Earlier this month, Virginia State Sen. Stella Pekarsky, a Democrat representing her state’s District 36, which covers parts of Fairfax County, brought a bill before the State Senate that would limit homeschooling in the state to families with religious beliefs “conscientiously opposed to attendance at school.” The current law declares only that families intending to homeschool must present a “notice of intent” along with a list of the subjects to be studied. At the end of the school year, they must provide evidence – usually a standardized test – of academic progress.
Homeschooling today is a well-established alternative to public and private schools across the country. Legal in all 50 states, each state sets its own homeschool guidelines. Alabama, for instance, requires notification that a student will be homeschooled, but does not require state mandated subjects or assessment requirements. Around 3.7 million students are home-educated nationwide. Given these facts, on what grounds might Pekarsky object to home education?
Is the senator worried that homeschoolers aren’t measuring up to their public school counterparts? That seems unlikely. Nationwide, students educated at home “score 15 to 25 percentile points higher than public school students on standardized tests.” On the SAT, homeschoolers score an average of 1190 while public school students average 1060.
Is the senator concerned that homeschooling families are spending too much for their student’s education? Public school costs run to well over $12,000 per student, whereas the cost for a homeschool student’s program and materials run between $700 and $1800 annually. So that can’t be the reason behind this power grab.
Perhaps Pekarsky is fearful that homeschoolers are isolated from their peers and the world at large, tucked away like hermits in their homes day after day. Yet “87% of peer-reviewed studies on social, emotional, and psychological development show homeschool students perform statistically significantly better than those in conventional schools” and “are regularly engaged in social and educational activities outside their homes and with people other than their nuclear-family members.”
Enough of the stats. Let me offer some anecdotal evidence in support of homeschooling.
Beginning in 1987, my wife and I began homeschooling our four-year-old daughter. The three sons who came after her were also homeschooled. In high school, our kids took advantage of our community college’s dual-enrollment program and enrolled in some classes there. All four went to college and graduated within four years.
Moreover, for 16 years I offered seminars to homeschoolers in Asheville, N.C., in Latin, literature, English composition, and history, including Advanced Placement College courses. Most of the students attended my seminars for three, four, and even five years. Two of them attended Ivy League colleges, three were admitted to our service academies, and I lost track of how many enrolled in universities like UNC-Chapel Hill, NC State, Duke, and other institutions of higher learning. Others joined the armed forces or jumped straight into the work force.
For me, those seminars and students were a teacher’s heaven on earth.
Moreover, the homeschooling community offered a wide variety of activities arranged by parents, ranging from sports teams to choral groups and drama clubs.
So, we’re back to the original question. What are Pekarsky’s objections to homeschooling?
If we look at “Stella’s Story,” Pekarsky’s online inventory of accomplishments, we discover that she’s deeply embedded in public education. She has a master’s in education, taught in the public school system, and is clearly an all-out supporter of the latter. If the information Pekarsky provides in her story is accurate, she also resisted Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s attempts to exercise more control over local schools.
It’s an unfortunate irony that Pekarsky doesn’t make the connection and realize that she is aiming to exert her own brand of control by erasing the rights of parents to supervise the education of their own children.
Even more telling, the senator has misread the times. A majority of voters just elected Donald Trump to the presidency, but they cast their ballots for much more than a man. They voted for freedom, release from the grasping, demanding leviathan that passes for government these days.
Children in every state of the United States deserve educational freedom, particularly when it comes to homeschooling.
Jeff Minick is a father of four and grandfather to many. A former history, literature, and Latin teacher, Jeff now writes prolifically for The Epoch Times, American Essence Magazine, and several other publications.
This culture article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal, a project of 1819 News. To comment on this article, please email culture@1819news.com.
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