A new pilot charter school has been approved in Indiana. “The home-school effect” came up in the Journal Gazette, just as it often does in much of this educational trend’s media coverage, potential vendors’ marketing points, along with many legislators’ concerns.

Charter schools set for online trial run The Journal Gazette

by Niki Kelly Published: July 19, 2009
Legislators included a significant restriction on the student population that could save money.

It says at least 75 percent of the students enrolled in the pilot had to be counted in the public-school enrollment the prior year. This means the state is already funding those students in some school district and the money will simply shift to the new charter school.

But if children who are currently home-schooled enter the program, they will cost the state additional money because those students aren’t covered by state funding now.

One legitimate defense is that homeschoolers do save the state money with our education/funding accountability. That might not be significant to those who want the control, but fiscal conservatives like the notion.

Former elementary school principal and current Sen. Connie Sipes finds the charter school curriculum satisfactory for homeschoolers.

It will be a good curriculum for home-schoolers,” said Sen. Connie Sipes, D-New Albany. “We aren’t paying for them now, so it will cost us more money.

It might be a good curriculum for some homeschoolers, but certainly not all. We can be flexible in fitting the learning around our kids and their particular best education practice styles.

Lynette Quinn presides over the Indiana Families for Public Virtual Schools, and independent homeschoolers can appreciate the “Public” noted in the name. There leaves no doubt who is accountable for the education, financing and accountability.

Lynette Quinn, president of Indiana Families for Public Virtual Schools, discounts the home-school effect, saying many of those families want a Christian-oriented education with flexibility in curriculum that a public school – even a virtual charter school – can’t provide.

She also noted those students would then have to take the state ISTEP+ test.

But it appears that Senator Sipes has a more significant concern (to her); school socialization.

“Call me old-fashioned, but I just think it’s important for kids to be around other kids,” she said. “Learning to interact with one another, to tolerate differences, is part of going to school. I want kids and people in general to learn how to get along with each other.”

History lessons would surely show that socializing was fairly successful in the years before modern public education was conceived. Learning to interact with others, tolerate differences and learn how to get along with each other could be a more likely possibility when you’re not in a classroom surrounded by classmates of the same age and within the bounds of the community.

That is a “home-school effect” that has more possibilities in promoting free-range living and learning.

If you wipe away the blustering, overblown, over-hyped, over-indignant carrying-on by newshounds hunting a story with no expense spared, there’s a case unfolding in North Carolina which carries plenty of legitimate reason for concern. The bare bones of the situation surrounding 16-year-old homeschooler Ashton Lundeby, from Wired magazine’s Threat Level blog post, Bloggers, TV, Go Nuts Over Misleading ‘Patriot Act’ Arrest Claim:

FBI agents investigating a February 15 bomb hoax that evacuated the mechanical engineering building at Purdue University traced the phone call to the juvenile’s Oxford, North Carolina home, served his mother with a search warrant and arrested the teen. They issued a press release about it, omitting the suspect’s name. That was on March 5, and he’s been held without bail in Indiana ever since.

The blogger, Kevin Poulson, explains:

It’s the false TV news report heard ’round the world. Raleigh, North Carolina’s WRAL-5 reported last week that a 16-year-old bomb hoax suspect was hauled out of his mother’s home by federal agents, and is now being held without any legal rights on the authority of the 2001 USA PATRIOT Act, which “supersedes the Constitution.”

This tale of injustice has since shown up on Drudge, Digg, Reddit, and a thousand blogs and shoot-from-the-hip mailing lists. The boy’s name is rising on the Google Trends index. Radio show host Alex Jones interviewed the boy’s mother on Tuesday, and pundits on the left and right are seizing on the story to rail against the government’s unfettered power to make an innocent citizen disappear at will. Some outraged reports are claiming the teenager hasn’t even been charged with a crime.

I recommend reading the entire piece from Wired’s blog, as it seems to be the most reliable and level-headed source on this situation. And I like their wrap-up.

I’m not going to excerpt the other blogs and stories, but it’s easy to find them with a good search engine, and several are linked from the Wired blog.

 If a baby is fed breastmilk in a bottle, especially if the person doing the feeding is unrelated to the baby, that baby is not breastfed.  Using a curriculum supplied to homeschooling parents to be used by a teacher, is not homeschooling.  Just because homeschooling broke the mold of institutional dayschooling, doesn’t mean that every little educational wrinkle gets to wriggle in under the homeschooling blanket and cuddle up.  If a teacher is teaching kids at a school, then it’s either private schooling or tutoring.  If it works, it works, no big deal.  But to try to shoehorn any educational alternative into the homeschooling mold is just looking for novelty where none exists.

