Court Case Home Education Magazine – Helen, Idoni.

Based on a short news item posted at the Home Education Magazine website in August, 2010, publisher Helen Hegener is involved in a lawsuit which was filed against homeschooling mother Heather Idoni, owner of Beloved Books, editor of The Homeschool Notebook, and manager of EasyFunSchool.com, brought against her by Mimi Rothschild, Howard Mandel, and Learning by Grace, Inc.

As part of Home Education Magazine’s 28-year-long commitment to keeping the homeschool community informed, the files and information on Learning By Grace, Inc. et al. v. Idoni are presented at this case-specific page.

Comments on the case are welcome, but Learning By Grace, Inc., et al. v. Idoni is an active defamation suit. Be truthful, respectful and please don’t spam.

No links or email addresses are allowed here do to legal issues. All comment links are no follow.

In this first of three posts, titled Compelled to Attend, HEM’s Road Less Travelled columnist, Linda Dobson, is revisiting her first book, The Art of Education: Reclaiming Your Family, Community and Self, published by Home Education Press in 1995. An excerpt:

And if colleges and universities ignore the true meaning of education and accept indoctrination as their function in society, what then is the purpose of all the years of schooling that lead up to college, starting at the tender age of five or, in many cases today, even younger?

Continue reading at the link above.

The National Charter School Watch discussion group (NCSW) is assessing the state of things six years after its founding by homeschooling mom Annette Jurczak in June, 2004. The group’s description explains in part:

We welcome those seeking information about charter school issues in their states and nationally, as well as those sharing information about charter schools. Objective discussion focused on the *issues* at hand and in the service of better understanding these issues, is welcome.

The discussion group’s membership consists of charter schoolers, virtual schoolers, homeschoolers and advocates of homeschooling. Annette posted on July 11:

“Much time has passed since this group was started, and much has changed over the years. So what are your thoughts? What have you learned as it relates to hsing and ps at home programs over the years? Do you think hsing is being negatively impacted? Do you think there has been any loss of homeschooling freedoms? Have your attitudes and opinions changed and if so, how?”

Join the group at the link above and join the discussion beginning with Annette’s July 11 post.

A seemingly inane announcement in a Seattle-area publication:

The Edmonds Homeschool Resource Center has changed its name to Edmonds Heights K-12. The school recently changed its name from Edmonds Homeschool Resource Center to Edmonds Heights to reflect their association with the Edmonds School District. “We changed our name because we wanted to clarify our mission in serving students and partnering with parents as a part of the public school system,” said Principal Danny Rock.

Does it raise red flags, ring any bells for anyone? If not, see if this helps:

Public schools and business people are increasingly trying to convince homeschoolers to enroll in their programs and use their services. At first glance, the offers may seem attractive. However, they undermine homeschoolers’ identity and freedom and serve the interests of their promoters to the detriment of homeschoolers.

From the same column:

…in Washington state, the growth rate for homeschooling, which had consistently been 15-20% per year, has dropped to zero in the past two years, in large part because of the growth of alternative public school programs.

-Excerpts from Homeschoolers, Is Our Good Name for Sale? by Larry and Susan Kaseman, Home Education Magazine, Sept-Oct, 2000.

Guess our good name outlived its usefulness. Wonder how many families got sidelined from bona fide homeschooling in the process?

In No Magic Bullet for Education the Los Angeles Times takes a look at teacher evaluations, education reform, Race to the Top grants, standardized tests and more:

The “unschooling” movement of the 1970s featured open classrooms, in which children studied what they were most interested in, when they felt ready. That was followed by today’s back-to-basics, early-start model, in which students complete math worksheets in kindergarten and are supposed to take algebra by eighth grade at the latest. Under the “whole language” philosophy of the 1980s, children were expected to learn to read by having books read to them. By the late 1990s, reading lessons were dominated by phonics, with little time spent on the joys of what reading is all about — unlocking the world of stories and information.

