County tries to limit home schooling

By BARBARA CURTIS - Press Democrat

Suppose you stumbled across a teaching method boasting higher achievement test scores from standardized elementary school exams to college SATs. A system producing winners in national spelling bees, math competitions and debates -- as well as graduates welcomed in the most prestigious universities in the country.

Suppose you'd seen the results documented not just in academic journals, but splashed on the covers of Time and Newsweek.

Suppose this measurably superior education could be delivered to children at a fraction -- say one-fifth -- of the cost of a public education. What would be your response?

I guess that depends on where your first interest lies. If you were a certain kind of parent, you might forego the freedom enjoyed by "normal" parents, committing most of your time instead to your children's education.

On the other hand, if you were the Sonoma County Office of Education (SCOE), your response might be to impede and intimidate parents who'd chosen -- key word: choice -- to provide this education for their children. After years of benign neglect, you might suddenly issue a dictum revoking the right of local home-school families to file an R4 private school affidavit, which hundreds of families have been filing annually to be exempt from public schools.

Many Sonoma home-school families saw it coming when we got a flier about an informational meeting on how we could enroll in public schools under their independent study program -- so we could get "free" curriculum from the government and guidance from a "qualified" teacher. The meeting was billed as "no pressure," but some caught the clue that pressure would soon be on the way. Less than a month later, home schoolers were put on notice that under California law, children were truant if they were not in a public or private school -- and that SCOE would no longer provide the form to file as private schools. First the carrot, then the stick.

But why now? Word is that local schools, faced with declining enrollment, are scouting desperately for students. Interdistrict transfers -- once hard to come by -- are actively marketed by principals eager to increase enrollment.

But why should home-school kids matter? After all, if it costs nearly $6,000 a year to educate a student in the state of California; wouldn't the schools save money with our kids out the public school system? Ah -- but that's the point, isn't it? Because even though the school system collects $6,000 per student, it doesn't spend those dollars directly on each student's education. The extra dollars go into administrative buildings and pensions and a heap of other benefits our kids will never see. Every family that drops out of the system -- though they have to cough up tax dollars to support other students' education -- represents a loss to administrators who like to keep the status quo quoing.

SCOE officials have been quick to jump on the story of the Marin weirdos charged with killing a baby in a home which had filed an R4 affidavit. See what can happen, they say. Yeah, we see -- the same way we see what can happen in public schools as evidenced by Santee, Columbine, West Paducah, Jonesboro and Pearl. But let's look at the positive side, where the facts speak for themselves: There are 1.5 million to 2 million home-school children in the United States -- more students than in New Jersey. Though sometimes stereotyped as fundamentalists, home-school families today represent every race, religion and political persuasion.

Parents choose to educate their children for many reasons -- sometimes for health issues or to enable them to pursue a special interest, but most often because they're convinced they can give their kids a superior education.

And in most cases they do. The Wall Street Journal, backed by scores of other sources, reports home schoolers consistently score in the 85th percentile on national achievement tests.

Now, as the first generation of today's growing home-school wave reaches adulthood, many are saying that being freed from the rigidity of school allowed them to explore their individuality, creativity and independence.

The other day, I asked my 14-year-old mostly-home-schooled son -- who passed the California High School Proficiency Exam after one year of high school and is now a full-time freshman at Santa Rosa JC -- whether it was difficult for him socially on campus. He said college was a breeze compared to high school, with its dysfunctional peer pressure. At the JC, he feels more freedom to be himself.

All of which might lead one to wonder whose interest is being served by trying to pull the plug on parental choice. If SCOE's commitment was to well-educated children, they'd study the odds, then back parents who've demonstrated their commitment to their children's education by putting it first.

With results like this (kids who love to learn and stay out of trouble), you can bet home-schooling parents aren't about to be stopped.

About the Author
Barbara Curtis is a Petaluma resident and writer who has home schooled her 12 children during all or part of her academic career.

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