In The News

In The News

Please frequently visit this page to view issues that may affect or encourage us as home educating families or as Christians. If you would like to contribute to this -- please email the information, the source of the information, and any internet links to the web master. Thank you.

Homeschoolers Score Higher on ACT

Source: NewsMax.com Wires, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2005

Ohio Cyberschools Face New Tests
Source: Home School Legal Defense Association's web site (www.hslda.org)

Homeschoolers across the country are cautiously watching the growth of "cyberschools," which offer public funding for electronic courses delivered at home. HSLDA treats students enrolled in publicly funded virtual charter schools as "public school students," and will not accept a family for HSLDA membership if all their children at home are enrolled in these types of programs. HSLDA will defend families, however, who are educating their own children independently. New provisions in Ohio law reveal some of the reasons for our concern about the ability of cyberschools to regulate your education program.
Under a new state law, some Ohio charter schools will have to begin testing their students at the start and end of each school year. These charter schools, which include most virtual programs, will also have to complete the state assessments that must be given in all Ohio public schools. Cyberschools who miss the new testing benchmarks consecutively for two years will lose all aid for all students. Students who fail or refuse to take the state test will no longer be funded by the state.
Under federal law, homeschoolers cannot be forced to take the new "performance standards" tests, which are required for all public school students in certain grades. Federal law, however, does not prohibit states from imposing traditional standardized testing as a condition for receiving public benefits. Therefore, the mere fact that students are educated in their own homes does not bar the state from requiring them to take standardized tests if they want to receive publicly funded benefits. Government money always comes with strings attached.
Homeschoolers who prize their freedom have long argued that cyberschools would lead to increased regulation. At this point, the new rules for cyberschools are not taking away the freedom of independent home educators, but that is a possibility in the future. HSLDA encourages every family to seriously consider the costs as well as the benefits of publicly funded programs. In our opinion, freedom is worth the price.

New Tax Credit Legislation Will Benefit Homeschoolers

On May 18, 2005, Representative Mark Green (R-WI-8) introduced the SCHOOL Act (HR 2426). His legislation provides up to $3,000 in federal tax credits for individuals ($6,000 for married couples) who donate to scholarship organizations.

The "Supportive Communities Helping Offer Opportunities for Learning Act" has been lauded as expanding school choice opportunities for low-income students, but HSLDA sees this as good news for homeschool families who would be able to donate to homeschool-specific scholarship tuition organizations without any out-of-pocket expense. Under this legislation the homeschool family would have an opportunity to re-direct some of their tax assessment which will otherwise be paid to the U.S. Treasury. Furthermore, qualifying homeschoolers would be eligible for education grants from private scholarship tuition organizations.

"We worked closely with Representative Green to ensure that homeschoolers were not excluded from this sensible tax break," said Caleb Kershner, Manager of Federal Policy and Research for HSLDA. "This bill will help to eliminate the economic disadvantages families currently experience when they choose to homeschool and remain free from government regulation."

NEA's animosity against homeschoolers is loud and clear...
The NEA voiced its animosity against homeschoolers in the annual National Education Association convention held in July in Washington, DC. According to Phyllis Schlafly, "The only thing this powerful and wealthy union fears is homeschooling."

Phyllis Schlafly reports in Human Events Online:

The most controversial vote at the NEA convention turned out to concern one word in the anti-homeschool resolution. B-69 as introduced read: "The Association also believes that unfunded home-schooled students should not participate in any extracurricular activities in the public schools."

The word "unfunded" precipitated a lively debate. Some schools provide funding for homeschoolers to participate in after-school activities such as sports. The amendment to remove the word "unfunded" was designed to put the NEA on record as opposed to letting homeschoolers darken the door of public school grounds regardless of whether or not there is money to finance their participation.

Hmmm...interesting. If the public schools are funding our programs, it's okay for homeschoolers to participate in school sports. But if we fund our own programs, we can't participate. How silly is that?

