An AP piece about the race for South Carolina’s State Superintendent of Education was picked up by a number of outlets.

From Education Week (requires registration):

Homeschooling Parent Enters S.C. Schools Chief Race

Columbia, S.C.

A small business owner who home-schools her children said Thursday she’s running to be South Carolina’s education superintendent.

Elizabeth Moffly of Awendaw is entering the Republican race for 2010. It is her second bid for the job. In the 2006 Republican primary, she came in fourth of five candidates. She later endorsed Democrat Jim Rex, who won the post. Rex is running for governor in 2010.

Moffly has home-schooled her four children, ages 14 to 20. She is co-owner of Moffly Construction and other Charleston County businesses, including a horse farm…

Nice straighforward touch on the Charelston City Paper’s Rock Bottom Blog.

Quick or complicated: Awendaw GOPer for S.C. superintendent

Awendaw Republican Elizabeth Moffly has announced her campaign for state education superintendent.

We thought we’d break down her release in the buzz words most people want and the details that a select few might find interesting.

A review of comments from various sites reflects the nasty mood that is becoming familiar these days. Homeschoolers beware:

Oh great, another home school nut wanting to lead the Department of Education. 99% of the people who home school are nuts!

Another home school nut trying to push their religion on everyone else. We have enough nuts in the world already without the home school industry.

What is up with these parents who think their kids are too good to go to public school so they home school them?

She wants to reduce the number of high school credits required for a South Carolina diploma from 24 to 19? WTF? This woman is clearly insane – and so is anyone who votes for her. SC students can barely read and write to begin with, yet this clown wants to dumb them down even more. Idiot is too nice a word here.

Interestingly, while it is easy to read a homeschool perspective into her press release, there is no mention of homeschooling on the candidate’s site.

I thought this article below was interesting, in that it came from business media in Dubai.  But the piece covered a Maryland homeschooling family, and the usual (not necessarily accurate) rendition of  modern homeschool history.

Homeschooling goes from fringe to mainstream in US
Emirates Business 24/7 – June 25, 2009

At the height of the hippy culture in the 1960s, homeschooling enjoyed a renaissance as left-wingers seeking to buck the establishment taught their children themselves.

Christian conservatives were the next to embrace homeschooling, and “by 1990, 85 to 90 percent of all homeschoolers came from the ranks of the religious right,” Paul Petersen, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, wrote in Education Next, which he edits.

The number of home-schooled children soared by 29 percent between 1999 and 2003, from 850,000 to roughly 1.1 million, data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) show.

85-90%?!  That ‘statistic’ certainly wouldn’t have been known in a few populous states like Texas, Illinois, etc; as there would likely not be records via registration or notification.  Let alone that they are from the “religious right”.

I’d want to hear some thoughts from a trusted long-time homeschooler who took a stroll down Memory Lane.

If homeschoolers are ‘going mainstream’, as I’ve seen in so many recent articles, then maybe the media/interested parties have a different connotation to the word “mainstream“.  Maybe mainstream means back to school, in one form or another.

Following the article’s trail, I saw that Mr. Petersen has a piece in Education Next called:

The Home-Schooling Special
Today’s choicest choice

If the baby was born in hippieville, the toddler was soon kidnapped by Christian social conservatives. By 1990, 85 to 90 percent of all home schoolers came from the ranks of the Religious Right. Even Holt could not resist a Libertarian cry:

Some may feel that the schools teach a dog-eat-dog competitiveness; others that they teach a mealy-mouth Socialism…. What is important is not that all readers…should agree on these questions, but that we should…work for…the right of all people to take their children out of schools.

John Holt seemed on the right learning track wanting to work for the “right of all people to take their children out of schools“, if parents believe that would be the best for their child(ren).

As appealing as it might sound, I don’t agree with Mr. Petersen’s hope for legislators:  “State legislatures are likely to become increasingly accommodating toward a movement that saves them money. The day may come when we hear the phrase, “We are all home schoolers now. John Locke would be pleased “.
It’s not just about the money, but seems to increasingly be about the control, as well.  Being from Illinois, while observing other states’ and national budget busts, I don’t see many legislators particularly concerned with saving money.  If the government was minimally, or not involved in the educational process, then I imagine Locke would be pleased.  That doesn’t seem to be the trend.  That control and/or hunger for more body counts in the schools certainly seems to come up in various state legislative sessions, along with the encroachment of federal “home-school” legislation via special interests. That query will have to be responded to again and again.