Rose Fernandez is the past president of the Wisconsin Coalition of Virtual School Families. She is now running for the job of WI’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Experienced Educator, Newcomer Battle for Wis. Post Education Week Published Online: March 30, 2009 By The Associated Press

Fernandez never worked in a school. She spent her career as a pediatric nurse, but got involved in education policy when she worked as president of a coalition serving families whose children attended school over the Internet.

This particular statement got my attention: “A well-known supporter of charter schools, Fernandez has promised to be the “best friend” of home schoolers”.

That’s a good political sound bite, since office seekers have figured out that most homeschoolers vote. Important point though, charter schools are public schools. Homeschools are not. That point was even made in the Wisconsin Coalition of Virtual School Families newsletter:

Full-time online public charter schools must meet the same federal and state fiscal and accountability requirements as other public schools, including No Child Left Behind requirements.Online schools are not “homeschooling.” They are public schools.

Pssstt..the newsletter says that you can contact Rose Fernandez for further information

The Wisconsin Parent’s Association has a few thoughts on their website about this coming election. I posted the outline of their article below, but suggest reading the details in the 2 page document. It’s informative, grassroots homeschool advocacy.

Election of State Superintendent- WPA
(Posted March 9, 2009)

General Background Information on the Office of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Relationship of the Office of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to Homeschooling

Should Homeschooling Be An Issue In This Campaign?

What we can do to minimize the extent to which homeschooling becomes an issue in this campaign

Need to Be Vigilant After the Election

The election is April 7th.

This point below was made in the WPA article too. From EdWeek:

The position is nonpartisan and largely administrative. While both candidates talk about broad reforms they’d like to make, most of the significant changes require legislative approval that is beyond the control of the DPI secretary.

However, they can help shape education policy by using the position as a bully pulpit to advance their agenda, working internally in their role administering state and federal aid and offering guidance to teachers and administrators, and by lobbying both the governor and Legislature.

Posted by Susan Ryan

HEM Editorial: While the public school programs have effectively served the needs of some families, it is unwise to allow the perception to grow that they are equivalent to homeschooling. The very construct of these public school programs runs counter to the ability of families to handcraft an education for their children.

Peggy Daly Masternak, a long time homeschool activist recently sent along an article, Public school students’ data available to anybody from the Toledo Blade by By IGNAZIO MESSINA/

It starts out by saying that:

If your children are in a public school, their names, addresses, phone numbers, and grade levels are all on a list.

And unless you say so, anybody not just the military can get a copy.

A review of those who have asked for a copy of the Toledo Public Schools’ student database, either in its entirety or only for certain neighborhoods, finds charter school companies, for-profit tutoring services, the Catholic Diocese, out-of-town law firms, and at least two community activists.

Farther down it reads:

Without consent

But the same law says, “Schools may disclose, without consent, directory information such as a student’s name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance. However, schools must tell parents and eligible students about directory information and allow parents and eligible students a reasonable amount of time to request that the school not disclose directory information about them.”

The people and companies that have requested TPS student lists during the last two years include:

• U.S. Army Recruiting station, 4925 Jackman Rd. and 530 South Reynolds Rd.
• Navy Recruiting District Ohio in Columbus.
• Toledo Catholic Diocese.
• Lagrange Village Council.
• Alliance Academy of Toledo charter school, 1501 Monroe St.
• Star Academy charter school, 3700 Dorr St.
• McDonaldald’s, 1520 Cherry St.
• OPOK Inc., an Indiana-based company.
• St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center Positive Choices program.
• University of Toledo’s Upward Bound youth program.
• Scholars for the 21st Century, a local for-profit tutoring company.
• Twila Page, African-American Parents Association.
• Nicola, Gudbranson & Cooper LLC, a law firm in Cleveland, in May requested the 2006-07 student list along with the date and place of birth for all students. A lawyer for the firm could not be reached for comment.
• Melvin Baker, who was listed as the contact for the Scholars for the 21st Century on its written public records request, refused to answer questions about his Oct. 1 request for the names, addresses, and phone numbers of all students at Nathan Hale and Lincoln elementary schools and Samuel M. Jones at Gunckel Park Middle School.
• Kathy White, principal of Blessed Sacrament Catholic School on Castlewood Drive, said she requested the names and addresses of children at Longfellow Elementary so she could send them letters marketing the parochial school.

