There have been many questions from the homeschool community about our next President’s thoughts on homeschooling.  President Bush said he supported homeschooling, but many of his across-the-board policies that were approved by Congress took away freedoms for children, families and citizens.

Barack Obama hasn’t shared too many public thoughts or statements about homeschooling.  That makes sense since his family doesn’t homeschool and we’re a tiny minority of families in the big educational scheme of things.

A statement in his book about homeschooling is a cause of hopefulness for many: Page 344 of The Audacity of Hope:

..none of these policies [strong preschool programs, flexible work schedule programs…] need discourage families from deciding to keep a parent at home, regardless of the financial sacrifices.  For some families, that may mean doing without certain material comforts. For others it may mean home schooling or a move to a community where the cost of living is lower.  For some families, it may be the father who stays at home-although for most families it wil still be the mother who serves as the primary caregiver.
Whatever the case may be, such decisions should be honored.

Even while this passage in the same book stirs uneasiness about his assumed links concerning various issues and homeschooling (page 201):

Suffice it to say that today white evangelical Christians (along with conservative Catholics) are the heart and soul of the Republican Party’s grassroots base-a core following continually mobilized by a network of pulpits and media outlets that technology has only amplified.  It is their issues-abortion, gay marriage, prayer in schools, intelligent design, Terri Schiavo, the posting of the Ten Commandments in the courthouse, home schooling, voucher plans, and the makeup of the Supreme Court-that often dominate the headlines and serve as one of the major fault lines in American politics. The single biggest gap in party affiliation among white Americans is not between men and women, or between those who reside in blue states, but between those who attend church regularly and those who don’t. Democrats, meanwhile, are scrambling to "get religion," even as a core segment of our constituency remains stubbornly secular in orientation, and fears-rightly, no doubt- that the agenda of an assertively Christian nation may not make room for them or their life choices.

Being as homeschoolers dig and dig for great educational resources, we often don’t stop there and pursue answers elsewhere too.  Chicagoan Kim of Relaxed Homeskool has asked for an interview to clear up homeschoolers’ always inquiring minds. 

No Guts, No Glory indeed.  I hope she gets that interview some day.

President-elect Obama has selected Arne Duncan (CEO of Chicago Public Schools) as the federal Department of Education Secretary.  I don’t live in Chicago and have not had kids in the Chicago school system.  We visit our oldest who works in that building to the left and always enjoy the sights and sounds while we’re there.  We’ve never been hassled while roaming around the neighborhoods on ’school days’, even though I believe they have a daytime curfew.  Part of the reason that it’s not been a problem for us, other visitors or for Chicago homeschoolers might be this: "Chicago: The problem is getting judges to take curfew cases seriously."

I do love that City of the Big Shoulders.  Even so, it does seem that in the last few years, Chicago politics seems to have floated  down and over to the rest of the state.  The scent that seems to waft over the rest of us Illinoisans isn’t a fragrance folks would want to buy.  (Openly, that is….) Politicians are drawn to power and there aren’t enough Illinois politicians around the state that are clean, or we wouldn’t have such a notoriously corrupt state government.

What does that have to do with homeschooling?  I’ve ranted about Chicago public school demands on homeschoolers on the IL Homeschool Freedom Watch list and on this blog for years .  It smacked me in the face again this morning as I was looking around in my archives and on the CPS website for their homeschool policies. 

I’ve posted the details on the Illinois Homeschool Freedom Watch Blog.  It’s not pretty.

Chicago Public Schools-Homeschool citations

A 2005 CPS Policy on Home Schooling (as amended) is linked in the Elementary School Programs site on the Chicago Public Schools website.  Homeschoolers aren’t part of the Chicago Public School Program, but are exempt via the compulsory attendance statute regarding private schools:

(105 ILCS 5/26-1) (from Ch. 122, par. 26-1) Sec. 26-1. Compulsory school age-Exemptions. Whoever has custody or control of any child between the ages of 7 and 17 years (unless the child has already graduated from high school) shall cause such child to attend some public school in the district wherein the child resides the entire time it is in session during the regular school term, except as provided in Section 10-19.1, and during a required summer school program established under Section 10-22.33B; provided, that the following children shall not be required to attend the public schools:
1. Any child attending a private or a parochial school where children are taught the branches of education taught to children of corresponding age and grade in the public schools, and where the instruction of the child in the branches of education is in the English language;

The requirements to homeschool are just that short and sweet, but you’d never know it looking at the CPS Policy on Homeschooling. 

