Playing Politics with Homeschooling
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has suggested that America’s students would be better off with less federal involvement in their learning, and more families taking the hands-on approach to their children’s education. He’s even pledged that his own children would be home-schooled from the White House.
(Slate’s Dana Goldstein
argues that home schooling actually undermine the civic
spirit of a community. The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf
has a pithy rejoinder, asking whether society doesn’t
benefits more when its citizens are products of diverse
educational models.)
Clearly, home schooling is not a realistic option for the
majority of American families, but Santorum is hardly alone in
thinking he – and other parents – might be able to
do a better job than the public education system. While Congress
wrestles with the updating federal education law to either
reauthorize or replace No Child Left Behind, parent groups are
becoming increasingly active, demanding more control over reform
efforts at the local, district and state level—or opting out of
the public system altogether.
But teaching a child at home typically requires significant
resources, including daily adult supervision and access to
instructional materials. Some of that burden has become easier in
recent years, thanks to the popularity of online learning
programs and virtual charter schools. But for many families,
having a parent or extended family member stay home to teach just
isn’t a viable option.
An estimated 2 million children were home-schooled students in
the United States in 2010, and the numbers are growing, according
to the National Home Education
Research Institute.
Brian Ray, NHERI’s founder and president, said there’s plenty of
evidence that home-schooled students thrive academically and
socially. Ray suggested that it would be hard to find a “greater
symbol of liberty” than homeschooling.
“One of the best things about living in a free country is the
actual, practical choice in how we educate our children,” Ray
said. “Home schooling allows children to grow up more under the
guidance and influence of their families, rather than the heavy
guidance and influence of the state in its schools.”
Stereotypes of home schooling enthusiasts as religious fanatics
or anti-establishment isolationists are shortsighted. However, it
is true that many home-schoolers are growing up in conservative,
and often deeply religious, families. In a 2007 survey by the
National Center on Education Statistics, the top reason families
gave for opting for homeschooling was a desire to provide moral
or religious instruction (36 percent) followed by concerns about
the local school environment (21 percent) and dissatisfaction
with the academic instruction (17 percent).
“Public schools The sad thing is that public schools “haven’t
been able to keep up with meeting increasing demands” for
educational alternatives, said William Estrada, director of
federal relations for the Home
School Legal Defense Association, a nonprofit Christian
organization that provides support to families regardless of
their religious beliefs. “One size doesn’t fit all, and every
child is different.”
Estrada said the association is “certainly not anti-public
school.” However, “there is a lot of frustration out there, and
Sen. Santorum’s comments reflect what many parents are feeling.
What we have now is not working.”
While the number of home-schoolers is growing, they remain a
small percentage of the nation’s K-12 students. It’s estimated
that 50 million students of them are in public schools, while
another 15 million are in private school.
In some school districts, home-schooled students are allowed to
petition to participate in certain extracurricular activities at
their local campuses, such as the fine arts or athletics. State
legislation pending in Virginia would make it easier for
home-schooled students to get similar accommodations. The
legislation is nicknamed the
“Tebow Bill,” for Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, who
was home-schooled but played for his local high school team.
Preston Wiliams, a sports reporter for the Washington Post,
ruffled some feathers when he
suggestedthat the proposed bill was a mistake. Williams said
the feedback he’s received from readers is fairly evenly divided
between the families of public school students who agree with
him, and homeschool families who support the bill.
Williams said he certainly can certainly see advantages to
allowing home-schooled students to participate in extracurricular
activities. A few years ago, Williams
wrote a feature story about a football team that was made up
of both home-schoolers and students who were dissatisfied with
the sports programs at their local public schools.from a
diversionary program for youth with behavioral issues. Both
groups benefited from working together, Williams said.
Additionally, for a small district, allowing home-schoolers to
play sports might mean a school has enough participants to field
a better team.
But when space is at a premium, priority should be given to the
students who have made a full commitment to their school at every
level, Williams said.
“What I’m trying to get across is that a school community is its
own place – to be part of it, you have to be part of all of it,”
Williams said. “I just can’t imagine some kid pulling out of the
parking lot who has just lost his space on the team, and some kid
pulling into the parking lot and that’s the only time he’ll be at
school all day.”
Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Contact Emily Richmond. Follow her on Twitter @EWAEmily.
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