Petersen points out intriguing thoughts from Locke (proponent of “natural rights“,  whose philosophy had a strong influence forming  the US Constitution) concerning socialization and schooling:

“what qualities are ordinarily to be got from…a troop of playfellows [at school]…usually assembled together from parents of all kinds.” Even if the teacher’s industry and skill “be ever so great, it can[not]…be expected that he should instruct them successfully in anything but their books.”

The Educational Writings of John Locke

In Locke’s home grounds, British homeschoolers now have to fend off potential legislation resulting from interested bureaucrats. As if homeschooling families didn’t have anything better to do.  Ironic, isn’t it?

From Roland Meighan’s Response to Graham Badman’s Review Report
(Meighan is Director of Educational Heretics Press )

(In contrast, the bad news about schools is located and reported almost daily, and a motive for some families is that home-based education provides a much safer environment than schools. The evidence supports them – exposure to knives, drugs, petty crime, alcohol, smoking, bullying etc., are school-based problems.) The forthcoming report by Professor Clive Harber on Toxic Schooling assembles some of the key evidence on this.

Families escape schools to avoid bullying, and the government agencies attempt to follow them into their homes to continue the emotional bullying.

Education Otherwise has other updates on their site about Badman’s Review:

Lord Lucas Asks for Comments

EO Rejects Calls for Monitoring and Registration

Yesterday Delyth Morgan, the Children’s Minister, said she accepted in full the “proportionate and reasonable” recommendations set out in Graham Badman’s Report.

However today Education Otherwise says that they reject the disproportionate and unreasonable recommendations as set out in the Review Report for compulsory registration and invasive monitoring.

Best wishes that this will ultimately benefit educational freedoms.  I bet John Locke would like that; educational heretic, mainstream, what have you.

The off-handedness of the “home-school” reference in this AP piece on the New Jersey’s gubernatorial race caught my eye. More promises that increasing educational standards will lead to a quality education and a “home-school program” is in the mix.

A twist in education stances in NJ governor’s race

CAMDEN, N.J. – As it usually does, education is emerging as a key issue in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race.

But in 2009, there’s a twist , as seen by the candidates’ appearances Monday.

Republican Chris Christie was in Camden, the state’s poorest city, addressing a graduation ceremony for students who said with pride that they’d grown up in “the ‘hood.” Meanwhile incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine appeared in a suburb with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

Typically, a New Jersey Republican would play to suburban audiences, while a Democrat would focus on inner cities. But in this case, the venues mirror where the candidates’ key education policies play best.

Christie has been talking about failures of many urban school districts, while Corzine is promoting the state’s overall school system as among the nation’s best. In many ways, national data on school quality support both positions.

Christie is promoting state-funded vouchers that students in failing schools could use to pay tuition at private schools or at public schools in other communities. He also wants more charter schools to open in the cities.

“These kids are trapped in what everyone would agree is a failed school district,” Christie said after the ceremony at the Camden Educational Resource Network, which recognized about 200 students who had completed a home-school program. Most of the students previously had gone to Camden public schools.

There you have it.

I caught an article by Adharanand Finn yesterday in the UK Guardian’s Mortarboard blog.  Finn pointed out an August ‘o8 article [No School Like Home] about 2 authors who had followed some homeschoolers around.  They discovered this :

Alan Thomas, a visiting fellow in the institute’s department of psychology and human development, and Harriet Pattison, a research associate, conclude that informal learning at home is an “astonishingly efficient way to learn”, as good if not better than school for many children.

“The ease, naturalness and immense intellectual potential of informal learning up to the age of middle secondary school means they can learn certainly as much if not more,” they say in How Children Learn at Home.

But back to Finn’s post, he reported that next week, Graham Badman (former Managing Director of Children’s Services at Kent Council) will release a government initiated Department for Children, Schools and Families “Independent Review of Home Education“.

(Home) school’s out forever? If Graham Badman’s recommendations for home tuition are adopted by the government, a whole way of life is under threat
Home educators have been feeling nervous ever since Graham Badman began his review of home education earlier this year.

The government’s announcement of the review came wrapped in sinister language about the need to investigate “claims that home education could be used as a ‘cover’ for child abuse such as neglect, forced marriage, sexual exploitation or domestic servitude”.

The Freedom for Children to Grow (Education Otherwise) site provides more details below, and that “Many home educators have a problem with the premise of the Review questions” mentioned below.  The purpose does seem a bit unsettling:

The government says that there may be safeguarding concerns around home educated children and that some people have said home education could be a cover for abuse and forced marriage. The question has been raised over whether home educated children can meet the 5 outcomes of Every Child Matters ie to be safe, to be healthy, to enjoy and achieve, to achieve economic wellbeing and to make a positive contribution.