CPS Policy on Home Schooling-2005 amendment of CPS Homeschool Policy

Letter to Parents and the Statement of Assurance Form

The CPS Policy on Home Schooling was signed off by Arne Duncan, among others.  Mr. Duncan might have a similar understanding of homeschooling as our next President? That it would be inconceivable for homeschoolers to not have oversight from ‘the experts’?  I just dunno, but I’m sure Kim could set all that straight for the fellas if she had half a chance.

No Statements of Assurance, no Home School Registration Forms, no "instructional services" hours need be recorded, no "course materials" need be attached, no birth dates, annual reports or other such invasions of homeschoolers’ time and rights are mandated by law.

Unless I’m missing something and Chicago is exempt from Illinois homeschooling rights. 

I don’t think so, but odder things have happened in Chicago.

Our only IL Senator (at the moment) is pushing hard for Bush to grant a sentence commutation for former governor and current felon George Ryan.  Obama is appropriately staying away from the situation at this time.  Durbin should have done the same, but maybe he’s setting the clemency stage for the current governor who just might need it some day.

Update-It’s not karma that I wrote that yesterday before Blagojevich ("Nothing but sunshine hanging over me…") was hauled away handcuffed this morning from his Chicago home.  It’s just watching IL politics, while knowing that sooner or later, someone gets caught in the dirty dealing in Illinois.  It’s a sickening shame that lives are lost, the six Willis children, from this artful and not so artful dodging.  More information can be found at Capitol Fax . 

From the Decatur Herald & Review:

Durbin’s sentiment was shared by current Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, also a Democrat, who ran and won in 2002 on an anti-corruption, anti-Ryan platform.

I will hope and pray that President George Bush does something right in these last few months of his term.  I feel his time was well spent if he did nothing…nothing at all.   

My Representative, Tim Johnson, is "extraordinarily opposed" to a commutation.  So am I. 

Illinois is awash in political corruption.  Sometimes, human lives are lost because of the dirty business.   This letter from a homeschooling mom is heart wrenching.  From WLS:

Durbin seeks commutation for George Ryan

"I think George Ryan has had more than a slap on the wrist. I think whatever he does for the rest of his life, he will carry this cloud of this conviction," Durbin said.

The Willis family buried 6 children after watching them die.

"For those who say what is Durbin’s political motive here, all I have to offer is a human motive," Durbin said.

No argument from me about Dick Durbin’s human motive.

Please read all of Janet Willis’ letter provided by Kass, in light of the devastation inflicted on her family with "a violent end to a violation of the public trust": From John Kass of the Chicago Trib:

Heartfelt words put Ryan release in context

You may also go online and read all the Willis family letters to Pallmeyer at chicagotribune.com/familyletters. Here is Mrs. Willis’ letter:

On Nov. 8, 1994, I voted to re-elect George Ryan as secretary of state to be in charge of road safety. I am a mother. I loved my children, home-schooled them and, with God’s help, poured my heart into trying to be the best mother I could be. We were very close. A few hours after that vote was cast, I watched as my children were trapped in an inferno. I have had to ask God to help me to forget the sights and thoughts of that day and all that occurred. However, I think now maybe for this one time, if I would be willing to share some things, it might down the road benefit others.

Please send a message protesting commutation of George Ryan’s sentence.  It shouldn’t even be an issue, but it has been pursued by Dick Durbin.  I would hope that Durbin sent a condolence letter to the Willis family at some point.  I imagine if he had, it would provide little comfort with Durbin’s actions now. 

