fact, last month five different Florida school
districts mandated evaluations for home-schooled students. These
mandates were later overturned in court because they were
discriminatory and unconstitutional.
In Texas, Baylor University formally accepted six students, only
to deny them admission after realizing that they were home-schooled.
Students in Maine were told that they could only attend college if
they had a diploma that was recognized by the state. This created a
large problem. The state lacks a process for home-schoolers to obtain
recognition of their diplomas.
New York's Jefferson Community College told home-schooled
students that they could not become regular students or receive
financial aid. They were informed by a U.S. Department of Education
financial aid officer that the school would be disqualified for
federal higher education assistance if it gave money to home-schooled
students.
This is not the first time that governmental bureaucracy has
provided confusing and misleading information about its own laws when
it comes to homeschoolers. In 1996, President Clinton signed into law
a bill which said that such students who completed the required
paperwork would be eligible for state aid, just like public school
students. But the administration later printed a financial aid manual
that excluded the new information. Students who are homeschooled are
constantly faced with such foolish, perverse obstacles.
In the name of "fairness," public education has produced a
system which does a good job of providing politically correct
indoctrination about subjects such as condom use, homosexual rights,
global warming, etc. But it does a poor job of teaching children basic
reading, writing and mathematics skills. For a growing number of
children, homeschooling provides an alternative to a public-school
system that has failed. The government has no business putting
roadblocks in the way of responsible parents who understandably want
their children to be able to opt out of the government schools.