No parent I know (homeschooling or otherwise), would think in terms of  5 outcomes for their child. Seems incredibly limiting, even as it could be a dangerously vague determination from a stranger wielding some power.

These Outcomes remind me of Northwestern University’s Kim Yuracko ditty on Illiberal Education: Constitutional Constraints on Homeschooling.  Her premise was this:

Modern day homeschooling raises then in stark form questions about the obligations that states have toward children being raised in illiberal subgroups. Surprisingly, the legal and philosophical issues raised by homeschooling have been almost entirely ignored by scholars. This paper seeks to begin to fill this void by making a novel constitutional argument. The paper relies on federal state action doctrine and state constitution education clauses to argue that states must — not may or should — regulate homeschooling to ensure that parents provide their children with a basic minimum education and check rampant forms of sexism.

My first reaction has generally been that these people need to get a real life, as their concerns certainly don’t seem to coincide with homeschooling families’ realities.  Finn also pointed out that: “Ironically, the very reason some parents take their children out of school is because they suffer abuse, through bullying, within the school system”.

Seems like the school folks would have better things to do with their time?  But yet, this review could recommend compulsory registration, along with minimal standards of education for homeschoolers.  That doesn’t seem likely with the strong network of United Kingdom homeschoolers pushing back.  But it will certainly take precious time away from their families contending with the issue.

Irony=Bureaucracy?

Choice to homeschool children not a matter of money, experts say Bloomington Pantagraph

By Phyllis Coulter

“I personally don’t know anyone who home-schools — or not — based on the economy,” said Shelly Nelson, coordinator of a homeschooling network in McLean County. “The economy plays little or no part in the decision to homeschool.”

Twin City school choices are more likely made on lifestyle, special needs, gifted children, faith and socialization, she said.

Across the country, experts say cost is seldom the deciding factor when homeschool and private school parents grapple with costs during a recession.

Who are the experts about deciding factors to homeschool, besides the families themselves?  But I agree with Shelly Nelson.  I don’t know anyone (yet), who is homeschooling because of the economy.

There was a Not for Everyone section about families that send their kids back to public school for socialization.

Comments are always interesting.

An AP article I’ve seen floating around several states’ media sources was also included in this edition:

Hard times enhance homeschooling’s appeal for some families
By David Crary
Associated Press

For frugal families, homeschooling can be a good fit. Used academic material is available at low cost; free research resources are on tap on the Internet and at libraries.

Michael Marcucci, of Middlebury, Conn., is president of the Connecticut Homeschool Network, which has about 1,500 member families — including 34 who signed up in January alone.

In Michigan, among the states hardest hit by recession, April Morris, 44, of Auburn Hills remains committed to homeschooling even though she’s now working full-time at Target — a job she started after her husband was laid off from his computer job.

“Legally, there is no difference in California between a homeschool diploma and a public school or private school diploma, because there is no distinction between homeschooling and public/private schooling.” ~Tammy Takahashi

Last week I reported how homeschoolers in Tennessee had pushed for legislation to put homeschool diplomas on a par with state-issued diplomas, and having shepherded their bill through the House and the Senate, were now just awaiting the Governor’s decision on it.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, homeschooling Mom and LA Homeschooling Examiner Tammy Takahashi took on the question of diplomas in her state:

What about in California? What do homeschool diplomas mean here?

To answer that question, we have to first understand the law governing education in California. Simply put, there are no homeschoolers in our state. All children are in public school, private school, or being tutored. If a child receives a diploma, it is from one of these three avenues.

Tammy offers good advice about how to determine your status in California and what to do about the diploma question, but she also notes:

From my experience in the homeschooling community in Los Angeles, the biggest challenge with having a homeschool diploma is getting into college.

Tammy also does a little thoughtful questioning of the whole concept of diplomas, and invites reader feedback:

I wonder just how important diplomas are these days. Other than getting into college, is it important to have a piece of paper that says we graduated? And if so, are there other options besides using a diploma?

Remember this – the state may not be able to teach every child to
read, but they can force every graduate to have a diploma from a
school “approved” by them to be able to work in any occupation that
they regulate.

