The Homeschooling Handbook_ From Preschool to High School - Mary Griffith [27]
The Politics of Homeschooling
I mentioned earlier that, despite the initial worry and panic of the first year or so, complying with state legal requirements usually becomes a routine matter pretty quickly. To the extent that legal matters are relatively easy to deal with, this is true. But it’s not really the whole story. Those legal matters may become routine, but they also tend to become more irritating as we begin to realize that, in addition to being an attractive educational option for our kids, homeschooling is a political act. And because we homeschoolers tend to be independent, ornery, and opinionated individuals, we usually start asking more questions about homeschooling and education in general.
For instance, why in many states are homeschoolers held to a higher standard than the public schools? In states where homeschoolers have to achieve a certain level on standardized tests to be allowed to continue homeschooling, why aren’t school students made to homeschool if their scores aren’t up to par? Why are the officials who have the power to decide whether to approve a homeschooling program so often the same officials whose schools get more money if our children are enrolled in them? Why must homeschoolers work so hard to demonstrate that they are doing right by their children when public schools are not held responsible for the competence of their graduates? Why, when longer school days and years and more assessment testing haven’t improved educational outcomes, do so many educators and political figures call for more of the same?
Is it any wonder homeschoolers sometimes get a bit testy documenting instructional hours? Eventually, homeschoolers in enough numbers to have an impact may decide that the time has come to try to improve their legal situation by working with their legislature and state education officials.
We’ve all got opinions on how things could be better, and a good portion of us get actively involved in trying to change things. Like the rest of our society, though, we don’t come close to agreeing on how things should be changed. There are the moderates, who just want a nice, workable homeschooling statute everyone can live with, and there are the perfectionists, who want the ideal homeschooling law (which they usually haven’t quite figured out all the details of yet) and will settle for nothing less. There are the mild libertarians who think compulsory education laws should be abolished, so that everyone can freely choose which schools to attend or whether to attend at all. And there are the extreme libertarians who go further and demand that all government schools be shut down and the entire education establishment be privatized. There are religious homeschoolers who want their values imposed on everyone, and there are religious homeschoolers who want everyone to choose for themselves the values they live by. There are homeschoolers who run businesses serving homeschoolers, and there are those who believe “making money off homeschoolers” is immoral and unethical.
It all makes for a rather lively mix when we start trying to work together on some specific homeschooling issue, such as amending a homeschooling statute or changing the way a law is implemented. Some groups will work toward a law that allows a variety of options for evaluation and assessment, whereas others will want to “prove” homeschooling works as well or better than classroom education and demand homeschoolers be included in statewide assessment programs. At the opposite pole, some groups will question the need for any kind of assessment or evaluation of homeschoolers at all.
Such divergent views can make improving a homeschool statute difficult. Legislators often won’t want to choose among competing factions to create a bill; they often prefer to have a complete bill presented that “all homeschoolers” can agree on. Occasionally one homeschooling organization manages to get a bill introduced and passed before other state organizations