Why Obama will not curtail homeschooling

Little Blue School: Question and Answer Time: What is a School of Education?: "Unless you are trying to educate them to be teachers, and unless you expect to be able to give them certificates that will qualify them to teach in schools, you shouldn't worry. If you are running a 'school of education,' that is a place where education classes are taught and teachers are trained, you will have to be accredited, or else you will not be able to graduate certified teachers. If you are teaching children to read and write, do math, remember the Pharaohs in order, and stuff like that, then this doesn't apply to you. :)"

Why I am not impressed with Chuck Baldwin

Dana over at Principled Discovery explains why she isn't impressed with Chuck Baldwin in her post Why I am not impressed with Chuck Baldwin. She shares many of the concerns I do about Baldwin but articulated it so much better then I would have been able too.

This Carnival of Homeschooling is a real treat

Why Homeschool: Carnival of Homeschooling: 148 - The Halloween Edition

Richard Guenther speaks out against HSLDA

HSLDA destroys homeschool leader and homeschool movement in Germany, Mike Farris leads charge according to Richard Guenther.

Obama Supports Homeschooling

I usually do my political blogging at Alasandra's Place, but since the question involves homeschooling I am going to blog about it here. Sprittbee claims that Obama Opposes Homeschool and Parental Rights, as a homeschooler obviously this claim would concern me, but is it true?

Homeschoolers for Obama doesn't seem to think so.

When asked this was Obama's response
Q. Do you support home schooling?
A. Barack Obama respects the decisions reached by some parents to home school their children, provided those parents are conforming to the laws and regulations set forward by their states governing home-based instruction.
(HT: HERP&ES)

Nothing on the Obama website leads me to believe that he is opposed to homeschoooling and other then his plans for universal pre-school there isn't anything in his education plans that I object to, he seems to have some good ideas for improving public schools, and making a college education affordable for everyone.

• Support College Credit Initiatives: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will create a national "Make College A Reality" initiative that has a bold goal to increase students taking AP or college-level classes nationwide 50 percent by 2016, and will build on Obama's bipartisan proposal in the U.S. Senate to provide grants for students seeking college level credit at community colleges if their school does not provide those resources.
• Create the American Opportunity Tax Credit: Obama and Biden will make college affordable for all Americans by creating a new American Opportunity Tax Credit. This universal and fully refundable credit will ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for most Americans, and will cover two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college or university and make community college tuition completely free for most students. Recipients of the credit will be required to conduct 100 hours of community service.
• Simplify the Application Process for Financial Aid: Obama and Biden will streamline the financial aid process by eliminating the current federal financial aid application and enabling families to apply simply by checking a box on their tax form, authorizing their tax information to be used, and eliminating the need for a separate application.

His policies are aimed at Strengthening Families and Communities. Some highlights

• Provide Universal Health Care and Lower Health Costs: Barack Obama and Joe Biden are committed to signing universal health legislation by the end of their first term in office that ensures all Americans have high-quality, affordable health care coverage. Their plan will save a typical American family up to $2,500 every year on medical expenditures by providing affordable, comprehensive and portable health coverage for every American; modernizing the U.S. health care system to contain spiraling health care costs and improve the quality of patient care; and promoting prevention and strengthening public health to prevent disease and protect against natural and man-made disasters.
  For more information on Barack Obama and Joe Biden's health care plan, please visit the Health Care Policy page
• Create a Universal Mortgage Credit: The current mortgage interest deduction excludes nearly two-thirds of Americans who do not itemize their taxes. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will ensure that anyone with a mortgage, not just the well-off, can take advantage of this tax incentive for homeownership by creating a universal mortgage credit. This 10 percent credit will benefit an additional 10 million homeowners, the majority of whom earn less than $50,000 per year. Non-itemizers will be eligible for this refundable credit, which will provide the average recipient with approximately $500 per year in tax savings.
• Strengthen Fatherhood and Families: Barack Obama has re-introduced the Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families Act to remove some of the government penalties on married families, crack down on men avoiding child support payments, ensure that support payments go to families instead of state bureaucracies, fund support services for fathers and their families, and support domestic violence prevention efforts. As president, Obama will sign this bill into law and continue to implement innovative measures to strengthen families.

Overall I believe Obama is the best choice for President. But I encourage everyone to decide for themselves. Visit the candidates websites (McCain website), review the debates. Listen carefully to what each candidate has to say. I also implore you not to believe everything you read online. Many falsehoods are being spread.