The Education Standards Movement Spells Trouble for Private and Home Schools By Cathy Duffy A Homeschool World exclusive!
posted here: 02-09-03

How Standards Can Be Useful to Homeschoolers! posted here: 02-09-03

10/15/03
Except from HSLDA's E-Lert:
"We are outraged that CBS would ignore the obvious facts and draw the erroneous conclusion that homeschoolers need to be strictly regulated. The story is a shameless attempt to smear an entire community of committed, dedicated parents. The real story is CBS's bias against homeschooling and it is using > this distorted story to encourage the regulation of homeschoolers. Please call Viacom (parent company of CBS) and CBS to express your opposition to the biased reporting and smear campaign against > homeschooling. Highlight the fact that homeschooling was not the cause of the childrens' deaths and that you expect CBS to have higher journalistic standards."

Dear Home School Leaders,
As you heard, CBS Evening News last night and tonight, has inaccurately and unprofessionally linked home schooling to child abuse and murder. The Report is called "The Dark Side of Home Schooling." This is the worst reporting on home schooling I have seen during my 18 years at HSLDA. HSLDA was contacted a few times by reporter Barbara Pierce from the Los Angeles office of CBS. However, they chose not to interview us after we gave them extensive evidence of the abuse of innocent home schoolers by the child welfare system. They had a very different "slant" in mind. Yesterday, we contacted Barbara Pierce after we obtained the transcript and pointed out the damaging innuendos linking home schooling to child abuse. We asked her to change various parts of the Report, but to no avail. Therefore, we believe this outrage cannot go without HUGE response from > the home school community. Below is our e-lert from Michael Smith that we sent out a few minutes ago urging everyone to contact CBS to express your feelings. All the controls on home schooling we have fought hard to remove these last 20 years could not have stopped this killing. Certified teachers, home visits, curriculum approval, state assessments, or portfolio reviews could not have stopped this tragedy. Not even mandatory public schooling could stop it. Suicide is an epidemic in the public schools. The National Crime Survey found that 1.9 million students are victims of violent crime yearly including rape, murder, assault, and robbery. (See Chapter Two of my book, "Home Schooling: The Right Choice" for extensive documentation.) Over the last 10 years, HSLDA only has record of 10 murders associated with so-called home schoolers. In all cases, the social workers knew about the abuse in the family but dropped the ball. This CBS Report is very unbalanced. Please pass the alert on below to your e-mail list. God bless your efforts! Chris Klicka

October 14, 2003 Dear HSLDA Members and friends: CBS National News ran a negative homeschooling report last night > titled "The Dark Side of Homeschooling" and will run a further report this evening. The reports focus on a handful of child abuse cases during the past 5 to 10 years involving families claiming to be > homeschoolers. Last night's segment discussed the murder of Kyle, 13, and Marnie Warren, 19, by their brother Brandon, 14, and his subsequent suicide. The Warren family is from Johnston County North Carolina. To view the CBS story go to: http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?ID=1139
Missing from the CBS story was that: Social Services had contacted the family eleven times, were well aware of the condition of the home and had been working with the family. However, to any fair-minded reader the story leaves the impression that homeschooling equals child abuse. We are outraged that CBS would ignore the obvious facts and draw the erroneous conclusion that homeschoolers need to be strictly regulated. The story is a shameless attempt to smear an entire community of committed, dedicated parents. The real story is CBS's bias against homeschooling and it is using this distorted story to encourage the regulation of homeschoolers. Please call Viacom (parent company of CBS) and CBS to express your opposition to the biased reporting and smear campaign against homeschooling. Highlight the fact that homeschooling was not the cause of the childrens' deaths and that you expect CBS to have higher journalistic standards.
Viacom President and CEO - Mel Karmazin P - 212-258-6000
CBS Evening News - LA Bureau P - (323) 575-2202
Sincerely, J. Michael Smith, HSLDA President ====================================================================== The HSLDA E-lert Service is a service of: Home School Legal Defense Association
P.O. Box 3000, Purcellville, Virginia 20134   Phone: (540) 338-5600 Fax: (540) 338-2733
Email: info@hslda.org   Web: http://www.hslda.org