• The Truth, Elkhart, Indiana, 19 February 2006, Latest twist in education: Home schooling — in school

  Hybrid home schools, an idea catching on around the country, are meant for those parents who would like to home school but have to work or students who want a smaller, Christian-based setting.

  It’s basically a home-school curriculum taught within a school building, supervised by a teacher.

  …

  The home-school curriculum Christian Redeemer will use is called Christian Liberty Academy, widely used across the country. Students will get a diploma from Redeemer as well as Christian Liberty.

 Perhaps the writer should have paid closer attention to the families she interviewed when she was writing her other article, a nice enough general interest article with the usual mentions of rules, regulations and socialization. 

• The Truth, Elkhart, Indiana, 19 February 2006, Home Work

  Home-school laws in Indiana are not as strict as some states, especially in the eastern part of the country. Home-schoolers don’t have a required curriculum to teach and don’t participate in state testing. They are only required to keep attendance records, and parents do not have to have a college degree or a teacher’s license to home school.

I wonder if Indiana has more lenient child-feeding rules than other states, too?

Hat tip to Tammy.

• latimes.com, Los Angeles, California, 24 July 2005, New Role for Home Study: Honing a Gift
  "Home schooling has long been a refuge for parents unhappy with public schools. Now, a growing number of athletes, musicians and actors are abandoning traditional classrooms so they can focus on their talent, educators say."

• The Journal Net, Johnson County, Indiana, 25 July 2005 Children learn how?
  Subheadings are Public School, Private School and Home School
  "But she may do something different with her second child. Owen, 5, will go to kindergarten at Sawmill Woods Elementary School in New Whiteland this fall. Johnson will make a decision about whether to keep Owen home after he finishes kindergarten or send him on to first grade after she sees how he responds to being in school.
  Different kids have different needs, and figuring out how to meet those needs is the job of the parent, Johnson said."

• Austin Daily Herald Online, 26 July 2005, Texas Homeschool v. public school and clearing up the myths
  "Twenty years ago, parents had to go digging through dumpsters behind schools to get textbooks," she said. "Now, we have conventions where we have publishers coming to us."

• Fauquier Times-Democrat, 26 July 2005, Virginia, Sailor focuses on needs of Iraqi children
  "Wise, 21, is the son of Bryan and Sandy Wise of Warrenton. He attended Warrenton Middle School before beginning homeschooling."
  . . .
  "Wise reported that in addition to his military duties, he has been involved in several projects meant to win the support of Iraqis living near the base."
  . . .
  "These efforts have brought about improved relations with Iraqis allowed to enter the base."

• The Citizen, Fayetteville, 27 July 2005 Georgia, Black belt riding a three year unbeaten streak
  "Kojak began to take Jordan to competitions and she hasn’t lost a match in three years. She has progressed from green belt to second degree black belt and is now a captain and a junior instructor at the school. To keep progressing, Jordan practices everyday. She resides in Fayette County and is a homeschool student."

• ArriveNet, 27 July 2005, Virginia VA Homeschoolers Salvage Yahoo! Disaster
  "Virginia’s eclectic homeschoolers are the greatest! After Yahoogroups vaporized a favorite statewide discussion list, the homeschoolers rallied and recreated a new e-list with a membership of over 325 in three weeks."
  . . .
  “It’s too bad that the old list is gone,” Seaborne said, “but this is also a great opportunity for creating additional internet presence for eclectic homeschooling,”

Confusing public-school-at-home with homeschooling

• Rural Northwest .com, Bonners Ferry, Idaho, It’s OK to Homeschool
  "Beside the private schools, and the traditional public or charter schools, the state of Idaho now offers two homeschool charter schools online, making it one of the friendliest states toward homeschooling."
  . . .
  "The recently started IDEA is a public charter school that provides homeschool parents with money to purchase a non-faith based curriculum of their choice, according to Rice. In addition, the parent works with the IDEA to develop an individual student education plan."
  

Marketing preschool to parents (this is a topic to be aware of in the light of increasing calls for universal preschool, and some actions to lower the age of compulsory school attendance)

• Communications Strategies for Advocates of Early Childhood Education
  "The objective was to identify those labels that could be helpful in convincing people to support public policies for improved affordability and quality of early childhood care and education."