Homeschool 2.0 » public school

Aussies Turn to Homeschooling

lynn — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 23:22:36 +0000

In New South Wales registration for homeschooling has jumped 15% in the last 12 months. That does not include those who have chosen not to register with the state.

Reasons parents give for removing their kids from the public school system:

Curriculum
Bullying
Homeschooling has lost its ‘hippie’ stigma

State Education spokesman Andrew Stoner says the problem is publics schools are starved for funds.

All of this sounds so familiar.

H/T: Australian Politics Blog

What a Teacher Really Wanted to Say to the Parent

lynn — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:33:14 +0000

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry reading this post, An Open Letter to a Concerned Parent. These must be the parents that California educrats and judges have in mind when they create their rulings and policies. Sadly, it’s hard to imagine a young man like this one finding academic success.

Local Control: How it Works

lynn — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:08:35 +0000

Continuing the conversation on local control and statewide correspondence schools (SWC) here is a hypothetical example comparing a SWC in Galena, namely IDEA, with an in-district charter school, namely Frontier which is part of the Anchorage School District (ASD).

A charter school’s administration is subject to the Academic Policy Committee (APC) which is then accountable to the ASD School Board. The APC at Frontier is made up of parents, a non-staff teacher, a student and a member of the business community. Budgeting and financial priorities are the responsibilities of the APC.

So, let’s say an Anchorage parent in each of these programs notices that $4.3 million dollars of the annual budget is not being used for student accounts and services but for a rainy day slush fund. They rightfully think that is unfair. The state grants this money per student in a Base Student Allocation (BSA) and the students are not receiving the full benefit of that money. What are the recourses in each of these schools?

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Correspondence Schools: What is Local Control?

lynn — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 17:52:43 +0000

Those such as the Alaska Home Educators Alliance (AHEA) who advocate for less regulation of statewide correspondence schools (SWC) are adamant that they do have local control. That is, the parent in the home is the local control; the parent’s accountability to the district is all that is necessary. Let’s take a closer look at this concept.

First, let’s consider the two types of accountability that are in action here. What AHEA describes is not local control but site-based management. Each family manages the delivery system of their child’s learning plan. I am all for that! This is where the in-district and SWC schools are in complete agreement. That is really homeschooling defined for our state; the parent manages and delivers the education. This is why I also agree with the AHEA that parent-purchased sectarian materials aligned with state standards are acceptable for a child’s learning plan.

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Thoughts from the State Board Work Session on Correspondence Schools

lynn — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:41:42 +0000

Just back from the public comment and work session. Initial impressions are there is not as much controversy as anticipated judging by the public participation. Public comment did go overtime but not in overwhelming numbers. Comments were typically from parents who wanted more freedom to spend their allotments on Fine Arts and PE and to use sectarian materials. But there were some exceptions:

Glenn Biegel in his statement pointed out that 41 districts have no in-district program. My comment is most of them did at one time but the statewide schools have caused them to close. In effect, statewide schools have reduced choices.
Narda Butler, chairman of Frontier’s APC and my co-blogger, discussed how local control works for Frontier and that state oversight is necessary for statewide schools. She also pointed out that the statewide correspondence schools (SWC) operate to fund their local districts and are motivated to maximize enrollment not services.

The real news of the work session came from Eddie Jeans, Director of Finance. He detailed revenues and expenditures for SWC schools. When schools were first opened each student was funded at $3152 and today the amount is $4340, a 38% increase. Yet, the student allotments have changed very little. OK, we knew that but the big “We told you so” moment came with his chart that showed that last year Galena’s IDEA program generated a whopping $4,359,477 to the Galena City Schools. I added a column to Mr. Jeans’ chart to calculate ‘profit’ margin. Galena has it figured out. They generate 31%. Wow! That’s Warren Buffet territory.

