The New York Times opinion pages for January 5 includes arguments for and against the idea of state tax credits for homeschoolers, which is being promoted as a priority as the the newest Republicans in Congress seek to challenge the federal role in American public education, with an eye toward turning more power over to the states. The collected debates are presented under the banner title Do Homeschoolers Deserve a Tax Break?

HEM political analysts and homeschooling parents Larry and Susan Kaseman have written extensively about this topic, including in the current January-February issue of Home Education Magazine: Beware of Privatization of Education: It Reduces Our Homeschooling Freedoms:

“Homeschoolers can’t assume that as long as they as individuals refuse to accept government money or favors, they won’t be required to comply with state regulations written for homeschoolers who do accept them. Legislators and state regulators are highly unlikely to develop and expect public officials to enforce two separate sets of regulations for homeschoolers, one for those who accept tax credits or tax deductions or reimbursements for educational expenses or who play on public school sports teams or participate in other public school activities and the other for homeschoolers who don’t. If legislation is passed or regulations are developed to hold homeschoolers accountable because some homeschoolers are receiving government money, those statutes or regulations will no doubt apply to all homeschoolers, not just those getting the money.”

Further analysis and information can be found in this 1999 article by homeschooling mother and long-time advocate for homeschooling, Peggy Daly-Masternak: So What About That Free Lunch?

“With little strain, we can all think of many examples where the state is attempting to solve the problems presented by a few with far-reaching blanket laws to cover a worst case scenario. Think curfews. Think proficiency tests. Think greater restrictions on parents rights.

“My dear friends in homeschooling, there is no free lunch. If one currently exists, it won’t last forever. The piper always gets paid.”

Psychology Today blogger Laura Brodie follows up:

“Last week I posted an article with a deliberately provocative title: Should Homeschooling Parents Have College Degrees? I didn’t offer my own answer; instead I invited readers to share their thoughts on what, if any, level of education might be required by each state—a bachelor’s degree, a high school diploma, a basic literacy test, no regulation whatsoever? I did, however, state that the fact that parents with GEDs could, if they desired, conduct their children’s high school educations seemed to be ‘setting the bar very low.’

“I expected heated replies, having seen the online outcries that tend to result whenever anyone raises the sore subject of homeschooling regulation. That’s why my article began by acknowledging that the topic of regulation can make tempers flare.

“When I finished writing the piece and pressed the “publish now” button, I thought: Let the storm come. And it came promptly—in comments that ranged from thought-filled to angry to incongruous.”

Continue reading Laura Brodie’s post here.

Spoiler alert: Brodie’s assumptions and assessments are shown clearly in her responses to readers’ comments:

“…homeschooling needs some degree of regulation, especially some outside monitoring of children’s progress, which is more important than parents’ education level. I would like to see more discussion among the homeschooling community about what minimum standards for regulation most parents would feel are reasonable. I realize many people are opposed to all government intervention, but some basic oversight seems useful…”

“Without regulations in all states that require homeschooling parents to inform superintendents of their decisions to homeschool, and that require children to do some sort of annual performance review (standardized test or otherwise) under monitored circumstances, there will be no reliable data.”

Home Education Magazine has published volumes of information about these questions over the years. Here are some helpful links to articles by well-experienced and well-informed advocates for homeschooling:

• Let’s Stop Aiding and Abetting Academicians’ Folly

• Your Homeschooling Decisions Affect My Homeschooling Freedoms

• Hanging On To What Makes Homeschooling Distinctive

• Communicating the Strengths of Homeschooling

• Working for Homeschooling Freedoms: Chore or Opportunity?

• Undoing The Harms of Homeschooling: From Reaction to Prevention

• Where Will That Leave Us?

• Citizenship or Lawyership: Choosing Political Strategies for Homeschoolers

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.

Education Week has a piece that begs to be reprinted in full because there is just too much to think about.

Needs of ‘Whole Child’ May Factor in ESEA Renewal
Wide Range of Supports, Services, and Enrichment Seen as Vital but Costly

As Congress gears up for renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, lawmakers and the Obama administration are seeking to address a perennial complaint: that the current version of the law, the No Child Left Behind Act, places too much emphasis on students’ test scores and pays little attention to their health and other needs.

