The Seduction of Homeschool Families

The expansion and impetus of the homeschool movement seems to be of notable concern to the federal/state indoctrination cartel we used to know as public education. Although the education establishment has attempted to restrain this movement through legislation and the courts (to little avail), the American homeschool population continues to increase at a rate of 15-to-25 percent annually.

The un-credentialed, non-accredited homeschool experience, in most cases, demonstrates the false notions which many Americans believe concerning their public schools. First, a majority of home educators are able to graduate young Americans who are academically and socially superior to state school graduates. Prison and welfare populations do not consist of former homeschool students. Hmmm? Perhaps state credentialing and accreditation are nothing more than control methods.

Second, and contrary to what many state educators will tell you, authentic education does not require an artificially bloated budget. Most home educators are able to provide their children far superior learning experiences at one-tenth the cost of state education per-student expenditures. This usually amounts to spending less than $500 annually, for the homeschool student, contrasted with $5,000-to- $6,000 a year for the education of a public school student.

Third, and perhaps the most significant, home educators are in control of the content and purpose of their curriculum. On the other hand, parents of state educated children have little (if any) authority to influence the content or purpose of their children's curriculum.

Therefore, the autonomy and authenticity of home education presents a threat to the fallacious nature of the American education monopoly. Thus, in order to slow the growth of home education, those who have a stake in the status quo of government schooling are implementing a variety of government homeschool programs. These new alternative education options are specifically designed to draw homeschooling families back under state control.

In Washington state this effort to destroy the independent homeschool community is accomplished by authority of the Washington Administrative Code (WAC 392-121-182 -- Alternative Learning Experience Requirements). According to this statute, school districts may offer alternative means to provide homeschool families with money and so-called education expertise if they submit their children's individual education plans (curriculum oversight authority) to the district for approval. There are other requirements as well (additional state oversight of each child's learning progress, additional documentation and testing requirements, and eventual alignment with School-to-Work/Goals 2000 reform agendas).

In order to find out more concerning this program to re-capture the homeschool community, read Chris Cardiff's short essay entitled "The Seduction of Homeschool Families" in the March 1998 issue of _The Freeman_, published by the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), Irvington-on-Hudson, New York. Chris Cardiff is a homeschooling father of three, President of the California Homeschool Network, and a director of software engineering at Netscape Communications Corp. If you cannot access _The Freeman_ magazine you may locate Mr. Cardiff's essay at this Internet URL address ( http://people.netscape.com/ccardiff/seduction.html ).
If you do not have access to the Internet, take this address to your local library or public school and ask for assistance to access and print a copy of Mr. Cardiff's essay.

James A. Boyes, Coupeville, WA