Posted on 05/18/2011 11:29:57 AM PDT by christianhomeschoolmommaof3
In her first address to West Virginia’s joint standing committee on education this week, incoming West Virginia State Superintendent of Schools Jorea Marple criticized homeschoolers. According to a West Virginia homeschooler who posted to an Internet group, Speaker pro tem and Delegate Ron Fragale told her that Mrs. Marple said “West Virginia homeschoolers need more oversight, better standards, better evidence of progress; homeschoolers have too much flexibility.”
Delegate Fragale told the homeschooler that “he’s not sure why Mrs. Marple is so negative about homeschooling. Perhaps there are some new board members who don’t have a good impression of it. However, the West Virginia Department of Education could create a new policy that might make homeschooling more difficult in the state.” He recommended that homeschoolers contact Mrs. Marple.
HSLDA Staff Attorney for West Virginia affairs Michael P. Donnelly noted that West Virginia homeschoolers do an outstanding job of educating children and that West Virginia has one of the nation’s more stringent homeschooling laws.
“Mrs. Marple’s comments reflect the outdated stereotypes typical of some narrow-minded government school bureaucrats,” Donnelly stated. “Mrs. Marple should get the facts before painting a bull’s-eye on West Virginia homeschoolers. If Mrs. Marple really cares about educational achievement for West Virginia students, she should study why homeschooling works so well and encourage it, not criticize it.”
“West Virginia already requires an annual notification and annual assessment from every family. Only a minority of the United States require this much interaction between homeschoolers and government officials,” he added.
Numerous studies affirm that homeschoolers outperform their public and private school counterparts on standardized tests of academic achievement. These studies show that increasing regulation on homeschoolers does not have any impact on academic performance. HSLDA is troubled by Mrs. Marples’ comments because they reflect an inappropriate eagerness to impose additional bureaucratic requirements on a population who are doing an excellent job of educating their children. Mrs. Marple should focus her attention on the 280,000-plus public school students who need her oversight, and leave West Virginia’s approximately 8,000 homeschoolers alone.
HSLDA is committed to defending the freedom of homeschoolers in West Virginia and calls on Mrs. Marple to retract her comments and to encourage homeschooling rather than seeking to impose additional and burdensome regulations on it. Mrs. Marples should remember that she is the new and 27th state superintendent of schools in a state where the motto is Montani Semper Liberi, or “Mountaineers Always Free.”
To contact Mrs. Marple:
By email: dvermill@access.k12.wv.us By Phone: 304-558-2681 extension 53304 By mail: Dr. Jorea Marple, state superintendent of schools 1900 Kanawha Blvd., E., Building 6, Room 358 Charleston, WV 25305
My sister is home schooling my 5 nieces and nephews.
The oldest graduated from H.S. at 16. Entered college level courses at the local community college at 16. Honor student. Accepted to the University of Washington at 18. Accepted to their business school at 19. Now at 20, she’s finishing up her 4 year degree and working at Amazon.com this summer as a paid intern.
The 2nd oldest. Same scenario. Graduated H.S. at 16. Entered community college at 16. Loved cooking shows so studied culinary arts. At 17, the wedding cake she created won a gold medal at a Cordon Bleu sponsored competition. Graduated. At 18, she’s running the deserts kitchen at restaurant and the owners want her to run the cake store they are working on opening.
The three younger ones are still being well educated every day by my sister.
The last thing these kids need is politicians and teachers union thugs demanding “oversight” on them.
Dear Dr. Marple,
I recently read your statement calling for more restriction and supervision of homeschooling in West Virginia. I am at present unsure of what evidence you have brought forward, which would justify this position.
If you have any nationally normed or state-normed testing results which show homeschoolers to be at a disadvantage in any academic area, or which show them to be lacking in academic skills or in mastery of facts in any subject category, or which show overall substandard outcomes in the attainment of advance education or eventual employability, I would be glad to see and peruse these facts. Internet links to these objective criteria would be appreciated.
No one can reasonably be expected to form an opinion on this question without the relevant educationl research. However, I am willing to form or revise my judgment on this matter, based upon measurable criteria.
Please help me by supplying the rationale for your view that home education suffers from inadequate control by the State of West Virginia, and that increased restriction and supervision of these West Virgina families will provide better educational outcomes.
Thank you for your attention to this request.
Sincerely,
[signed]
I KNOW it’s not valid. I didn’t mean to imply it was.
THEY think it’s valid, however, and perhaps this means they have finally conceded that point.
When we were homeschooling, our difficulty was trying to keep enough focus on the school work. I had to actually limit our time on the road for field trips and stuff so that we could get school done.
In PA they now want medical records, too. Askin’ ain’t gettin’, but they require at the very least a note from a doctor confirming that the child has been examined for various things. They word the “requirement” so that if a parent doesn’t study the law with a comb and a magnifying glass, parent will just provide them with the complete results of the exam. Medical privacy is out the window.
