"Every California child deserves a quality education and parents should have the right to decide what's best for their children," the governor said in a statement. "Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children's education. This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts and if the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will."
Schwarzenegger denounces 'outrageous' homeschooling ruling
San Francisco Chronicle
Jill Tucker and Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writers
Friday, March 7, 2008
Does Will Smith live in California?
ReplyDeleteYes. His children are homeschooled via the private tutor provision.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping my "CA contact" shows up soon. (Did I say this already?? My mind is going.)
ReplyDeleteThe whole credentialed-teacher thing is pretty much a scam. As I understand it, parents who want to homeschool have to sign up with a charter school and pay money for the charter school to "oversee" their kids' education.
The parent does everything else. Picks the book, teaches, gives the grades.
"Charter school" picks up the check.
That's a I understand it....
"As I understand it, parents who want to homeschool have to sign up with a charter school and pay money for the charter school to 'oversee' their kids' education."
ReplyDeleteThat is one way to do it. This is not the route my wife and I are following.
Another choice is to register yourself as a private school that just happens to have a very small student body (in our case, a student body of one). This registration is on-line and is free.
At this point, you have to do what the 'normal' private schools do. Basically this comes down to:
1) Take attendance
2) Have a copy of the student immunization records
3) Teach in English
4) Teach the required subjects (the department of education provides a list)
5) Have the student get 200 minutes of PE every 10 school days.
How *much* you teach of each required subject is up to you as is the subject matter and sequencing for each.
In theory, one could homeschool for free by using materials checked out from the local library (but I doubt that anyone is doing this).
One of the amusing things about this ruling is that it strikes at *private* schools using uncertified teacher, too, not just the homeschooling crowd.
Partially, this collateral damage is because there is no legal 'homeschooling' per-se in California. You have to be attached to a school (although, as I mentioned above, it can be a private school of one).
-Mark Roulo
"As I understand it, parents who want to homeschool have to sign up with a charter school and pay money for the charter school to 'oversee' their kids' education."
ReplyDeleteNo.
In California charter schools *are* public schools and thus cannot charge.
One can sign up with something like K12 (www.k12.com) to get someone else to provide a curriculum and take care of the administrative details.
I can imagine a charter school that does distance learning. But paying a charter school in CA should be rare.
-Mark Roulo