Tennessee homeschoolers have been embroiled with their state government for quite some time now, and it appears that things are finally coming to a legislative head. First, a little background: Last week Rob Shearer wrote in his blog Contending with the Culture, in a post titled Tennessee’s Jihad Against Homeschoolers:

It began in late 2007 and continued into 2008. An employee of the Department of Education, nominally in charge of the office of non-public schooling was criss-crossing the state making a presentation in which she declared that the diplomas issued by Tennessee’s church-related, category IV schools “were not worth the paper they were printed on.”

As a result of her presentations, other agencies and departments of the state began to reject diplomas issued to homeschoolers when a high school diploma was required by law for certain regulated categories of employment.

Because this is a situation which will undoubtedly face homeschooling families in other states, I want to share a little more from Rob’s blog:

Once again, it bears repeating: The State of Tennessee recognizes these diplomas for the awarding of HOPE lottery scholarships. The University of Tennessee and all of its campuses recognize these diplomas for purposes of admission to college. The state community college system recognizes these diplomas for the purpose of admission to a community college. Vanderbilt, Sewanee, Rhodes, King, Belmont, David Lipscomb, & Lee University all recognize these diplomas for admission to their college degree programs.

It is only the few state boards where the Department of Education has some influence that have rejected them. Homeschooled kids are smart enough to enlist in any branch of the armed services, attend any public or private university – but according to the state of Tennessee they are not qualified to work in a daycare, serve as a police officer, or dye someone’s hair.

Folks, this is outrageous. This is the petty tyranny of a unionized bureaucracy. The educrats cannot stand the fact that a few courageous families have said “no thank you” to the government-monopoly factory-model one-size-fits-all public school system.

This situation is indeed outrageous, but there’s a bright light at the end of this tunnel, brought to you by the Tennessee homeschooling community. Having already passed the House, on Monday, May 4th the Tennessee State Senate also passed SB0433, which, summarized, states:

“Schools, Home – As introduced, requires that diplomas issued by home schools be recognized by all state and local governmental entities as having the same rights and privileges of diplomas issued by public school systems. – Amends TCA Title 1, Chapter 3.”

For an abundant selection of relevant information on this bill, visit Tennessee Home Ed 2009 Legislation, presented by the venerable TnHomeEd site.

Not everyone is happy about this development of course…

Democrats pointed out that, under the law allowing home schooling, parents aren’t required to disclose exactly what they’re teaching their kids. Basically, your mom could read you a few bible stories and then write up your diploma with a crayon on a napkin.

Rep. John Litz, D-Morristown, said recognizing these diplomas is like giving people driver’s licenses without making them take a driving test.

“They want hands-off government,” Rep. Mike Turner, D-Old Hickory, said. “Now they’re saying, ‘We want you to recognize this, but we still don’t want to tell you what we’re doing.’”

The homeschoolers of Tennessee responded to the article above with many excellent posts, including this gem:

Interesting, to me, is the fact that a homeschooler can graduate from high school (at home) attend college, Medical school, become a brain surgeon, and not be allowed to legally dye hair on that same head. This is a matter of: State said homeschooling is a legal option, equal to government education so long as X, Y, and Z are done. Now State wants to come back and say, “Well….it depends on what the definition of “is” is.”

The bill now goes to the Governor of Tennessee, Phil Bredesen, for his consideration.

Related link:

Tennessean.com
Bill orders equality for home-school diplomas
By Juanita Cousins • ASSOCIATED PRESS • May 8, 2009

The proposal sponsored by Rep. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, would require that all state and local governmental entities recognize diplomas issued by home schools and church-related schools as having the same rights and privileges of diplomas issued by public school systems.

Daytime curfew shines bright in Bedford elections Fort Worth Star-Telegram May 05, 2009
By DIANNA HUNT

Continuing controversy over the curfew has spilled into the campaigns for mayor and two City Council seats.

“It probably did bring some candidates out, initially, and for a couple of them, it’s probably still their main issue,” said Mayor Jim Story, who is running for re-election against political newcomer Kenneth Kimmons.

Says Kimmons: “It is an issue, and I think it’s an important one, but it’s not the only one.”

Accuse an opponent of a one issue candidacy and you could win points.  But I have seen activists become involved in one community issue, and then take note of how leaders operate in that and other issues at council meetings.  It’s a learning experience waiting for your turn and your issue at City Council meetings.  Sometimes it leads you to try making a positive difference by running for office.

From the S-T article:

The council approved an ordinance in September that prohibits people under 17, with a few exceptions, from being in a public place between 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on school days. Violators and their parents can be fined up to $500. Businesses are required to alert officials if a youth is on their property during those hours.

