Posted on 06/18/2005 8:15:49 AM PDT by Graybeard58
Frankly, I can't sympathize with someone who's opted out of a system but wants to "shop" its perks like a cafeteria. Otherwise, I'm quite supportive of homeschooling.
I do. If they attend the school and remain eligible for extracurricular activities, they can march in the band. As the article points out, letting this girl participate effectively exempts her from maintaining the academic and behavioral standards that enrolled students have to maintain. Sorry.
If homeschooling parents want their kids to participate in marching band, they have every right to form their own.
It doesn't matter. Vouchers, declining income bases, kids shifting from home school to public school and then back home throughout the day. It's the kind of educational chaos that breaks the machinery of public education. And it will do it in the exact communities that can least afford it. Wealthy suburbs will pay through the nose to create first rate schools. The rich will spend tens of thousands a year in tuition for boarding and day schools. The middle and lower middle class communities will watch their schools go into the death spiral.
"It never ceases to amaze me how home-schooling parents consistently demand that they should get MY money back in THEIR pocket"
I would never consider a refund, too many strings would be attached to it.
I agree. While I'm sympathetic in principle to the Libertarian idea of privatizing public education, the result at present would be disastrous. And public schools, if they're well-run, hold together a community.
You say, "I've sent three children through Lincoln Public Schools. One marched in the East High band for four years. I found the education they received to be uniformaly high quality, and I'm tired of knee-jerk attacks on the public school system. Some public schools suck, some don't. Some homeschooled kids get a decent education, some don't."
Well said. Why be so bitter about not being allowed to take part in a school system that they consider to be "not good enough."
I can't seem to explain to this to you. I'll try one more time. When they made the decision to pull her from public schools, that included the band, the gym, the soccer team, all of it. If they don't want her in public schools, fine. Just don't come crying to me when the poor kid is denied BY THE PARENTS the opportunity to enjoy being a kid. In or out, no halfway measures.
I don't know if they hold together a community, but they boost property values. Once a school system begins to fail, property values drop and the soci-economic make-up of the community shifts downward. With the downward shift comes the typical pathologies and with those pathologies comes more degradation of the educational system, which, of course, is followed by even lower property values, more pathologies and more degradation. In short, educational death spiral.
p.s.
at some point during the downward spiral, someone is going to bonk you on your head for your wallet.
The same shafting that I'm getting. What really hacks me off is when somebody pulls their kids out of the public school system, and then demands refunds, vouchers, etc. They don't seem to understand that part of the money that they are demanding be returned to them isn't theirs. It's mine. It is amazing how quickly conservatives become socialists where their children are concerned.
"i found the education they received to be uniformaly high quality, and I'm tired of knee-jerk attacks on the public school system. Some public schools suck, some don't. Some homeschooled kids get a decent education, some don't."
Of course you are basing your conclusions on isolated cases of success or failure.
The results of standardized test scores averaged over the entire nation flies in the face of your comments. On average home schooled childeren out perform their public schooled counter parts.
You just hit on something that many people don't seem to realize. If you take my money, and spend it on some aspect of your life, I get a say in that aspect of your life. Want my money for your children's education? I get some control over that education. Want my money to rebuild your house after a disaster? I get some control over how that house is built. If people don't like my ideas, or my decisions, they shouldn't take my money.
Please post cite. Not that this is unsurprising; clealry, parents who are willing to go to some lengths to provide their kids with an alternative education are likely going to have kids that outperform the rest. It's not really a fair comparison unless you match the two groups demographically.
And the public school tests are dumbed down considerably.
HOMESCHOOLERS AREN'T TAKING YOUR MONEY.
What some people on this thread tend to forget is that many of us here are teachers, have parents who are teachers or children who are teachers or even children who attend public schools. I'm tired of the mantra that "all public schools are inadequate" and that home-schooled children are better educated and, of course, entitled to attend the "inadequate" public schools when it suits their own purposes.
What control do you have over the "education" kids get at the public school? LOL!
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