News & Commentary April 8, 2004

In This Issue:

Why We Homeschool Department
Child Abuse Drops While Homeschooling Grows
Uncoupling Abuse and Homeschooling
Homeschooling Philosophy Goes to School
Homeschoolers and Alums in the News
More Homeschooling in the News
No Child Left Unbrainwashed
Louisiana Update
South Carolina Legislation
Tennessee Bill Passes out of Senate Committee
"The Profit is in the Curriculum"
Follow Up on K12, Inc., Bill Bennett, and More
Final Words

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Why We Homeschool Department
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headline: Antidepressant Use By Preschoolers Rising
The Washington Times, DC, By Joyce Howard Price, April 03
http://www.washtimes.com
"Preschoolers are leading the growth in use of antidepressants by U.S. children, even though many questions persist about the safety and effectiveness of using these drugs on minors."

Ann: @$%@$%^#@$%@#!!

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headline: Abolish Recess? Educators, Take Some Air!
Palm Beach Post, Florida, By Ron Wiggins ron_wiggins@pbpost.com April 01
http://www.palmbeachpost.com
"Taking recess from schoolchildren is hideous, cruel, unconscionable, intolerable, mean, detestable, shortsighted, mind-numbing, grotesque, and if I may quote a great American, Daffy Duck, at his loud, indignant, moist, lisping best, it is 'des-th-picable!'"

Ann: Isn't that a yummy quote? You MUST read the entire article.

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Child Abuse Drops While Homeschooling Grows
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headline: 2002 National Statistics on Child Abuse and Neglect
US Department of Health and Human Services, Press Release, April 01
http://www.hhs.gov
"The rate of child neglect and abuse in 2002 was about 20 percent less than the rate in 1993, when maltreatment peaked at an estimated 15.3 out of every 1,000 children."

Ann: It is interesting to note that during this same time period - 1993-2002, a time when child abuse and neglect rates have been falling - homeschooling experienced a growth spurt, growth that has been estimated at around 15% per year. While we have to remember that correlation cannot be assumed to be causation, reasonable people should now be able to look at the media-generated homeschooling/child abuse hysteria with a more critical eye.

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Ann: The entire report, Child Maltreatment 2002, can be found here
http://www.acf.hhs.gov
One interesting section is the Map of Child Victims by Disposition, 2002
http://www.acf.hhs.gov

According to this section of the report, the states with the lowest rate of child victims, 0.0 to 6.0 Rate Per 1,000 Children, were Arizona, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.

Ann: My quick and informal look at the homeschooling regulations for these low abuse states is that nine of the ten are low and moderate regulation states:
Minimal/No regulation - Arizona, Idaho, New Jersey, Mississippi
Moderate regulation - New Hampshire, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming
High regulation - Pennsylvania
I am no statistician, but I don't see a relationship between low abuse rates and high homeschooling regulation. The folks who want to make that connection are going to have a hard time proving it to me.

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Uncoupling Abuse and Homeschooling
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headline: Abuse Case Tests Home-school Rules - Critics Say State Should Review Program
News Republic, By Ben Bromley bbromley@capitalnewspapers.com April 05
http://portage.scwn.com
"A disturbing case of alleged child abuse in Necedah has focused a spotlight on Wisconsin's home-education rules, which critics say are too lax. But supporters of home schooling said the program serves children well without state intervention....The Necedah case [said Larry Kaseman, director of the Wisconsin Parents Association] was one of thousands of truancy cases the state fails to investigate each year....[Kaseman] said the majority of home-school families shouldn't endure hardships because the law occasionally is exploited."