The measure has drawn opposition from home-schooling families and civil libertarians, who say the measure erodes personal freedom and forces students, parents and businesses to go to court to prove their innocence. Supporters say the ordinance is having the desired effect of reducing truancy and daytime crime.

Mayor Story said that his leadership “accommodated home-schoolers in the ordinance“.  But it appears that Bedford businesses and families (not on the 9-2:30 education schedule) have to continuously respond to authorities if kids go out and about during Bedford school district hours.  The public front doesn’t appear to be a  business or family friendly community, if anyone asked me.

One City Council candidate, Jason McCaffity, ( a police sergeant)  said they should get rid of the daytime curfew.

“This is just another senseless or needless law that is on the books,” he said. “It doesn’t actually address truancy — it makes it illegal for children to be in public in the daytime.”

There are no useful “exemptions” to daytime curfew when you are guilty until proven innocent.

Home Education Magazine January-February 1997

Truancy, Curfews and Our Response- Janie Levine Hellyer

In July, 1996, the U.S. Department of Education in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice issued a “Manual to Combat Truancy.” The manual speaks of truancy as “the first sign of trouble,” and “a gateway to crime.” It encourages communities to involve parents, ensure that students face firm sanctions for truancy, create meaningful incentives for parental responsibility, establish ongoing truancy prevention programs in school, and involve local law enforcement in truancy reduction efforts. The manual then goes on to describe what it calls “successful models of new anti-truancy initiatives” in communities across the nation. Statistics are provided that hold up truancy prevention efforts beside crime reduction figures. Sources for funding, training and technical assistance to communities are offered. In response, communities across the country are setting in place ordinances and regulations. In early October, we asked families to tell us what they were seeing and how the new regulations were affecting their families and communities. [Continue reading the homeschoolers' observations of curfew regulations at the HEM site and within News-Commentary archives.]

Home Education Magazine March-April 1999

Taking Charge- Curfews and Homeschoolers
Larry and Susan Kaseman
As homeschoolers, we need to be informed about daytime curfews for several reasons.

* Although only a few communities have enacted curfews so far, the number is increasing.

* Curfews undermine everyone’s basic freedoms.

* Our efforts to oppose curfews are much more likely to be effective if we act now, before curfews are proposed in our community, or at least are prepared to act immediately if they are proposed in our community.

* We may be drawn into debates about how curfews can be made less inconvenient for homeschoolers. This shifts the focus away from the serious issues. There are no “good” curfews. [Continue reading at the site]

Tennessee’s Senator Dewayne Bunch is sponsoring  legislation that: requires that diplomas issued by home schools be recognized by all state and local governmental entities as having the same rights and privileges of diplomas issued by public school systems.

This diploma issue along with Tennessee Department of Education interference with homeschoolers, has carried over from last year.  It appears that one governmental agency with a bias, talking to other governmental agencies, can deem homeschooling diplomas insufficient to be a daycare worker. Inter-agency networking at its worst?

Last year, Valerie blogged it here:

Category IV diplomas in Tennessee

and here:

Tennessee diploma discussion

According to Kay Brooks’ 2009 Legislation updates, the bill has currently passed out of the Education Committee and is scheduled for a full Senate vote this evening.

Update- The Senate bill passed.

Bill to give equal weight to home school diplomas Fox 17
May 04, 2009

Diplomas issued in home schools in Tennessee would have the same weight as those given by public schools under a proposal that has passed the Senate.

The measure sponsored by Republican Sen. Dewayne Bunch of Cleveland was approved 30-0 Monday evening.

HB0431 is an affiliated House bill  and is scheduled to be heard in the Rules Committee on Wednesday, May 6.  This year, Kay Brooks said that the Rules Committee is chaired by a former homeschooling dad, Representative Bill Dunn.

More about this year’s legislation on equivalent diplomas is on Red Hat Rob’s (Shearer) blog:

Tennessee’s jihad against homeschoolers

The Tennessee Education Association also has an opinion:

The diploma issue also raises serious concerns around
standards and accountability since the home school “teacher” has very minimal requirements placed on them by the state of Tennessee.

Continuing from WGGB’s Part I that was posted here: Family Time for Homeschoolers: Priceless

Homeschooling Part II: Homeschool Graduates April 1, 2009

2 young adults were interviewed. Liza-Anne Raymond is a small business owner and Melanie Shephard is a college junior heading towards medical school.

Homeschool Part III: Homeschooling Resources April 2, 2009