Kass provided this information below:

You can e-mail Bush at comments@whitehouse.gov, or write him at The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20500.

ht to IL Review

This ‘guide’ was written up by counsel for the IL Principals Association and was posted on Market Watch:

Homeschooling Law Resource Guide - Released by the Education Law Association

Last update: 11:04 a.m. EST Dec. 3, 2008
DAYTON, Ohio, Dec 03, 2008

The Law of Homeschooling is a resource guide that provides information on recent updates to homeschool statutory and regulatory requirements for all fifty states as well as Washington D.C. This publication takes an in-depth look at each state’s legal requirements under which parents may provide a home-based education to their children.
Confusion over homeschooling law exists within a vast realm of subject areas. This resource guide answers those questions. The publication is intended to be used by parents, students, homeschool advocates, and public school officials to do what is in the best interests of the children: to ensure that each child receives an appropriate education within the context and scope of the law.

More here:  Homeschooling Law Guides- according to education lawyers

Wisconsin’s Waupun School District administrators hope for a school referendum yea from taxpayers after 2 consecutive annual attempts have failed.  If not passed, the threat this time is closing 2 schools. 

One more time

[Comments are always interesting at the bottom of the article]

One mother had this to say about the situation in Wisconsin:

We’re not interested in having our child ride a school bus for an hour every day to be bused to Waupun," said Emily Shier. "If the Fox Lake school closes, we will definitely be looking into home schooling our children or open enrolling them into another district."

When Pat was on the school board, non-passage of the referendum threatened extra-curricular activities.  I can remember the big boys (dads) in the back of the meeting room (non-school board meeting attendees prior to this) who surmised that running in the red is ok as long as the big boys kids have sports.  (The IL High School Association booth (sports) consistently had a large number of interested parties huddled around during the school board convention.)

Our local referendum failed the first time and the school didn’t finance extra-curricular activities for a year.  Fund raisers abounded.  There were extra-curricular activities funded by those who wished to donate in the community.  I’ve not heard of such in any other public schools, and I doubt I ever will.  I don’t believe it would have happened if Pat hadn’t be president and the superintendent wasn’t open to this strange twist. 

The Waupun administration offered options to cure their financial ills by introducing hopes of a new preschool program and an online program to draw in homeschoolers.

The decision to go to referendum was among a list of seven options outlined to balance the 2009-10 budget and beyond. Refsland also recommended to the board to launch a 4-year-old kindergarten program in the district along with instituting an online program that would cater to home-schooled students.

"We’ve talked about cuts and cuts, but we also have to look at ways to enhance what we have and try to bring in revenue that is also educationally sound," Refsland said.

Seemed like Refsland (as an educator) would have stated that a little differently.  If the voters rejected tax increases for the school, why are they looking for new ways to bring in *more* money instead of enhancing educational soundness with what they have?

Judy Aron referred to the money chase in her post reviewing a Hoover Institution article by Milton Gaither:

Mostly government schools are looking to get those kids back into their system because they are losing funding when kids are not in the system, as evidenced by Gaither’s data:

School districts with high rates of home schooling have seen significant drops in funding, tied as it is to per-pupil enrollment. The Maricopa County school district in Arizona, for example, had by the year 2000 lost $34 million due to the exodus of 7,526 home schoolers. In an effort to win some of them back, the district began offering à la carte services through satellite campuses at strip malls and other locations.

Just as the federal government bailout creates new business plans, this school seems to be creating new business plans for revenue.  Governmental agencies have the unique knack of doing that with our tax money along with their overwhelming and self-serving policies.

Here’s some more thoughts from Helen Hegener about this sort of problem as related to homeschooling.  Her post along with comments from Ohio’s Mary Nix provide heads up to what will come and what already has.

Public School Programs Are Not Homeschooling

The inability to discuss the situation, to build an understanding and an awareness of the problem, is exacerbated by the expectation that the threat will show itself in a headline-making manner, and does not recognize the slow grinding process of wearing away at freedoms and responsibilities.

Mary wrote some thoughts and her actions on The Informed Parent:  Funding losses are not Ohio homeschooler’s fault…..