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headline: Mental Illness, Bad Religion a Deadly Mix for Young Mothers
San Antonio Express-News, Texas, By Jan Jarboe Russell jjarboe@express-news.net April 04
http://www.mysanantonio.com
Ann: In response to the "innocent by reason of insanity" verdict for Deanna Laney, Jarboe comments on the similarities in the Yates and the Laney cases. While Jarboe lays the blame almost wholly on the combination of mental illness and what she terms 'bad religion,' she implicates homeschooling indirectly by commenting that "[m]others of young children need...to be surrounded by other people and by the larger world..." Assuming Laney actually was isolated, I still don't see how being surrounded by others would have prevented the tragedy.

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Homeschooling Philosophy Goes to School
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headline: Being Independent Together
The Watertown Tab & Press, Massachusetts, By Monica Deady mdeady@cnc.com April 02
http://www.townonline.com/watertown
"...students at the Mystic River Learning Center are learning and gathering knowledge for life, say their parents. At the center, which recently moved to Philips Congregational Church in Watertown for its second year of operation, students who are home schooled can take classes or register for a full day, giving them an opportunity to socialize with peers and take advantage of different classes that are available."

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headline: Students Have Votes in Democratic School
Associated Press, Eugene, Oregon, April 05
http://www.tdn.com
"Emerald Valley School isn't a typical school. It's a place where students have an equal vote with adult staff members on policy, hiring and discipline matters, and they are free to choose what, when, how and even if they want to learn...At its essence, the concept is the same as the home-based "unschooling" advocated by educator John Holt and others in the 1960s, with the schoolhouse taking the place of the home and other trusted adults as well as peers stepping in for parents."

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Homeschoolers and Alums in the News
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Ann: It is great to see your names and faces here!

headline: The World's Most Dangerous Geek
Rolling Stone Magazine, By David Kushner, January 13
http://www.rollingstone.com
"Seven years ago, when [Justin Frankel] was just eighteen, he invented Winamp, the first software program that made it easy to play digital music on your computer....Frankel took control of his own education, largely directing his own home schooling. Around then, he also started messing with his brother's Atari 8-bit computer."

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headline: Middlebury Teenager Takes 1st Place in Bee
New Haven Register, Connecticut, By Tara York March 19
http://www.zwire.com
"Nicholas, 13, a home-schooled seventh-grader from Middlebury, won a spot in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., this May after successfully tackling 'mercurial.'...This is the second year in a row that a home-schooled student won the Register bee."

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From a Washington State List:
"Homeschooled student Cory Sweers placed 1st in the Washington State
National Geographic Bee on Friday. Andrew Bell, also a homeschooler, placed 2nd."

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headline: Marco Homeschoolers March to a Different Drum
Marco Island Sun-Times, Florida, By Reina Newton Tefs April 04
http://www.zwire.com
"One mother who homeschools her children said she didn't adopt this lifestyle because she was rebelling against the school system, 'especially on Marco Island where schools are considered excellent,' but rather as a way to instill in her children her ideals and be able to spend more quality time with them. 'We are taking back our kids [sic] childhood,' Cohen said. 'Learning just happens naturally.'"

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headline: Rally Day Commemorates 20th Anniversary of 'Legal' Home School in Tennessee
The Tullahoma News, By Shalynn Ford Harvey, April 05
http://www.zwire.com
"A recently released DVD, 'The Tennessee Home Education Association Celebrates 20 Years of Home Schooling' debuted to a packed auditorium during the morning segment of programs. The historical account of home education in Tennessee is hosted by Channel 2 weather reporter Lisa Patton (a six-year veteran home educator) and chronicles the courage and conviction "first generation" home educators displayed when they risked arrest and child abuse charges to follow their hearts."

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More Homeschooling in the News
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headline: Home Schooling in Transition
Austin American-Statesman, Texas, By Melissa Ludwig mludwig@statesman.com March 28
http://www.statesman.com
"[Inger Myhre], a single mother who runs the cash register at the organic grocery store Wheatsville Co-op, is part of the increasingly diverse home-schooling movement....But home schoolers are also liberal, secular people more closely aligned with the politics of the 1960s than fundamentalist ideology and the folks who fall between both extremes."

