Alasandra's Homeschool Blog

The Public School at Home Debate !

Jennifer Barnett Reid in School or Scam? ask why taxpayers should foot the bill for public school at home.

Because families in the Virtual School must be able to have an adult at home full-time, it's effectively off limits to many, although Greenway said that about 30 percent of children in the school this year are low-income, and some live with only one parent. The online-school model, though, is beyond the intent of Arkansas's charter school law, Argue said, and widening the umbrella of public education to include homeschooling simply because it meets the needs of a certain segment of families would be taking the first step down a perilous road. "If we redefine public education to include homeschooling, the next logical debate is, why not broaden it to include private schools or church schools?" he said.

National Charter School Watch Blog ask If Homeschool Advocates Are Literalist?

If “literalism” means “seeking the plain meaning without exaggeration, distortion, or inaccuracy”, and separating the facts from someone’s ideals, then yes, I would classify myself as a literalist when it comes to seeing the necessity in acknowledging the distinctions between homeschooling and public school-at- home programs. I would ask national and state homeschool advocates to consider applying their efforts to presenting these facts:

Homeschooling is
1. Not a public school choice.
2. Homeschooling is not a government program. It is an education option as separate as non-government funded, private education.
3. Options such as charter schools and public virtual schools are choices which are not independent of public schooling.
4. Homeschooled students are not under federal NCLB requirements, nor are they required to keep state learning standards.

To those who would seek to vilify others for acknowledging public school-at-home is not homeschooling, I would encourage tolerance for other’s viewpoints and a greater respect for our homeschool diversity.

I encourage you to read these two post in their entirety. Homeschoolers must stay abreast of the public school at home debate, in order to safe guard their homeschooling freedoms or we may all be doing public school at home rather we want to or not.