Posted on 01/08/2005 5:28:17 PM PST by wagglebee
The district says cost is a factor, but there is a magnet school that costs 2 to 3 times more than our school. It also does not have as good of test scores. An ad hoc committee of parents and teachers recommended closing the magnet school, but the district wants to keep the magnet school.
We are getting press. My picture is in with the group about splitting the district. I'm in the purple jacket.
(I didn't know my picture would be in the paper, and I look horrible.)
http://www.almadentimes.com/current/schools.htm
This is my letter to the editor:
http://www.almadenresident.com/ar-letters2.shtml
This is a letter that the staff at the school wrote:
http://www.almadenresident.com/ar-op-guest.shtml
The San Jose Mercury News has had some articles, and they are working on a larger story. I'll be interested on what the larger story says.
Homeschooling is just not the best option for either of my twin daughters. Both of them have had speech problems, one of them very severe. Because of the speech problems, both girls are very shy and clingy. I want them in school with other kids to help them talk more. They both rely on me so much for their communication. Private school isn't an option either because one of them wouldn't get accepted to most private schools. She might get accepted to one that does take special needs kids, but the cost is very high.
So my option is to fight the public school system. I feel it is a fight worth fighting.
Very interesting articles and letters; obviously you are approaching your fight from every angle.
About homeschooling - it's certainly not for every family, but homeschooled kids get positive social time more than any schooled child possibly can. They're not told to sit down and be quiet in class LOL
With all the outside classes, homeschool co-ops, community resources such as YMCA sports teams, local colleges that open their doors to homeschoolers, arts centers, etc etc, homeschooled kids get socialization by all types and ages of people most days.
I don't know about your school, but when my daughter attended public elementary school and had speech therapy for problems pronouncing r's and w's, she was routinely mocked and mimicked in class every time she opened her mouth, by students and a few teachers. After her problem was corrected and speech therapy was terminated, the kids still carried on, I suppose for their amusement. Needless to say, school staff was entirely unhelpful to stop all this.
Homeschooling has given her back her self-esteem. She's become a docent at the local Academy of Natural Sciences one day a week, routinely giving talks on the animals, plants, rocks etc on exhibit to other kids ranging in age from 3 to 15 - plus the adult chaperones. It's done her a world of good. Additionally, public speaking and debate courses with International Toastmasters have cured her of any shyness in speaking up to defend a point of view or a fact.
Sorry, I'll get off the soapbox now. We all try to do what we think is best for our kids, and I'm glad we have choices. I had no luck fighting the system and as a single working parent I didn't have the time to continue, so I opted to do it my way. I commend you for doing the same.
I know that kids get social time when they are homeschooled. However, the problem is that I would be there. My girls tend to hang on me and want me to do the talking.
Also, you lose all support benefits from the public school if you do homeschool or go to private school. I'll lose speech therapy and a resource specialist. My daughter needs experts in speech and reading, and I really don't have the expertise.
I am well aware of kids getting teased for going to speech, special ed, etc. That is probably the thing that I am most impressed with my kids school, and why I am fighting so hard to keep it open. The kids don't tease any of the special needs kids. The kids don't know that there is a difference with the special needs kids.
The school has done a great job of pairing up the special education teachers with the regular ed teachers. For example, my daughters' first grade class weekly had the special ed kids come in as their math buddies. They did special math projects together. All of the kids benefitted. My daughters always said "hi" to their "math buddies".
That whole system will be gone when they move to a new school.
It takes a great school staff to make a positive learning experience to special needs kids. I'm on lots of yahoo groups with parents from across the nation of special needs kids. Lots of those kids (and parents) have had a very difficult time because of horrible staff.
Our school also has lots of Christians. The speech therapist is a Christian and even helps my daughters with their Sunday School Bible memory verses.
I am petrified about going to another school. I don't think it will be as good of an experience.
Your school sounds like the best of all possible schools. It couldn't possibly be better and you're right, it will probably be worse.
They've got you coming & going in PA, it sounds like. It's also one of the worst states (right up there with NY) in which to homeschool.
Personally, I think that homeschooling poses more of a threat to public schooling, and keeps public schools in line, far more effectively than pushing for private schooling. This works even when there are only 1-2% of the school age population doing it. But interestingly, one of the most conservative homeschooling organizations (Home School Legal Defense Association) endorses neither vouchers nor state subsidies for homeschooling.
It makes sense - because homeschooling can *only* serve as a counterweight if it is *free.*
The quote from one of your fellow parents is worth repeating:
"My biggest concern is the fact that they’re closing high academically performing schools over low ones,” said Loera. “They spend millions of dollars on the Star 9 accountability report card, and if that isn’t considered in the criteria of which schools to close, why don’t we pump that money into the schools rather than having teachers teach to the test? You can’t keep closing schools and expect children to receive a quality education. I’d like the district to tell us what we can do to improve the situation and help them to get the money we need to run our schools.”