Ann: What an interesting article - a fresh look at the big picture of homeschooling.

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headline: Home-schooling May 'Teach' Sectarian Animosity
Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Virginia, Opinion by Gina Martin, April 07
http://www.freelancestar.com
"I don't think anyone can argue the benefits that home schooling provides (one-on-one attention, self-paced learning, more creative options, safety), but I am concerned about the growing chasm between the different cultures, religions, and socioeconomic groups that I see not only in our community, but also in our world at large. Do we no longer value the importance of exposing our children to those who are different than they are? How do we learn the lessons of tolerance and understanding otherwise?"

Ann: Sectarian animosity? Not in my experience. The homeschooling communities I have belonged to enjoy as rich a diversity of cultures, religions, and socioeconomic groups, sometimes far richer than the neighborhood schools in the suburbs in which I lived.

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headline: Finally, Homeschooling Gets a Good Rap
Montreal Gazette, Canada, By Graeme Hunter, April 07
http://www.canada.com
"It is true homeschooling is much cheaper than public schooling. So if you don't know much about it, you might believe financial saving to have been its attraction. It involves about one-10th of the cost of its public counterpart."

Ann: It is also true that this writer is not up on his homeschooling history, or he would know that homeschooling has been around much longer than 20 years, its earliest roots deep in liberal education traditions. Still, it is good to be reminded what a great value homeschooling is.

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No Child Left Unbrainwashed
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headline: No Child Left Unbrainwashed
The New American, by Jodie Gilmore, April 19
http://www.thenewamerican.com

Ann: Homeschooling parent/writer Gilmore includes a number of thought-provoking quotations in her article opposing NCLB, including this 40-year-old goodie from The Freeman, February 1961:
"'Federal aid to education is comparable to carrying water in a leaky bucket from your own reservoir to a big central well. What is left of the water is poured into the well, and then those in charge apportion you some water in that same leaky bucket and you bring it home. Besides losing what water is spilled on the two-way trip, you eventually find yourself being told what to do with the water that remains - although it was your own water in the beginning.'"

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Louisiana Update
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headline: HB 1238
http://www.la-home-education.com
"Introducing new legal terms to define home educators will only lead to an erosion of the current status we enjoy in Louisiana. The best protection that we have is that we are considered private schools. Hopefully, this legislation will be withdrawn soon."

Ann: For more information, visit the web site above.

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South Carolina Legislation
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headline: S 0988 New Academic Requirements for Obtaining a Driver's License
http://home.sc.rr.com
"This bill would require school attendance for any person under 18 who gets a beginner's permit, conditional driver's license, special restricted driver's license, or regular driver's license. This effectively raises the compulsory attendance age from 17 to 18. Additionally, a student in a home school must be making satisfactory progress in a curriculum leading to a GED in order to get the driver's license. Since no student in a home school is in a GED program (which is intended for dropouts), it appears that no home school student could meet this requirement. A student in a curriculum leading to a high school diploma would not be eligible for a driver's license."
Read the full bill here: http://home.sc.rr.com
South Carolina homeschoolers can sign a petition opposing this bill as well.

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Tennessee Bill Passes out of Senate Committee
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headline: Home Students' Scholarship Path May Get Easier
The Tennessean.com, By Claudette Riley, April 03
http://www.tennessean.com
"Students who are taught at home may no longer have to have higher ACT scores to get lottery-funded scholarships. The Senate Education Committee voted yesterday to require home-schooled students to make a 19 out of a possible 36 on the ACT - which is the same score other students must make to qualify for the scholarships."

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"The Profit is in the Curriculum"
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headline: For Schools, No Escaping the Red Tape
Sacramento Bee, California, By Bill Lindelof blindelof@sacbee.com March 31
http://www.sacbee.com
"Charter campuses find success means more rules. Nearly nonexistent in California a decade ago, charter schools have become The fastest-growing movements in public education in recent years...which has grown to nearly 500 schools statewide....Reyes, director of the California Department of Education's Charter School Division, said charters need some oversight."

