When Sarah Palin was on the road in 2008 campaigning with John McCain, she was mocked for it. At the Huffington Post, [h/t Homeschooling: A Family’s Journey] always a reliable resource of liberal ignorance, hate, and intolerance, Dan Brown wrote:
She homeschools! A clutch of creationist and homeschooling blogs have joyfully lit up with the idea that Sarah Palin has enrolled her children in the Interior Distance Education of Alaska, a program “created by homeschoolers for homeschoolers.” Actual schools—serving about 98% of America’s students—need clear-eyed presidential attention. I don't care if some members of Palin's family were teachers or if she used to be a member of the PTA. When I think of how Palin would govern—just one heartbeat away from the Oval Office—her radical choice to homeschool her kids terrifies (and fascinates) me.
Homeschooling radical? Actually, yes. It breaks away from the tired old mode of thinking that the only solution to educating our children is via government-run public school system. Brown is shocked that the program Palin enrolled her kids in while campaigning was “created by homeschoolers for homeschoolers.” Because if a school is not run by a far-off taxpayer-funded union-beholden bureaucratic morass, it’s not an “actual school,” as Brown snidely calls them.
In fact, Brown’s frightened reaction to the “radical” idea of homeschooling illustrates quite well that it’s the left that’s terrified of progress, not the right.
Brown is hardly the only one to publicly ridicule homeschooling. Last November former liberal ignoramus public school teacher [h/t Malkin] turned liberal ignoramus comedienne Joy Behar announced on “The View” that:
A lot of [children] are demented when they’re homeschooled. Come on. … They’re afraid of children. They learn to be scared of other children. It’s all about mommy and daddy …”
Joy Behar, the epitome of elitist liberal know-nothing-ism. Where does Behar get her data to back up such allegations. Same place most liberals get their “facts”: from out of her ass.
Probably the most egregious example of the liberal left’s hate for homeschooling is when in the spring of 2008 the State of California took steps to ban it, effectively consigning all of the state’s children in the hands of the government-run system (Chances are the parents of California’s 166,000 homeschooled kids couldn’t afford private school). Naturally, California’s teacher unions cheered the decision. The rational for this ruling, Kami Dalton at Human Events explained, is this:
The court interpreted California’s compulsory education law (saying instructors must hold a “valid state teaching credential”) as meaning that parents have to have state teaching credentials to teach their children at home, even if they’re using independent study programs.
A valid state teaching credential? OK, those of you who attended public school: Raise your hand if quite more than one of the teachers you had suck big hairy moose balls and didn’t manage to teach squat. Those people had “state teaching credentials,” a’ight? Lot of good it did them (or you), huh?
Now comes the ironic punchline. Bob Unruh at World Net Daily has news on a recent study that shows that America’s homeschooled students kick the ever-living crap out of public school students in every subject area!
Study: Homeschoolers score 37 points higher
Costs also average $500, compared to $10,000 at public school
August 11, 2009
A newly released study from the Home School Legal Defense Association shows that not only do homeschoolers incur expenses only 5 percent of what public schools spend on each student, they score nearly 40 points higher on standardized achievement tests.
“These results validate the dedication of thousands of homeschool parents who are giving their children the best education possible,” said Michael Smith, president of the advocacy organization.
The HSLDA said homeschooling in the United States already includes about 4 percent of the school-aged population and is growing at about 7 percent a year, now involving some two million children.
The report, “Progress Report 2009: Homeschool Academic Achievement and Demographics,” was conducted by Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute.
The survey included 11,739 homeschool students in all 50 states for the 2007-2009 academic year, and the HSLDA said the results were consistent with previous studies on homeschoolers’ achievements.
Drawing on the results from 15 independent testing services, the Progress Report 2009, the most comprehensive homeschool academic study ever completed, showed homeschoolers who participated in the California Achievement Test, Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and Stanford Achievement Test scored 37 percentile points above public school students on standardized tests.
The study also showed that achievement gaps common in public schools and linked to income levels and other factors mostly were absent or minimal in the homeschoolcommunity.
The study showed homeschooled boys scored at the 87th percentile and girls were at the 88th percentile. Students where the household income was under $35,000 scored at the 85th percentile and students in homes with a household income over $70,000 were at the 89th percentile.
There was only slightly more variance linked to parental education, too. Children whose parents did not have college degrees were at the 83rd percentile and children in homes where both parents held college degrees were at the 90th percentile.
“Because of the one-on-one instruction homeschoolers receive, we are prepared academically to be productive and contributing members of today’s society,” Smith said.