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Why are In-District Schools Not Regulated like Statewide Schools?

lynn — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 05:17:49 +0000

This is a very hot issue right now and will be discussed at the State School Board work session Friday, September 21st. Statewide correspondence schools are subject to a 15% spending limitation on fine arts and P.E. and prohibited from using parent-purchased sectarian materials in student learning plans. In-district programs are not subject to these limitations. Families in statewide schools see this as unfair; let’s take a closer look.

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Why Does Alaska Have so Many Statewide Correspondence Schools?

lynn — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 21:06:17 +0000

It is an interesting question. Why would a tiny school district such as Galena City Schools enthusiastically take on the responsibility for educating students in urban districts like Fairbanks or Anchorage? Galena is a village of about 635 on the Yukon river about 280 miles west of Fairbanks. Tax revenue is minimal, 3% sales and no property taxes. They have an annual enrollment in its brick-and-mortar schools of around 125 students. It’s pretty expensive to teach a kid in remote Galena which is off the road and rail system. I ask again, why would they take on the task of educating kids in Anchorage or even Ketchikan which is more than a thousand miles away?

Families who are in Galena’s Interior Distance Education of Alaska (IDEA) program are adamant that the motives are entirely altruistic. That is, they enrolled over 3600 students in SY2006/2007 because they ‘care about homeschoolers.’ As John Stossel says, “Give me a break.”

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Parsing the 6 Questions in AHEA’s Online Survey

lynn — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 18:30:32 +0000

I took the Alaska Home Educators Alliance (AHEA) online survey. As surveys go it isn’t written to gauge opinion but rather to lead the survey-taker to the answer AHEA wants. So, I’ll go through the six questions one by one.

Do you agree that the compulsory school attendance age should remain the same and should not be raised from 16 to 18? Raising the age of compulsory school attendance may affect homeschoolers as it requires them to continue their home education for two years longer than now required and it would also raise from 16 to 18 the age of a person restricted to a combined total hours of school and employment in one day.

I agree wholeheartedly that compulsory school attendance should remain at 16. Many local districts are motivated to increase the age to 18 to make it easier to reach the graduation rate portion of NCLB. But if a student is so unhappy and unproductive in school locking him in doesn’t help that student. The product needs to change to fit the educational needs of students. If the product does not change then raising the age is akin to locking customers in a store with goods they don’t want to buy.
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Alaska Home Educators Alliance Take on Governor Palin for Wrong Reasons

lynn — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 07:06:51 +0000

As I’ve written before, Alaska has the best homeschooling choices in the nation. But it does not mean we are content with the status quo. There is a pretty heated controversy perking between some homeschoolers and Governor Sarah Palin’s administration that hit local talk radio this week.

Here are the pertinents. Alaska Home Educators Alliance (AHEA) has issued a ‘call to arms’ to confront the State Board of Ed. and the Palin administration over two regulatory issues that pertain to statewide correspondence schools operated by local districts. These are:

A 15% limitation on spending for fine arts and physical education
A prohibition on using parent-purchased sectarian materials as part of a student’s learning plan

One of AHEA’s board members has publicly blamed the teachers’ unions as the culprits in these regs that have been in effect for a couple years. Now, I think the NEA and AFT can be blamed for a lot of stuff but they are innocent of this charge. The issues are far, far more complicated than blaming a union. Without tedious narrative I’ll say that the crux is local control of schools and of funding.

In their letter to Esther Cox, School Board Chairman, AHEA asks for a voice in a work session between the Dept. of Ed and the Board regarding these regulations. They claim to represent the almost 10,000 homeschooled students and their 19,000 parents. That’s a pretty presumptuous claim. So, I’m here to raise my small voice to say they don’t represent me or my husband or my one homeschooled child. In effect, they are quite opposed to what we have worked for in the Alaska charter school movement.

National Association of Elementary Principals and Homeschooled Kids

lynn — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 20:10:38 +0000

I’ve read a few articles and posts recently about the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) and their recommendations for how state governments should govern homeschoolers. It took me a while to find the original statement online; it’s in a 52-page document that details the current platform of the NAESP. Here is the complete platform plank from page 38.

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