Instead of accepting even welcoming the valuable role home-school supporters can play in increasing choices, too many traditional educators are setting up roadblocks, says USA Today. Some U.S. states impose excessive paperwork demands on home-schooling parents, even when their children appear to be flourishing academically. Many school districts deny home-schooled children the opportunity to participate in music and sports activities at local schools.
Such moves can needlessly deprive public schools of valuable alliances with taxpayers and advocates of quality education.
Yet there are several proven ways that can help more states and school districts reach out to home-schooling parents.
First, schools can work with parents by funding online teaching. For example,
Second, states can reduce burdensome paperwork:
Third, let home-schoolers join school activities:
Those critical of home schooling argue that parents often fall short as competent teachers. To date, however, there is no evidence of a significant problem of home-schooled children receiving poor educations. In fact, research suggests home schooling can be very effective, says USA Today.
Source: Editorial, Support for home-schoolers can pay off for all students, USA Today, September 3, 2003.
For text http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2003-09-02-edit-usat_x.htm
For more on Homeschooling http://www.ncpa.org/iss/edu/
FMF Policy Bulletins\9 September 2003