And at a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee last week, lawmakers agreed that the idea of educating “the whole child” encompasses a wide range of support services, which advocates are hoping could be reflected in the rewrite of the ESEA.

Those include dental and mental health, as well as programs aimed at providing prekindergarten and library services, summer and after-school enrichment, mentoring, college counseling, and increased parent and community involvement. The whole-child concept can also refer to making sure schools attend to students’ nonacademic interests, through programs such as the arts and physical education.

Pretty much no part of our lives will not be part of the schools’ responsibility. Make your hair stand on end yet? Well, read what Geoffrey Canada, of the Harlem Children’s Zone says:

“In communities where kids are failing in record numbers, you can’t just do one thing,” he said at the hearing. “We start with children at birth and stay with them until they graduate from college. … In the end, you have to create a series of supports that really meet all of their needs.”

A quote on the Harlem Children’s Zone website from a The New York Times Magazine piece reads, The objective is to create a safety net woven so tightly that children just can’t slip through.

The knee-jerk reaction was to ring the bell of alarm, run up the flag, call homeschoolers to arms… and then I read the ten pages of the Times piece. And this is where the rub came in.

Frankly, I am alarmed by what I see as an overreach by the institution of schooling, but, at the same time I have to admit I could be living in another country, dealing with much different issues than what Geoffrey Canada faces. Can I truly fault Mr. Canada for addressing the needs of his community? Can I pretend to not believe that no matter how many more services are offered through schools that these are stop gap measures and we are turning a blind eye to the underlying problems we all face?

I can do neither.

So, I suggest that you read both of these pieces (Needs of ‘Whole Child’ May Factor in ESEA Renewal, The Harlem Project), see if you can sort your way through. And then be as proactive as Mr Canada.

From Lancaster And Morecambe Citizen we learn about the controversial Government proposals to monitor home educators:

If the bill is passed, home educators will be forced to join a register, and Cumbria County Council children’s services will have the right to enter their home to ensure they are providing quality education. Parents may also have to submit their curriculum plans for the year.

~~~
Jayne Richardson, of Gran-ge-over-Sands, who educates her three children aged nine, 12 and 15, has been heavily involved in a campaign to get the bill thrown out of parliament.

“A lot of us feel the proposed changes are not about benefiting the child but about control.” she said.

~~~
A spokesman for Cumbria County Council said: “The local authority wants to ensure all young people in Cumbria are able to reach their potential.

“We work in partnership with home educators to support children.

“While we have a monitoring duty, this is completed through developing good working relationships with parents and children.

Odd way to build trust to be sure. Read the entire piece here.

Getting involved in partisan politics has never been a good way to further homeschooling freedoms. In their November-December 2004 Taking Charge column, Let’s Not Link Homeschooling to Partisan Politics, Larry and Susan Kaseman write:

“To homeschool, you don’t have to have any specific ideas about politics or religion or lifestyle. In 1984, a newspaper reporter wrote that Wisconsin homeschoolers ranged from “Bible-thumping Baptists to granola crunching back-to-the-landers.” A major strength of the homeschooling movement is that it is not limited to any one political perspective or religion or anything else and in that sense is broad-based. Such a base is essential for a small minority that wants to maintain its identity, integrity, and freedoms despite being different from mainstream culture.”

With this in mind, an article appeared on the Cedar Valley Daily Times’ (Vinton, Iowa) website which reports on a recent party caucus, Party planks dominate Republican caucus.

VINTON–Twenty-six planks were set at Vinton’s Republican Caucus Saturday at Vinton-Shellsburg Middle School to use as a foundation for the republican’s platform in the upcoming election.

Among the list of the Republican party planks we find, “support and fully-fund homeschooling in Iowa.” Again, from the same ND/04 Taking Charge column:

“We also don’t want the government to grant us favors or special privileges or give homeschoolers money in the form of direct payments, reimbursements, tax credits, or tax deductions. Anyone who accepts money or special privileges from the government should be held accountable because the government is responsible for how taxpayers’ money is spent. We don’t want the government giving construction companies large sums of money for highways and not checking to make sure the highways are well built. So we can’t accept favors, special privileges, or money from the government and expect them not to check on how we are homeschooling.”

Unpacking the promise of, “support and fully-fund homeschooling” we are left with a contradiction in four words.