Cyber charter schools are the same when not worse. You can’t even enroll a child in an online school if he hasn’t been vaccinated — just in case they have an optional field trip! You are also asked to provide your SSN in case they have to sue you for damage to the equipment. State guidelines to the contrary notwithstanding, they ask for information they’re not entitled to and you have no control over where it goes from there.
PA’s a great state for some things...like guns! :) ...but really stinks for homeschoolers.
BTW, the “outside source” the law requires to evaluate your child’s progress, now charges, typically, $100. You don’t have it, you don’t get approval to homeschool again, and may be prosecuted for truancy.
Some school districts are very unfriendly and antagonistic to homeschoolers. All operate on the same premise: your homeschooled child deprives them of several thousand dollars a year.
Money which, need I add, is almost totally wasted on them.
I just called and talked to the receptionist, Natalie, who is very polite and a bit flustered and apologetic.
She noted that the context was missing from the quotation.
So I asked her if the quote was accurate, and she said it was.
I then suggested that if Dr. Marple believes that “homeschoolers have too much flexibility”,
then its only fair to ask
what new restictions Dr. Marple wants to impose on homeschoolers.
“Nothing at this time,” came the reply.
Contact Natalie at:
304-558-2681 x53304
vermill@access.k12.wv.us
Government seeks to destroy what it can't control!
Mrs. Marple sounds like an idiot.
Why wouldn't they. After all, the government hates competition.
You’re good....
People who would sacrifice their children on the altar of ideology are no better than pagans who sacrificed their children to a stone statue...............
Islam looks bad because IT EXISTS.................
Maybe it all started with her being an ass from the outset.
“How do home schoolers perform on SAT/ACT compared to their traditionally educated counterparts? That is the only relevent question.”
I’d disagree with you about that. Public schools, esp here in NJ, spend hundreds of hours prepping kids for standardized tests, not on how to think, to reason, to research, to question, to explore for themselves. I did just hear about a homeschooler in our county who hasn’t officially graduated high school yet but has completed his associates degree at the local county college and has received an appointment to the Naval Academy.
Just like communism, though, if you had nothing to compare it to, you wouldn’t know how bad it was.
These things just always get me heated. Maybe Ms. Marple should have more oversight of the sexual deviants masquerading as teachers & such in public schools as a primary focus. Or improving graduation rates of public school students. Decreasing drop out rates. Reducing rates of children having children. Improving literacy.
No, lets attack those oh so successful homeschooling parents and insist they need more regulation, control.
Homeschoolers would be considered "scientifically illiterate" for being skeptical of global warming and evolution.
However, there wouldn't be any place where they could show that they are lacking in the ability to explain the theories.
What the humanist "educators" object to, though, is that the accompanying worldview isn't being taught as well.
I bet the North Korean people would take issue with that..........
government schools need more oversight
Thanks for the calls and emails and all the comments. You guys are nice. This was my email.
Dear Mrs. Marples,
As a home schooling parent, I am very concerned over your recent comments to the education committee. Your biased opinion is that home schoolers are in need of more regulation. West Virginia has some of the most restrictive home school laws in the country. We are required to submit annual assessments or testing, a letter of notification and an educational plan to our local school superintendent every year. The current requirements already place an undue burden on families. It takes time and resources away from the actual education of our children to fulfill bureaucratic requirements. As parents, we are responsible for the education of our children and we take the responsibility seriously.
Study after study shows that home school students are flourishing and you would be hard pressed to find any justification for stricter regulation. What proof do you have that home school children are doing worse than their public school counterparts that would justify the need for further oversight? What facts do you have that show standardized testing or the portfolio option to be unacceptable evidence of academic progress? What public school standard would you use to judge the educational success of our children? Flexibility is the key to the success of home schooling yet your opinion is that we have too much?
We do not want nor will we accept any more encumbrances upon our God given right to direct the upbringing and education of our children. What I do want, is to educate my children without the government of West Virginia burdening my family with unnecessary regulation. You would do well to concentrate on the education of the students whose parents have abdicated their responsibility to the state. When you have the public schools of West Virginia well in hand, then maybe we can revisit this conversation in the future.
Your unreasonable comments to the education committee were made in your first address as State Superintendent. With so many problems in the West Virginia public schools, your need to address home schooling is very telling. Without facts to prove your assertions, your comments are nothing more than agenda driven rhetoric. Now that we are aware of your agenda, we will be keeping a close eye on your career. A retraction and apology to the many dedicated home schooling parents of West Virginia would go a long way toward making amends. Thank you for taking the time to hear and consider my point of view.
Ms. Marple does not care about the education of the students. She only cares that those students butts are in her chairs and not at home. The Federal government doles out education funds based on two things, the number of students in a school and the number of students on the school lunch program. They want all students on the school lunch program regardless of need because certain funds are predicated on that. The more students that are home schooled the less dough the public schools get from the federal government for both programs.
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