Thursday, March 13, 2008

Homeschooling in California

The official attitude toward homeschooling in California can be summed up by the following quote, left on an education website.

"I am a Californa teacher in a public school, and do not support homeschooling, private schools, or charter schools. They all damage public education, and they do not provide an unbiased education for their students."

Note that she cannot correctly spell the state in which she teaches. I know, it could be a typing error, but still.

Yes, homeschooling is dead in California. The governator hopes to resuscitate it, but until he does, families who refuse to send their small children on a one-hour bus ride to a failed and even dangerous school system are committing felony child neglect.

Unfortunately, California tends to a trend setter among states. With a progressive socialist heritage going back to the Great Depression, the state motto should be "Why isn't there a program to address that?"

I am not going to pick on progressives because I am one. But this is taking things in the wrong direction. With homeschoolers scoring on average in the 85th percentile, a state that boasts the poorest public schooling system in the industrialized world should be looking at how homeschoolers manage this remarkable success without certified teachers and a barrage of tests, not making it illegal.

As the child of a public school administrator and a former teacher, I don't think the educator quoted above is an exception. Her attitude is representative of most educational groups--if you don't believe me, just check out the NEA's website. Public schools are failing, and the only way to guarantee their continued existence is to remove all alternatives. The alternatives make them look bad, PLUS they give people a place to go. If they are allowed to end homeschooling, you can bet they will be turning on private schools and charter schools next. It's their stated goal.

2 comments:

TMinsk said...

This worries me, especially after the odd happening here in Utah concerning homeschooling. Added to that, my son lives in CA and plans to homeschool his son. Not too big a problem yet, the baby is not quite two weeks old! :-)

I'm planning to send my youngest back to public school for next year, I need to be able to go to work; but the school he would attend failed in math! That's my son's interest and strongest subject, I need a school that knows what it's doing. There's another school whose border ends across the street from me, I'm working on that because that one is MUCH better.

Emily the Great and Terrible said...

Good luck getting your son into the better school. I don't know what the laws are in Utah. In California, I never had trouble switching between schools and school districts, but in Washington it seems like people have trouble. I hope Arnie clears this up before your grandbaby has to be forced to school.