Right Thinking From The Left Coast
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Readin’, Writin’, And Recession
by West Virginia Rebel

The economy may be making the case for homeschooling.

Before the recession, the ranks of homeschool students had been growing by an estimated 8 percent annually; the latest federal figures, from 2007, calculate the total at about 1.5 million.

While some families are giving up because of a stay-at-home parent’s need to get a job, the recession overall will likely be a further boost to homeschooling, according to parents and educators interviewed by The Associated Press....Christopher Klicka of Warrenton, Va., senior counsel for the Home School Legal Defense Association and co-teacher along with his wife of seven homeschooled children, says hard times enhance homeschooling’s appeal as private school tuition becomes unaffordable and some public schools contemplate cutbacks.

“People are looking to homeschooling as an alternative more now in light of economic circumstances,” he said, citing its low cost and potential for strengthening family bonds.

I don’t have a problem with homeshooling-my sister has been homeshcooling her kids. But I also agree with the idea of year-round schools. It seems to me we should have an educational policy that balances both against each other-and in a way that doesn’t require a crapload of government money for teacher’s unions.

Posted by West Virginia Rebel on 03/11/09 at 03:54 AM (Discuss this in the forums)

Comments


Posted by on 03/11/09 at 04:29 PM from Germany

Great. I better start preparing for the wave of naive, socially-maladjusted creationists I’ll have to deal with in the future.

Posted by on 03/11/09 at 05:55 PM from United States

I’ll weight in as a teacher that has had to deal with revolving door homeschoolers:

Washington State has a law that imposes criminal penalties on parents if their students miss a lot of school.  It takes a long time to ge there, but a huge percentage of these parents decide, about a week before their hearings, that they will home school their kids.  That buys them a year and half or two before the swift education bureuacracy figures out that this was their way to weasel out of the court system. 

It is also a way that parents of problematic children get to respite from eharing about their kids problems.  I have a student right now who joined my class in the middle of the year after being home schooled for two years.  We finally got information on past achievement tests.  3 years ago he tested in the bottom 5 percent on literacy tests but mom refused to have him tested for special ed.  Still doesn’t want him assessed.  He can’t write coherent sentence and laughs about his home school curriculum. 

Finalll I will say that I know some people that have done great job with home schooling-I would guess that’s about 25% of the home school population in my area.

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