Peggy Daly-Masternak, a resident of West Toledo who is co-chairman of the Student and Family Rights and Privacy Committee, said public school districts violate state law by releasing directory information to for-profit companies.

According to the Ohio Revised Code: “No person shall release, or permit access to, the directory information concerning any students attending a public school to any person or group for use in a profit-making plan or activity.”

Some might feel this does not affect homeschoolers, but I know that when the for-profit charters were targeting us in the state of Ohio, more than one district superintendent said they felt they had to release homeschool contact information to these companies.

The question of the day seems to be how do we live in this world of technology without having our privacy compromised? With so many reports of data being accidentally lost, is it any wonder that we want to avoid the growing trend for data gathering? The U.K.’s Carlotta at Dare to Know has a link to a Children’s Database Petition to abandon plans to create a children’s database (aka: Information Sharing Index and ContactPoint). Seems like we should be doing that and then some here in the U.S. where there are far too many bits of proposed legislation that pop up at the THOMAS site for the word/phrase search for “student data.”

Here are some resources regarding privacy and data gathering:

Homeschooling Perspectives on Privacy Issues by Larry and Susan Kaseman was published in the March-April 1995 issue of Home Education Magazine.

They wrote:

Concerns about protecting privacy are increasing, especially because computer technology is making possible the storage and dissemination of so much data about ordinary people, not just the rich and famous. As homeschoolers, we are in a unique position. Our homeschooling gives us a special label and visibility in many databases. Some “educational technology” being marketed to homeschoolers threatens privacy. But at the same time, our unique perspective on society allows us to clearly see and readily question some of the developments that are taking place whose problems may not be as readily apparent to others.

This column will consider some privacy issues from a homeschooling perspective and suggest actions that homeschoolers may decide to take.

Practical Ways to Claim Responsibility for Our Homeschools

We can minimize the information that public officials have about our homeschools by refusing to participate in surveys that are not required by statute and by getting out of data bases or ensuring that the information about our families is “locked” so that it cannot be distributed. We can minimize the damage that is done by information the government already has by obtaining records from time our children spent in public school before we began homeschooling and by using open records laws to find out what information the government has. When we do these things, we confirm for ourselves and show others that we have responsibility for our homeschools and are living up to that responsibility.

Maine Education Data Management System

Be aware that if your homeschooled child DOES participate in courses at the public school through the homeschool public school access law (full text of law), then he or she WILL become part of the state database of all public school students, called “MEDMS” (Maine Education Data Management System).

This database is extensive, computerized, and contains all kinds of (somewhat personal plus some demographic) information about the child, including assessment information. Each child is given a unique identifier, so that even if the child moves to another state and then moves back to Maine, the electronic records can be retrieved and continued once they move back.

MEDMS allows and requires schools to enter assessment data, a victims of the safe and drug-free schools law as well as student and staff offenders.

Kidtrax

Michigan homeschooling thrives in Kalamazoo, but doubts about the “practice” linger

The Independent Homeschooler by Mary McCarthy

Posted by Mary

My colleague, Mary, already blogged this report, “Clarity from Connections Academy,” but in re-reading the newspaper story from the pile in my in-box, the article still bothered me. Pointing to the clarity is important, but I find it pushy that an NEA representative virtually says that parents put one over on … whom? …, by teaching their children at home. Who is the loser?

For a long time, the received wisdom about children doing well in school hinged in part on parents helping the children with their lessons. Social authorities have dinned it into parents’ heads to be active in helping their children learn. Government tells parents to do this, as do television ads, and academic researchers:

• University of Michigan: “The most effective forms of parent involvement are those, which engage parents in working directly with their children on learning activities at home.”
• Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory: “The research overwhelmingly demonstrates that parent involvement in children’s learning is positively related to achievement. Further, the research shows that the more intensively parents are involved in their children’s learning, the more beneficial are the achievement effects.”
• NEA: “Reading achievement is more dependent on learning activities in the home than is math or science.”