Contrary to what many fundamentalist bloggers claim Obama has a valid Hawaiian birth certificate.

FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate. We conclude that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. Claims that the document lacks a raised seal or a signature are false. We have posted high-resolution photographs of the document as "supporting documents" to this article. Our conclusion: Obama was born in the U.S.A. just as he has always said.

Funnily enough the same people who want to make an issue of Obama's birth place are mum on the fact that McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone. But guess what they are both U.S. citizens so it doesn't matter.

Why I won't vote for McCain

• Health Care - The value of the employer provided insurance will now show up as additional income for the employees.
• Doesn't have any concrete plans to make college affordable for everyone.
• McCain & Palin's record on animal welfare issues.
• The fact that Palin thinks it's not terrorism to blow up abortion clinics.

Alasandra's Place: Does Palin think it's OK to terrorize women?

Alasandra's Place: Does Palin think it's OK to terrorize women?

The Thinking Mother: Thoughts on the Two Homeschooling Topic PostSecrets

The Thinking Mother: Thoughts on the Two Homeschooling Topic PostSecrets

Who let the dogs out?

Melissa's Idea Garden is hosting this weeks Carnival of Homeschooling and she is using a very cute dog theme.

Alasandra's Place: My head hurts from all the stupidity

Alasandra's Place: My head hurts from all the stupidity

I am appalled at the smear tactics that Fundamentalist Christians are stooping to and their ridiculous claims of proof he (Obama) wasn't born in Hawaii (which by the way is part of the United States).Snopes.Com plainly shows why we shouldn't believe the nonsense about his birth certificate. Not to mention that if there was any validity to the nonsense HRC would have used it to insure that she was the Democratic nominee.

Homeschool Blog Awards ~ Vote For Your Favourite Group Blog

Voting will end December 31st and I will announce the winner around the 1st of January. We have five group blogs to choose from. The poll can be found in the sidebar at the top. I will get the adult blogs up asap. Thanks for understanding that I can't do it all at one time.

Group Blogs

• Cocking a Snook!
• Growing in Grace
• Radical Unschoolers' Network
• Life Without School
• The Homeschool Classroom
  

Homeschool Blog Awards ~ Cast Your Vote For Your Favourite Teen Blog

Voting will end December 31st and I will announce the winner around the 1st of January. We have three teen blogs to choose from. The poll can be found in the sidebar at the top.

Teen Blogs-

• The Daily Planet
• Quilted Story
• Esme Emannuel

Carnival of Cool Homeschoolers # 11

Drop by Homeschooled twins to read the Carnival of Cool Homeschoolers # 11

Homeschool Blog Awards ~ Nominations Closed

Nominations for Alasandra's Homeschool Blog Awards are now closed. Since Mother Crone's Homeschool is now offline, I am going to drop it from the adult blogs. I am really disappointed that Angela choose to discontinue her blog as it was one of my favourites and I thought it contained a lot of wonderful material. I will start working on getting the polls up, I hope to be finished by November 1st.

Adult Blogs-
Mother Crone's Homeschool (offline) ~ removed from contest.
Ragamuffin Studies
Day by Day Discoveries
The New Unschooler
Bore Me to Tears
Get In, Hang On
Handmade Homeschool
Homeschooled Twins
Welcome to Barton Cottage
Our Busy Homeschool
Ramblings, Rants & Remedies
Survive the Experience
Little Blue School
Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
At Home Science
Homeschooling Ideas
The Thinking Mother
Principled Discovery
Kim's Play Place
Home Spun Juggling
Hilltop Academy
Homeschool Buzz
Here in the Bonny Glen
Schooling from the heart
Renaissance Mama
As Cozy as Spring

Group Blogs-
Cocking a Snook!
Growing in Grace
Radical Unschoolers' Network
Life Without School
The Homeschool Classroom

Teen Blogs-
The Daily Planet
Quilted Story
Esme Emannuel

Ramblings, Rants & Remedies: Neglectful Seattle parents were not homeschoolers

Ramblings, Rants & Remedies: Neglectful Seattle parents were not homeschoolers

What's the Buzz?

Visit Homeschool Buzz's Carnival of Homeschooling to find out.

