Homeschooling and Federal Standards
A while back there was a debate at Harvard
Law School. A professor by the name of Elizabeth Bartholet, who called for a “presumptive ban” on
homeschooling, and a scholar, Kerry McDonald, who is in favor of home-schooling. The online event was hosted by the Cato Institute (a libertarian think-tank in Washington, DC) and drew
thousands of participants, including many homeschooling families who were
incensed by Bartholet’s proposal.
Scientific American is now joining the crowd of
busybodies eager to constrain a family’s right to raise and educate their
children how they choose. “The federal government must develop basic standards
for safety and quality of education in homeschooling across the country,”
read a recent editorial in the magazine. Well, now.
Beyond the obvious point that there is no constitutional role for the
federal government in education, the proposal for top-down, national mandates
on homeschoolers assumes that the government knows best when it comes to
education. Yet, the vast majority of school founders that I read about are former
public school teachers who grew so disillusioned with the rigidity,
standardization, and coercion of government-run schooling, that they left to
create their own schools and spaces.
Why should we
assume the government knows best when it comes to education? Many families are also leaving government-run schools for similar
reasons, seeking more joyful and enriching learning experiences for their
children. “It’s a virtually untapped market,” said Amy Marotz of the growing
demand for homeschooling, micro-schooling, and other innovative educational
models. On a recent LiberatED podcast, she shared her entrepreneurial journey: from
Minneapolis public charter school teacher, to homeschooling parent, to
micro-school founder who is now helping others to launch their own schools.
The Scientific American piece calls for “federal
mandates for reporting and assessment to protect children,” such as background
checks on all homeschooling parents and regular reporting requirements to prove
that children are learning. Yet, many parents choose homeschooling because
government-run schooling is not protecting their children, who
may be bullied or abused by peers or even school personnel. As for reporting
requirements for homeschoolers to demonstrate learning? That’s a pretty ballsy request given that in the federal government’s own backyard of Washington, DC, only about one-third of ALL public school
students are reading at or above grade level, and only 22 percent are
performing at or above grade level in math. For those of you on the West Coast, that’s 33 percent and 22 percent of our kids in the nation's capitol that cannot read or handle mathematics, on a proficient level. For DC high schoolers it’s even
worse, with only 11 percent of them proficient in math. I’m not trying to be snarky here, but if you forgot your basic math, that means 89 percent of DC high school kids are NOT proficient in math. That’s just a snapshot of what is happening in many urban schools (and too many suburban schools) throughout the country.
Now, let me be clear. I grew up in the public school system. In fact, because my family moved around...A LOT...when I was young, I ended up going to five different school districts from the Delaware Valley to Boston and back. Not one complaint. I got a great education from beginning to end. The public school system was great to me, and as far as I know, it was great for most everyone I went to school with. I also have dear friends who are now teachers in the public school system. They are not only great teachers, but great leaders. I'm not here to call for the destruction of the public school system. I would like to see them, once again, be the repository of knowledge and wisdom and our cultural heritage, and transmit all of that knowledge to our young people. But to paraphrase the great Bob Dylan; the times have changed.
Millions of words have been written and typed and spoken into microphones to try and diagnose the problems in today's public school system. I’ve heard people complain about the parents, or the teachers, or the billions of dollars that is allocated to schools each year being misspent. I’ve been told that kids are different now. How they are quick to anger, etc., etc. And to be fair, not every school is a temple of mediocrity; maybe not even the majority of them. But it seems that enough of them are not getting the educational job done; are pushing kids to the next grade who don’t belong there; or at the very least are not protecting kids from bullying.
So parents have basically said, “Screw it. We’re going to try things our way.” And I can’t blame them. They’ve been offered a choice (by the government, I might add) and many of them are taking advantage of that choice. Not to put too fine a point on it, but it’s called competition. The state has had a monopoly on education for decades (again, with no constitutional legality). I don’t want to bore you with economics that you already know, but where there is no competition, in any business or endeavor, there is stagnation. People and companies get lazy. There is no incentive to do better. It’s just human nature.
The fact is, more and more home-schooled kids are getting into colleges and universities, and excelling. I was one of those people who originally scoffed at the idea of home-schooling. I looked around at most of my contemporaries and said, "There is no way in hell I want you parents to be teaching the future of our nation!" I mean, would any of you want ME to teach the future of our nation? I didn't think so. And yes, there has been, and I am sure there will be in the future, parents who are galactically unqualified to do this type of thing. Parents you wouldn't want trying to train your dog. But, and there is always a "But". There are also plenty of teachers who should have been grocery checkout clerks, or dog-walkers, or whatever. It works both ways. And to be fair to ME for a change; I'm not talking about one or the other. I'm talking about choice. The world is a big enough place for all kinds of school choice.
That said, as time has gone on since the first home-schooling aids came out, there has been an exponential improvement in the quality of those teaching aids, readers, tests, etc. Why? An economics major would tell you that where there is a demand, there will always be a supply.
So, circling back to the issue at hand: Homeschooling families don’t need more regulations—and certainly not from
the federal government, which should have no role in education policy. Let me be clear, however. I believe that these standards, whatever they may be, should be left to the states and local governments. Perhaps
those who think the federal government knows best on education should work on improving
government-run schools rather than coming after the millions of homeschooling
families choosing something different.
The great comedian Dave Chappelle once said, “Everybody thinks it’s funny until it happens to them.” Well, the educational corollary to that is, “Many people scream and stomp their feet about being in favor of choice...until the subject is school choice.”
Write to Peter: magtour@icloud.com
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