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headline: Virtual-School Costs Under Siege
Wired News, By John Gartner http://www.wired.com April 01
http://www.wired.com
"K12's [Bryan Flood, the vice president of public relations and government affairs at K12] says the company 'is looking at all 50 states' as possible locations to open new schools, but added that states need to allocate approximately $4,800 to $5,000 per student to adequately support virtual schools. 'We're not interested in going into states that don't provide that level of funding," he says. 'The profit is in curriculum.'"

Ann: So what's the deal here? Taxpayers are expected to pay the same amount for virtual school students as they pay for students to attend brick-and-mortars, yet the students are home doing their public school curriculum whith their parents doing all the supervision? Can someone explain?

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Follow Up on K12, Inc., Bill Bennett, and More
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Ann: Last week a flurry of mail followed my complaint about the Bill Moyers report on the privatizing of public education and the diversion of taxpayer dollars into private pockets, because of the homeschooling mention. I was not surprised to find letters questioning my position. To explain where I am coming from, it may help to look at "K12 the Curriculum" and "K12, Inc., the Corporation" separately for a moment.

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headline: K12 the Curriculum

Ann: While I object to the targeted marketing of this material solely to homeschoolers, as has happened in several states, I do support anyone's right to purchase whatever curriculum they like. Full educational freedom demands a free market for ideas. However, for those who have heard only the glowing reports on "K12 the Curriculum," the following April 01 report may be enlightening.

headline: The K12 Virtual Primary School History Curriculum: A Participant's-eye View
By Susan Ohanian, Independent Researcher
http://www.asu.edu/
From the Press Release: "K12 provides 'virtual' curriculum at taxpayer expense to students
enrolled in 'virtual' charter schools. Ohanian, a former teacher, reviewed K12 Inc.'s history curriculum for grades K-2. Ohanian reports that the K12 curriculum is unimaginative and inappropriate for its target audience. 'Throughout the curriculum, the lessons had the same structure: learning presented as stimulus and response; training children to parrot phrases they do not understand; offering rote responses to horrific events,' Ohanian writes."

Ann: A look-say approach to teaching history? "Dick and Jane" are back from the Fifties, sipping their lattes and ready to do to history today what they did to reading back then?

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headline: K12, Inc., the Corporation

Ann: In trying to refer to "K12, Inc., the Corporation" last week, I loosely spoke of "Bennett's K12" since Bennett is the high profile front man. Few people realize that "K12, Inc., the Corporation," with or without Bennett, is part of a little known but very influential investment firm, headed by Michael Milken of junk bond infamy, known as Knowledge Universe. To learn more about this private corporation, its origins, goals, and wide ranging involvement in education, I heartily recommend the following report, published in tandem with Ohanian's report.

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headline: Knowledge Universe and Virtual Schools: Educational Breakthrough or Digital Raid on the Public Treasury?
By Gerald Bracey (George Mason University)
http://www.asu.edu
From the Press Release: "The Bracey analysis of KU warns that although KU has the potential
for significantly influencing the nation's public education system through its investment in publicly funded for-profit education activities, its role has not been carefully examined by policy makers. Bracey reports that KU is subject to far less scrutiny than public education institutions."

Ann: Now here's one place where I get stuck. If virtual schools are supposed to be the Next Big Thing in public education, why do companies like "K12, Inc., the Corporation" promote so heavily - sometimes exclusively - to homeschooling families? Why don't they promote to the public school students they are supposed to be helping instead? Why?

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Final Words
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E-mail addresses of reporters or their editors are now included with their stories when available. Please send feedback to reporters who make you think, who tell a great story, or who have wrong information. A pat on the back or a respectful correction is usually appreciated. As always, keep me in mind as you find and make the news. Thanks to all who contributed to this and past issues.

Ann Lahrson Fisher News and Commentary Email

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