Bulletin #29 What's
in a name? 03/11/2004
Did You Know: Cyber and Charter E schools, and any
other form of education, performed in the home is called homeschooling by many
legislators and administrators.
Some
new terminology is surfacing, but we ought to be cognizant that they all
represent government sponsored and funded school at home: Affiliated
homeschools, Tele-commuting schools, Virtual Charters, E-Charters, Public
Online School, Virtual Schools, Web Academies, homeschool charter schools, and
probably many other names. The permutations are all the same thing, and that is
public school at home. All of these entities are publicly funded and therefore
represent enrollment in public school.
Why
should homeschoolers be concerned about this? and isn't this homeschooling? and
so what's the big deal?
People
who homeschool autonomously, (i.e. on their own without enrollment or
involvement with local government schools) should be concerned about this on a
few levels. First and foremost is the fact that legislators and the media
currently do not make any distinctions. A homeschooler is a homeschooler to
them. This is so erroneous. There is an enormous difference between one who
homeschools autonomously and one who is enrolled in a government school program
that is done at home with supervision, funding and oversight by the school. The
problem here is that whatever legislation affects public schooling will affect
those doing a public school curriculum at home. If those people doing
government school at home are referred to as homeschoolers, then autonomous
homeschoolers will be brought into the net of that legislation, just by the use
of the word "homeschool" in legislation. Whether that is intentional
or unintentional is a matter for debate. Most legislation does not make a
distinction. A law will include language referring to
"homeschoolers", and that will pertain to anyone who is educating at
home. This is extremely problematic for those of us who wish to remain out of
the total jurisdiction of our local school administrators, to the extent that
current homeschool laws allow. This becomes even more problematic if the
undefined terminology "homeschool" is used in federal legislation!
Secondly,
autonomous homeschoolers are being sold on enrolling in these programs and
being brought back into public school and made to believe that they are still
"homeschooling". Well, perhaps they are still educating at home, but
it is publicly funded government schooling no matter how you slice it. Families
are being offered "free" computers, "free" testing
services, "free" transcript services, and much more. That is
perfectly fine if you wish to choose this option, and well it should be an
option, but families should know that they become public schoolers when they
enter into these agreements. For all intents and purposes the issue is not how
you choose to educate your children, the issue has deeper consequences
legislatively speaking. Labels don't really matter except as it pertains to
legislation. Making the distinction isn't an attempt to be divisive, it is an
attempt to preserve homeschool rights and freedoms.
People
must be made to understand that when public money is involved in home education
then it is no longer private and autonomous. With public funding comes
accountability and oversight, and if you choose to accept those terms then it
is perfectly acceptable. The problem comes when that accountability and
oversight is applied when you are not part of the crowd that accepts public
money, or not enrolled in public schooling, especially at home.
There
are many attractive programs out there, in states like
Homeschoolers
who are highly regulated probably don't care about the ramifications or labels,
because they just want anything that will help them - and they are already
dealing with government control so they may want something in return. There are
also homeschoolers that want the best of both worlds no matter how it affects
everyone else. That is really an unfortunate fact and shows how families may
lack the understanding that when they allow themselves to be categorized as
homeschoolers, when in fact they are enrolled in public school, that they are
hurting the homeschool community in the process.
Here
are some things one should know:
1.
Public funding requires some kind of accountability. Accountability of
home-based public schoolers will be demonstrated in the form of testing,
reporting, home visits, and other interventions.
2. Some charters are allowing questionable profiteering because cost of
instruction is lower than for traditional model schools and less money is spent
on teacher salaries, benefits, transportation costs, and other brick and mortar
expenses.
3. Some charters are siphoning funding away from traditional model schools by
enrolling across district boundaries and without being subject to
accountability measures.
4.Some
charter operators may find themselves in court as they stretch the definitions
of what is permissible under existing laws. This may affect the families
operating under these models.
5.
Cyber legislation is beginning to emerge as legislatures are trying to grapple
with setting down rules for how non-classroom charters will operate.
6.
Issues of truancy may be valid if children who are enrolled in government
schooling at home do not complete total computer or seat time.
As
of January 2004, 2,996 charter schools were operating across the
Examples
of these kinds of programs are Bill Bennett's K-12 curriculum, Maryland based
Connections Academy, Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), Ignite!, PDELA,
Salem-Keizer Online, and are offered in states in the form of Oregon Web
Academy, Wisconsin Virtual Academy, Florida Virtual Academy, Arkansas Virtual
Schools, Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Connections Academy (CCA), and California
Virtual Academy.
Proponents
of Parent Directed Education would like the homeschooling community to embrace
all permutations of "homeschooling". They feel that making
distinctions between different forms of educating children is divisive, and
that the primary concern should be the focus on what is best for the family and
the child. They have come out vehemently against the "We Stand For
Homeschooling Petition" (http://westandforhomeschooling.org/res/index.php
).
We
wish to re-iterate that the issue here is not whether it is good or bad to
educate children in one way or another, or that one choice is superior over
another. The issue here is that distinctions are necessary to insure that
autonomous homeschoolers are not swept up along with public schoolers in
legislative language. When you spot a news report and they are talking about
homeschoolers, one must pause to think, who do they mean? Do they mean those
that are in e-charter schools which are publicly funded, or those who are
autonomously educating their children separate and apart from public or
organized private school.
Here
are some good articles regarding this topic:
A
New Charter for Homeschooling?
Attractions and drawbacks appear in home-based charter schools http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=1290
Charting
a course toward school flexibility, accountability http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2001845033_matt28.html
Virtual
Reality - Cyber E schools and homeschooling
http://homeschoolreport.org/Virtual_Reality.htm
Government-Subsidized
Home Schooling Programs:
Will Family Educators Dodge This Bullet
http://www.hstuac.org/subsidy.html
A
to Z Homeschooling web page http://www.gomilpitas.com/homeschooling/weblinks/HSatSchool.htm
Home
is where the school is
But should the public pay for it? And how much is too much?
States
grapple with virtual school legislation
Cyberschools
- the rest of the story
http://www.honestedu.org/essays/bernhoft/cyber.php
Home
Education in
http://www.homeschoolfreedom.org/arm.pdf
Wisconsin
Parents Association - they have several articles on this topic – you can check
their site
http://www.homeschooling-wpa.org/issues/index.shtml
How
Virtual Charter Schools Threaten Homeschools
http://www.homeschooling-wpa.org/issues/cyber_charter/Charter-Schools-Factsheet.pdf
A
Dept. of Education supported site which promotes charter schools
http://www.uscharterschools.org/pub/uscs_docs/index.htm
Website
regarding education reform
http://www.edreform.com/index.cfm?fuseAction=section&pSectionID=14&cSectionID=34
Attorney Deborah Stevenson - Executive Director of National Home Education Legal Defense. –
www.nheld.com or email : info@nheld.com
Judy Aron - Director of Research, NHELD – imjfaron@sbcglobal.net