One of my neighbors tried to homeschool her children. She called the Carmel Central School District for some guidance. The bureaucrat on the other end of the line told her she was "on her own" and hung up on her. Why the hell wouldn't the school district provide support for homeschoolers. Every homeschooled child means one fewer pupil, so I expect that we'd save the $20 K or so we spend on each pupil by having parents do most of the work. Even with the cost of support to homeschoolers, I reckon it would still mean a boatload of savings. Everybody wins.
If I were on the school board I'd advocate for a program to assist homeschoolers and to allow homeschoolers access to all the resources of the school system such as libraries, gyms, extracurricular activities, specialized classes that parents can't provide, guidance counselling, and what have you. After all, the homeschoolers are still paying the exorbitant school tax.
I never had children and am not aiming to have any in the future, but if I did, I have decided that I would have homeschooled them as long as I liked them. If they turned out to be annoying, then I'd pack their asses off to school, possibly even boarding school depending on how awful they were.
Anyway, there's lots of reasons to homeschool. Your kids aren't institutionalized right away. They will get more instruction in less time because they don't have to share the teacher's time and attention with a bunch of other kids (unless you're a grand multiparous superbreeder). The kids will receive individualized instruction tailored to their needs and interests (unless you're an idiot). The kids won't be bringing home all kinds of diseases all the time, so you'll be sick less often. The kids won't be exposed to even worse kids on a regular basis.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Why wouldn't the school district provide support for homeschoolers? Follow the money. They don't save the $20K per pupil; because there's one fewer pupil, the fixed costs are spread over fewer kids so the average goes to maybe $21K or $22K.
Also, the state and federal aid are doled out on a per-pupil cost basis, so the more kids they can corral into their cages, the deeper the draught they can take at the troth.
Plus, if homeschooled kids perform better than public-schooled kids, it's more evidence that public schools aren't working as well as the alternatives. They have zero incentive to help homeschoolers succeed, and plenty of incentive to stand in the way.
Homeschooling parents are attacking the monopoly; they're competition. Your question assumes that the bureaucrat has any interest in kids' best interests.
Post a Comment