06/18/03
HSLDA: Child Protection Services Considers Its Options
June has been a busy month for HSLDA members in Ohio; social workers have been knocking on doors all across the state. HSLDA attorney Scott Somerville has assisted homeschooling families who have had their parental rights challenged in Jefferson County, Ashland County, Cuyahoga County, and Greene County in recent days. Thanks to Ohio House of Representatives member Diana Fessler, Mr. Somerville has been able to take his concerns about how these families have been treated to the heart of the state agency. On June 5, 2003, Representative Fessler, attorney Somerville, and three high officials in the Department of Job and Family Services held a conference call to discuss this issue.....more.....
Click here: HSLDA | Child Protective Services Considers its Options

06/04/03
HSLDA: Strings attached to Ohio Charter Schools
Parents who choose an Ohio charter school need to understand that the public benefit of a charter school education really does come with "strings attached."
http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/oh/200306060.asp

04/11/03
Seattle Times: Issaquah 11-year-old wows state science fair
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/134673614_smart11m.html
Homeschooler wins a silver medal in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. He is the youngest winner in the science fair's 46 year history.

04/08/03
The Portsmouth Herald: King Tut lies in Seacoast
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/04082003/news/21886.htm
Homeschooled students present a showcase on Egypt to the community.

BP News: TRANSCRIPT: Interview with the Secretary of Education
http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?ID=15707

Posted on Thu, Nov. 28, 2002, BY JULIE MAH The Wichita Eagle
At national meet, robotics teams take 1st, 2nd

Kansas teams turned in winning performances at last weekend's national finals of the BEST Robotics competition at Texas A&M University.

The teams, Wichita Homeschool and Goddard High School, took first and second, respectively, in one of the categories at the competition. Last year, Goddard took first and the homeschoolers took second in the same category.

BEST stands for Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology.

The local teams won in the category that's based on a project notebook, oral presentation, table display, interviews, and overall spirit and sportsmanship.

The notebook documented the students' work, from design to production, said Noel Duerksen, a Raytheon engineer who was a mentor for the homeschool team.

Teams have six weeks to design and build a remote-controlled robot from identical kits, he said. Materials include PVC pipe, duct tape and plywood.

The robots must be able to navigate a playing field and perform certain tasks such as capturing vibrating, bouncing balls or removing rings of PVC pipe from a peg and moving them to another spot.

In the Game Award contest, in which the robots must perform on the playing field, Wichita Homeschool placed seventh out of 60 teams from eight states. Campus High School finished 34th, Wichita Collegiate was 37th, and Goddard finished 52nd.

The four teams qualified by winning the Kansas BEST competition at Wichita State University Oct. 26.

The competition is a good experience for students, win or lose, said Travis Rink, biology and chemistry teacher at Goddard High and a coach for the school's BEST team. The intent of BEST is to encourage students to consider careers in engineering and science. "It's doing that," Rink said. "We have tons of kids that are involved and stay involved, who never would have looked at engineering."

Full days, expanding horizons
By ANNIE KIEFHABER, Sun Staff Reporter 11/25/2002

Jake Bacon/Arizona Daily Sun Paul, 6, steals a look outside the window while working on a writing exercise with his mom, Jennifer, as his brother Scott, 8, works on his math. Jennifer effectively runs a one room schoolhouse for her five children who she homeschools in the family's Silver Saddle Home.

The Bearchell family is only one of the thousands in Flagstaff that home school their children, rather than sending them to public, private or charter schools.

Their home school adventure started nearly 17 years ago when Jennifer and Craig Bearchell read some books about home schooling and thought it "sounded wonderful."

At the time their oldest daughter was only 1 year old. Now she's a freshman at Northern Arizona University, the first of six children to enter into public education.