From February 2006: I wanna know  Who’s Watching Out for Homeschoolers?

Another Illinoisan, Deborah Niemann-Boehle, posted this: What homeschooling is not

For the public school view on the growth of virtual schooling, you can check out this article. And for more on the benefits of virtual schools, check out this article. The funny thing about that last one is that people are actually listing some of the same benefits for virtual school as we’ve been listing for homeschools for decades. Even the socialization issue is addressed — and it’s not a problem. Interesting double standard!

Homeschooling took some hits with the opening of the Chicago Virtual School.  From the Chicago Trib:

Rocks, the attorney for Chicago Public Schools, said the restrictions on "home-based" charter schools mushroomed from concerns that home schools were trying to become charter schools simply to get public dollars. He presented letters from state lawmakers who voted on Illinois’ charter school law, and said their intent was not to block Internet-based schooling.

I am glad the school seems to be working for the families.  I’m even more grateful that a homeschool advocate involved with the inception of this new school tried to assure media and others that homeschooling wasn’t mixed up with the school.

Pull down the Documents and News menu to  A Homeschooler Investigates and read Ohio homeschool advocates’ experiences.

My concern will always be that free is SO irresistible in human nature, even if freedom isn’t free.

I just ran into this in homeschool news about Carol Plum-Ucci.  Looks like she’s hooked:

Award-winning Author’s Memoir Chronicles How and Why She Homeschooled Her Daughter

Homeschooling Abbey: Your Basic Mom Tries Home Education and Tells All, a memoir by Carol Plum-Ucci, seeks to reveal how the author and her daughter found a whole new world through  homeschooling.Plum-Ucci never thought she would homeschool. She believed that home education was for geniuses or religious fanatics, but when her daughter, Abbey, was having problems in school and was spending way too much time with the school nurse, Plum-Ucci made a decision to try it.

Plum-Ucci soon discovered that the world was her classroom. Through trial and error, she and her daughter found Abbey’s perfect learning style, and Plum-Ucci soon realized that her own mind was also coming alive. <continued at site>

I meant to blog this some time ago, when the science fiction reader son (huge Neal Stephenson fan) sent me a note about a BoingBoing post by Cory Doctorow.  I think CD has that homeschooling bug too if he’s studying John Holt’s writings.  (Bugs possibly being the mighty "leaderless ant colonies" if you read Helen Hegener’s post.)

How Children Learn: classic of human, kid-centered learning by Cory Doctorow

Most resonant for me was his description of kids’ learning unfolding from the natural passionate obsessions that overtake them — it made me remember my best learning moments, like the time when I was 7 and my teacher Bev Pannikar found me reading Alice in Wonderland to myself in a corner of her classroom, and she just let me be, as I branched out from there to book after book, hiding out and falling in lifelong love with reading. Or the time that Brian Kerr found me afire with a passion for math and just let me go at it, working through workbook after workbook to the detriment of my other studies — I think I was ten. There were other incidents like this, reflecting that passionate, engaged process that unfolds when kids are allowed to work at their own pace (I was lucky to go to a publicly funded alternative elementary school where kids of all ages shared a class and were given a lot of freedom to learn in their own way, with an emphasis on mentoring).

He was very fortunate to have those experiences in the school.  The son that sent me the link to this excellent essay was taken out of school to homeschool when reading during math class got him in trouble.  (As a five year old, he did his math in the church pews because he loved doing double digit addition and subtraction. )

Back to Cory Doctorow’s inspiration…..John Holt’s words are timeless:

The only good reason for playing games with babies is because we love them, and delight in playing these games with them and sharing in their delight with them — not because we want someday to get them into college. It is our delight in the baby and the games that makes the game fun, and worthwhile and useful for the baby. Take away the delight, and put in its place some cold-hearted calculation about future IQ and SAT scores and we kill the game, for ourselves and the baby. If we go on for long in this spirit the babies will soon refuse to play — or if they do, play only in the spirit of school, i.e., because they think we’ll be disappointed or angry if they don’t…

I surely wish him well in his journey to find the best education for his children.  Read the comments to his essay too.