The NEA has changed its stance from “adamantly opposing” virtual schooling:

NEA page on Charter Schools 2002

New concerns are being raised by the recent proliferation in California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and elsewhere of non classroom-based charter schools, or “home-study schools.” These include online schools and distance-learning schools-an abuse of the charter school concept that NEA adamantly opposes.

… to thinking that the schools are not so bad after all:

current NEA page on Charter Schools:

NEA believes that charter schools and other nontraditional public school options have the potential to facilitate education reforms and develop new and creative teaching methods that can be replicated in traditional public schools for the benefit of all children.

Still, the NEA is not entirely comfortable with handing over the keys to learning. An NEA representative does not think that parents should horn in on the virtual teaching of children. She expresses a fear that the virtual programs are “homeschooling in disguise” and that parents will botch the job. I guess if the kids have questions they are supposed to stay glued to the computer screen, or wait their turn in virtual lines.

Virtual Schools Click With Parents, 13 August 2007, Tampa Tribune, Tampa, Florida

Home Schools In Virtual Clothing?

Stein, from the NEA, questioned to what extent such programs are home schooling in disguise.

Stein, who has helped draft standards for online education nationwide, said neither she nor the NEA objects to them. But an excess of parent involvement raises concerns about quality and accountability. “There are concerns about deputizing whoever happens to be at the kitchen table as a teacher.”

So, what does “home schooling in disguise” mean? It cannot mean parents using taxpayers’ money to buy substandard books or religious materials because the virtual school puts together the subjects, tests and books. Children who use virtual schools are (for the most part) public school enrollees and subject to NCLB testing. If the parents substitute materials, the children will not learn the same lessons that the tests are checking, and the kids might flunk. I assume that by using a virtual school, the parents want their children to do well in the program as it is structured. If this is the case, then tests take care of “accountability.”

Maybe the NEA representative meant that parents ‘get away with something,’ by using the virtual school but then teach the kids themselves. This kind of fudging, though, does not fit with the advice for parents to help their children at home.

ERIC: The Role of Parents in High-Achieving Schools Serving Low-Income, At-Risk Populations

Results suggest that schools struggling with unsatisfactory student achievement may benefit from focusing parent involvement efforts on building parenting capacity and encouraging learning-at-home activities.

What are parents supposed to do? Just pay the taxes and then hush up?

As for the “deputizing,” the schools are not the ones who deputize the parents; it is the other way around. We The People pay taxes to support schools to replace the at-home teaching of children. In loco parentis means that parents delegate their duties to others, not that schools allow parents to be caretakers.

The concept of public service has been mangled in the re-telling of who is serving whom.

posted by Valerie

The May 19, 2007 online Wisconsin Paper, the Post-Crescent, recently wrote that there are “Two charter schools up for renewal” in an article By Kathy Walsh Nufer, Post-Crescent staff writer.

The article reports changes in a contract between The Wisconsin Connections Academy and the Appleton Area School District. The report describes the school as follows: “WCA, Wisconsin’s first online school to serve an elementary age population throughout the state, educates students via their home computers through a certified teacher based in Appleton. Parents act as learning coaches”.

Companies like WCA have invested a great deal in marketing as many homeschool families learn when these educational management organization’s come to town promoting their wares.

Some of these schools still continue to promote their schools on the coat-tails of home education and to that I say buyer beware. However, this May 19th article offers a glimmer of hope to those like myself who have only wanted to bring clarity to corporate claims that these schools are homeschooling but a bit better. Why? In the same article, WCA Administrator Nichole Schweitzer is quoted as saying, “There seems to be a natural cap on the number of people willing to turn over their freedom (with home schooling) and accept the accountability we require,” Schweitzer said.

Precisely what many of us have been saying all along. Certainly, one should choose this type of new public school program if it meets a child’s needs. However, home education, homeschooling, unschooling have all historically involved individuals not enrolling their children in public school because they do not wish to turn over their freedoms and enroll their child in one of these or any other public school.

Posted by Mary Nix