Currently 18-year-old Roslyn is taking a full load at NAU, such as Japanese, communications and honors courses. She also is involved with the worship team at Flagstaff Christian Fellowship and does her fair share of assigned chores at home.

Bryce, 15, spends much of his time on the computer working on two Web-based courses through a home school program back East that offers advanced placement testing at the end of the courses, transferable to colleges and universities. He is hard at work learning C++ computer programming skills and a government course.

"My goal is not to just give them a lot of information, but for them to learn to educate themselves for the rest of their lives," Jennifer said.

Each day is a lot of work and a huge commitment. School days begin with devotions and a Bible study time. Next the children take their turns practicing the piano, except for 6-year-old Paul, who plays the violin with the Suzuki program at NAU in the evenings.

Then they are off to individual studies of math, logic and grammar, while most of the science and history units are done together.

Jennifer focuses on her two younger boys, Scott, 8, and Paul. She says they need a little more attention and some of their lessons are adapted to their like of the outdoors, while Emily, 10, and Teresa, 12, are more apt to traditional school ways of simply sitting down and getting their work done.

Scott is convinced that home school is more fun than regular school, because of stories he has heard about when his parents went to public school. "Every once in a while you get to take a break and eat or play."

After lunch there are more unit studies, such as Latin and history. With the younger boys, Jennifer has created a unit on the Laura Ingalls Wilder books that incorporates both writing and science.

The day is generally over by 3 p.m. so that everyone can go to their extracurricular activities, such as music lessons or simply playing outside.

Emily enjoys these times most. "With home school I have a lot of free time. I am able to do things whenever I want, and I get to stay home for school."

Teresa also likes to stay home, even though she and her siblings have never been in traditional public school. "Sometimes you can do your schooling in your pajamas, and you don't really have to get dressed."

The Bearchells' home school schedule is similar to that of Zachary Guzman's family. He is currently a freshman at NAU also, after transferring 23 credits from Coconino Community College that he obtained as a junior and senior in high school. His mother, Nancy, still home schools his three brothers and one sister, ranging from second grade to high school.

As a family they, too, started early with chores and devotions, before his father went to work. Then they recited the Pledge of Allegiance and started their various subjects at the same kitchen table.

Zachary looks back at his home school years as a positive time in his life. "My relationship with my family is a bit stronger than other families and friends that I know of." He thinks this is in part to his Bible study and morals teachings that he probably would not have received in a traditional public school. "It was not like a chore, but something we all wanted to do together."

He describes himself as loving school and having an easy time in college because he is able to teach himself what he might not completely understand. He fully plans on home schooling his own children, if at all possible. "Home school was an awesome experience and I can honestly say that I don't feel like I missed out on anything."

Sharon Hoyt, of Ackley, is home schooled and has been named a semi-finalist in the 2003 Merit Scholarship Competition. Semifinalists in the 48th annual National Merit¨ Scholarship program were announced recently. Sixteen thousand academically talented students come from every state and represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors. Semifinalists have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,000 Merit Scholarship awards. Sharon Hoyt, who lives north of Ackley (Iowa), with her parents Loren and Rebecca Hoyt, has qualified as one of these semifinalists. She has been home schooled for her entire school years along with her nine siblings, one of whom is in college. Sharon said her mother has been the main teacher for the children, but as the older children get more advanced, they do a lot of studying on their own as well. Although Sharon has no one favorite subject, she admits she really likes languages and has had the opportunity to study Latin, German, Spanish, French and Greek. When she goes to college next year, she might major in some type of language program, but isn't definite at this early date. Home schooling has many advantages, Sharon feels, including the flexibility it allows. "We can study more things and progress at our own individual speed without having to wait (until the whole class is ready)," she said. "And it is a blessing to be able to be at home and not have to deal with some of the bad influences in public schools." More than 1.3 million juniors in over 20,000 high schools entered the 2003 National Merit Program by taking the 2001 preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship qualifying test. The next step for semifinalists is to fulfill requirements to advance to finalist standing, a prerequisite to competing for a Merit Scholarship award. To become finalists, semifinalists must have a record of very high academic performance, be endorsed and recommended by their school principal and earn SAT scores that confirm their earlier qualifying test performance. About 90 percent, or about 15,000, of the semifinalists will advance to the finalist level. ©Ackley World Journal 2002