I suspect this is a direct response in your district to No Child Left Behind. There are simply NO benefits to school districts under NCLB to foster better schools. The priority is to lift up the "failing" schools - even though under NCLB, ultimately virtually all schools will be listed as "failures."
If you DO get your new district, *don't* under any circumstances accept federal funding. Those districts free of federal $$ are also free of NCLB - for now.
How does that work? I thought every private school student was supposed to have access to public school special ed services, under federal law.
The law was changed a few years ago. I used to have links to all the federal guidelines regarding this, but I'd have to do a search.
Now, the districts do not have to pay for services in private or home schools unless it is shown that parents can prove that the Free and Appropriate Placement (FAPE) is only provided in a private or home school environment. I have a friend who fought the Saratoga School district and won the right to keep her child at home. The only problem is that every year, they have to battle the district on this. They can't afford to keep on hiring lawyers.
Of course, I would like to see this changed. I don't necessarily think the govt should pay for the private school, but I think they should pay for speech, occupational therapy, etc.
I'm also a big proponent of charter schools and vouchers. We're also looking at trying to change our public school into a charter. I would like parents to have more choices.
I'm not talking about providing the services for the child in the private school setting. I'm talking about a privately schooled child who, let's say, needs speech therapy 3X a week. Can that child go to the public school, meet with the speech therapist, at the expense of the school district? The reason I ask is that when I interviewed the principal of a local private school some years ago, she mentioned that they had some students who actually went over to the local grade school for Sp. Ed services.
No, the districts are not required to pay for it. Some districts do, but they are not required by the federal laws to provide any services to a student that is going to private or home school, even if the services are provided at the public school.
This changed only a few years ago, so maybe the principal didn't know the law had changed.
I think the districts do have to provide for speech therapy for preschoolers. However, they may not have to if they provide preschool (like headstart programs). I know our district does provide speech therapy to preschoolers in private school.
You are so right. I was in a high school a few days ago, and happened to see a chart comparing 2003 and 2004 SAT scores of public, private and parochial schools in the metro Philly area, further broken down by suburban vs. inner city. (homeschoolers were not represented LOL) The best scores were of course private surburban, followed by parochial suburban, followed by public suburban. I made a copy of the page and compared it to homeschoolers in PA as reported in 2003. I'll give you 1 guess who came out first.
PA isn't so hard to homeschool in - the portfolios are fun ( many people I know keep theirs pretty minimal), you choose your own evaluator, and doing standardized tests are a breeze. It just sounds harder than it really is; however, the question is more philosophical. Why should you report to an establishment that is intrinsically biased against forms of school other than public ?
That's the fundamental question, and to my knowledge it's been a controversy within homeschooling for many years. Do you accommodate to the rules (i.e. make them more liveable), or get them changed?
My state had a terrible homeschooling law up until 1986. The old law said that any homeschooling had to be "substantially equivalent" to public schooling. The courts were interpreting that to mean same number of hours of schooling per day; same textbooks, etc. Parents got together & filed a federal lawsuit against the state on the grounds that when the state demanded that a non-public form of education be "equivalent" to public, it deprived the parents of their right to private education (under the 1920s Pierce v. Society of Sisters Supreme Court ruling.)
The federal court forced the state of MO to rewrite its homeschooling law. The law which resulted was a compromise between homeschooling factions - some wanted no regulation whatever, and others recognized that there was going to have to be some.
The regulations passed were pretty minimal, but the *philosophy* was grounded into the law: homeschooling is *private* education; the Division of Family Services has no authority over violations of the homeschooling law; parents do NOT have to register in any way with the public schools, or get any public school approval of their homeschooling. (This is consistent with how private education is also treated in MO - private schools are even less regulated than homeschooling.)
I wanted to make a few points about tests scores. Here in MO, while we're required to keep "credible written evaluations," it's not specified what those are. They could be test scores from a test Mom made up; they could be a longhand individual evaluation per subject per child; they could be Iowa Basic (or whatever) scores. Nor do we have to show them to anyone or report them to any agency.
I have met quite a few "unschoolers" who don't test at all. Others' kids don't even take SATS or ACTS if they're already going to the community college (as they are not necessary - the only necessary test is an internal placement test for course registration.)
Consequently, in our state, it's impossible to know *what* homeschoolers' test scores are. There simply are no statistics to be had. I have read the NCHE stuff on homeschool test scores, but in my opinion it's a very selected sample.
I have been a homeschooler all throughout school. There are definitly ways to be social, even in high-home school.
I even went on several homeschool choir trips and went to prom with a girl I knew from the choir. Not to mention the trips to D.C., and other field trips... How often is it that the public schools from GA. take their students to the Chattanooga Aquairium for a field trip??????
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