“Homeschooling is a rapidly growing, thriving education movement that is challenging the conventional wisdom about the best way to raise and educate the next generation,” said Smith.
Regarding costs, the average public school spends nearly $10,000 per child per year, but the Progress Report said the average homeschool parent spends about $500 per child per year.
Ian Slatter, director of media relations for the HSLDA, cited the 100,000 students graduated each year from homeschools as a reason the activity is getting more and more attention.
“Despite much resistance from outside the homeschool movement, whether from teachers unions, politicians, school administrators, judges, social service workers, or even family members, over the past few decades homeschoolers have slowly but surely won acceptance as a mainstream education alternative. This has been due in part to the commissioning of research which demonstrates the academic success of the average homeschooler,” the HSLDA report said.
Homeschoolers achieved the 89th percentile in reading, 84th in language, 84th in math, 86th in science and 84th in social studies.
The 37-point margin was significantly higher than the 30-point margin reported in a 1998 study on the issue, the HSLDA said.
“This particular study is the most comprehensive ever undertaken. It attempts to build upon and improve on the previous research. One criticism of the Rudner [1998] study was that it only drew students from one large testing service. Although there was no reason to believe that homeschoolers participating with that service were automatically non-representative of the broader homeschool community, HSLDA decided to answer this criticism by using 15 independent testing services for this new study. There can be no doubt that homeschoolers from all walks of life and backgrounds participated in the “Progress Report.”
He reported, “Educational research does not indicate any positive correlation between teacher qualifications and student performance. Many courts have found teacher qualification requirements on homeschoolers to be too excessive or not appropriate. The trend in state legislatures across the country indicates an abandonment of teacher qualification requirements for homeschool teachers. In fact, Americans, in general, are realizing that the necessity of teacher qualifications is a myth. The teachers’ unions and other members of the educational establishment make up the small minority still lobbying for teacher certification in order to protect their disintegrating monopoly on education.” […]
Oooo, how frightening, right Dan Brown? How demented, right Joy Behar? How unqualified, right California state courts?
What a freaking joke.
The funny thing is that homeschooling isn’t even practiced exclusively by right-wing “radical” fundamentalist Christians. Many comments at a number of homeschooling blogs I visited are from self-professed liberal Democrats who simply don’t like their district’s public school system and can’t afford private institutions.
It should be clarified I’m not necessarily advocating for homeschooling over public schools. (My own children will most likely attend our town’s public schools, private institutions costing what they do. We are fortunate to live in a municipality whose school system is quite good.) I’m simply exposing the fact that the liberal left elite continues to bash homeschooling as something only backwoods religious fundamentalists freaks do, even though these “freaks” kick the pants off public school students in standardized testing. It shows that either homeschoolers are doing something right, or public schools are doing something wrong.
If you really want to know what I think (and you wouldn’t be reading my blog if you didn’t!), I believe you can boil down liberals’ aversion to homeschooling to these three reasons:
(1) It’s successful—more so than the Democrat Party’s constantly touted government-run public system, the same system President Hope&Change made damn sure to keep his daughters away from when the Obama’s moved to D.C.
(2) It works without the help of big bloated, bureaucratic government. One can argue that homeschooling is the quintessential example of American individualism and self-reliance. The idea of an American citizen educating—or feeding, clothing, or medically treating— their children without the help of some government program or agency is a liberal Democrat’s worst nightmare. Therefore such acts of individualism must be discouraged and the perpetrators of such acts be scorned.
(3) It doesn’t do a damn to increase the power base, electorate, or piggy bank of the Democrat Party.
Liberals bash homeschooling because it’s a threat to the success of the Democrat Party and liberal agenda.
I’m not saying that every single homschool teacher is awesome and every single public school teacher is horrible. But the data clearly illustrates that homeschooling is an American success story: Better education for way, way less money. Public schools, on the other hand, are a yet another example of how big government, with its federally- and state-mandated regulations and inviolable obligation to politically-connected teacher unions, are a big freaking failure. Those are the cold hard facts, and as someone told us recently: Facts Are Stubborn Things.
Ready for them to control your health care?
End the Occupation! Liberals out of the Schools NOW!
Homeschooling kids must love their parents
Posted by: Jonam | Friday, August 14, 2009 at 12:53 AM
Perhaps we should legislate Home Schooling mandatory. That would lead to more families staying together, and an improved job market, as well.
Posted by: evets | Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 02:30 PM