Homeschooler Wins 'Reading Rainbow' Competition
One of the most precocious writing talents you'll come across struggled with phonics when she was in preschool.
   Haley Stewart's mother, Susan, admits to having been a little concerned about Haley's progress at the time. Six months later, with her mom homeschooling her, Haley was reading at a second grade level.
   If you think that is rapid improvement, consider that a few years later, Haley, now eight, has been awarded first prize among second graders for her work in the Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Competition, a national event attracting more than 40,000 entries each year.
   Haley's winning entry "I Wished I Had a Sister" is a poem featuring references to many animals, and includes illustrations in pencil and watercolor. Haley, who lives in Trinity Alabama with her parents David and Susan and older sister, Kaitlin, finished second in the state as a first-grader.
   Her writing reveals a vivid imagination, coupled with uncommon abilities of description. Her mother Susan agreed that homeschooling has been helpful in developing Haley's talents.
   "It helps you to pursue your interests," Susan said. "We have a ton of after school activities and a lot of friends with the same schedule. But their kids are in school from 8 to 3 , and don't have a chance to sit down and dummy up a picture page and all the other stuff we have time to do. Homeschooling provides that opportunity while still teaching everything else."
   Susan admitted to not realizing immediately that Haley's writing and illustrating skill could flourish at such an early age.
   "In pre-school she still didn't know all of her phonics," Susan recalls. "I bought a book to teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons, and six months later she was reading at a second grade level. My 20 dollars were well spent."
   She added that the contest fit Haley's interests and abilities quite well.
   "Every time she draws a picture she has a story to go with it," she said. "She came up with the idea and expanded on it. She always does that with her pictures."

To read to the Decatur Daily's (Alabama) article about Haley's exploits, visit: http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/livingtoday/020816/haley.shtml

For more information about the contest, including text and audio of Haley's winning entry, visit: http://pbskids.org/readingrainbow/contest/

The Supreme Court's recent 5-4 decision allowing the constitutionality of financial aid to parents which they may use at religious or private schools, including virtual academy (computer-assisted-instruction) charter schools available to home schoolers, will result in the deliberate dumbing down of all education. July 8, 2002

Dobson Discusses "Pulling Kids From Public School", July 10, 2002

The Ohio Department of Education has announced a "Statewide Student Identifier System" to be implemented this coming school year. The new system is intended to help track test results based on the race and gender of children. School districts will collect specific data about each child, including the child's name, birth date, place of birth, gender, native language, and race. The new system is intended to strip all personally identifiable information from students, allowing policy makers to track them only by a number.

When a similar system was implemented in Massachusetts several years ago, home schoolers were surprised to find districts asking them for information not required by law, such as the child's middle name. We anticipate that many Ohio home schoolers will find their districts requesting new information this year as well.

While some home school families may wish to participate in a statewide database of this sort, many families wish to preserve their privacy, especially in light of the troubling "Big Brother" aspects of such a system. It is essential that school districts understand that home schoolers are not public school students, and that home school records are not collected as part of a statewide public school system. Each district that demands a child's middle name or place of birth as part of the home school notification process may be presumed to include home schoolers in the Statewide Student Identifier System. If home schoolers submit to the school district's demand for this information, they encourage the inclusion of all their district's home schoolers in this database.

Edmund Burke said, long ago, "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." For Ohio home schoolers this fall, the price of liberty means not providing a child's middle name and place of birth. Our resolve in the face of this request will preserve our independence in an ever more computerized age.

Source: Scott W. Somerville, HSLDA Staff Attorney