Ramblings, Rants & Remedies: MS homeschoolers and vaccination in the news

Ramblings, Rants & Remedies: MS homeschoolers and vaccination in the news

I got an award

Life on thePlanet thinks I am worthy of the Brillante Weblog Award 2008, muchas gracias. And my apologies for taking so long to post it.

Now to pass it on.

Ramblings, Rants & Remedies

HERP&ES

O'Donnell Web

Stop harassing homeschoolers about vaccinations

Chris Joyner claims homeschoolers are avoiding vaccinations. Read The Clarion Ledger's Some Miss. parents home-schooling kids to avoid vaccinations.

Some public health officials are concerned the growing popularity of home schooling has created gaps in the vaccination safety net, leading to outbreaks of rare childhood diseases

First off many homeschoolers do vaccinate their children to imply that all homeschoolers do not vaccinate their children is misleading and unfair. The reporter also ignores the fact that most parents make the decision to vaccinate before the child reaches school age (see vaccination schedule). The decision to homeschool may be driven by the parents desire not to expose their children to what they see as risky vaccines. But homeschooling isn't to blame for children being unvaccinated.

All states allow unvaccinated children to attend school with a medical doctor's excuse. Mississippi and West Virginia alone allow no exemptions beyond medical necessity, leaving parents with home-schooling as the only option if they do not want to have their children vaccinated.

So public school students with a medical doctor's excuse do not have to be vaccinated, but the reporter focus only on unvaccinated homeschoolers in his article. Also no mention is made of students enrolled in private schools, are they required to vaccinate or is it left up to the parents and the private school officials?

Like many states, Mississippi does not require parents to register their children if they intend to home school. Ann Zeise, an independent researcher who runs a home-schooling Web site, used Census data to project an estimate of the number of home-schoolers for each state. Her estimate for Mississippi is more than 14,000 students.

Shoddy reporting here MS law requires homeschoolers to register with the school attendance officer for their school district.

Caplan does little to calm the fears of parents who home school their children to prevent government-mandated vaccines. He said states should require home-schooled children to be vaccinated and make it tougher to get an exemption.

Really in light of this I think the decision to vaccinate should be left up to the parents.
After years of insisting there is no evidence to link vaccines with the onset of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the US government has quietly conceded a vaccine-autism case in the Court of Federal Claims.
Government Concedes Vaccine-Autism Case in Federal Court - Now What?

If the Federal Government can not prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the vaccines are SAFE for all children then no one should be forced to have their children vaccinated.

Why I pull my hair out sometimes

Natalie explains in her post at Ramblings, Rants & Remedies: Exclusively inclusive

Suspicious Behavior

Any student in the Hattiesburg Public School District soon will be able to be tested for alcohol or drugs based on suspicious behavior. That new policy was passed by the school board Tuesday night.

I wonder if they have taken into consideration the many things that can cause false positives and the possible law suites that will be brought as a result.

More than 250 over the counter or prescription drugs can cause you to test positive on a drug test.

• Pain relievers such as Advil, Nuprin, Motrin
• Menstrual cramp medications like Midol and Trendar
• Ibuprofen is known to cause positive samples for Marijuana
• Anti inflammatories such as Naproxyn
• Dristan Nasal Spray, Neosynephren, Vicks Nasal Spray, Sudafed
• Over the counter appetite suppressants which contain propanolamine
• Common nasal decongestants can cause a positive reading for Amphetamines
• Medications containing chloropromazine and fluspirilene may yield a positive when tested for amphetamines
• Vicks Formula 44M containing Dextromethorphan, and Primatene-M containing perylamine as well as the pain reliever Demerol, and prescription anti-depressant Elavil test positive for opiates up to three days
• Quinine water can also cause a positive reading for opiates.
• Poppy Seeds such as the ones on a bagel from your favorite deli, represent a potentially serious source of falsely positive results in testing opiate abuse.
• Nyquil Nighttime Cold Medicine will test positive for Methadone up to two days.
• Amoxicillin has caused positives for cocaine
• Diazepam tests positive for PCP
• A small fraction of the population excrete large amounts of endogenons lysozyme or malate dehydrogenase in their urine which can produce a positive drug test.
• Africans and certain Orientals might test positive for marijuana due to the pigment melanin in their skin which shows up in a dark person's urine sample.
• Second hand marijuana or cocaine that you might inhale may give your test a positive result for several days.