Now, conventional wisdom calls for patience and to allow the districts the time to wrap their arms around this new provision in their plans and to wait and see what happens.

In an effort to represent the opposite advocate, some would ask, what happens with the year we lose by waiting? If the district provisions are more difficult, or restrictive, or some districts opt not to do the program at all, do we get that year back? Why must we cede our educational choices to the government YET AGAIN, as we may see a successful program changed or worse yet, eliminated as we know it?

In favor of conventional wisdom, some would say districts have handled education successfully for years and to this day graduate many successful children who become captains of industry and leaders of not only today but also tomorrow. Why can’t we see how they do with this, give them a chance, and trust? In some cases, there is a reason for not being able to trust.

I can’t speak to all districts, only for the one where we reside.

• Graduation rates for seniors are static or reduced slightly depending on the reports you read.
• At a budget workshop recently to deal with a projected shortfall (blamed on Tallahassee tax cutting) teachers are going to have to accept a 1.5% pay cut, higher medical insurance benefits and the potential of job loss as 147 positions were also recommended to be cut.
• 7-10 schools are to be shuttered.
• A science teacher at a recently remodeled high school (that needs to be remodeled again due to gangs and student unrest) has been arrested for taking a student to the zoo on a science field trip…IN HIS CAR.
• A band assistant director at a local middle school has resigned and arrested for asking a student to give him a massage at his home.
• An eighth grade student, who had repeatedly brought a loaded weapon to school, was arrested recently for showing it to friends in the bathroom.
• At an after school activity, sanctioned by the school because district transportation was involved, an 18 year old girl was raped by a 16 year old boy on the district bus while his 2 friends watched for any potential problems.
• The “fix everything right away” superintendent has resigned to take a job at a publishing company in New York leaving the district in the hands of a transitional superintendent during a national search.

Our children were subject to bullying in the schools where we live, and aggression was dealt with by compassionate counseling. The one time my oldest was seriously injured in a bullying incident, We wanted to file a charge against the aggressor and the police officer at the school tried to discourage us from doing it because of the paperwork involved. I neglected to mention, that I was ACTIVELY involved in both schools, and according to some teachers received preferential treatment in resolution of my children’s’ issues.

A disclaimer here. Not every district has problems to this degree, and even this district seems to be having a run of “bad luck.”This district has done some nice things as well, but is as bloated a bureaucracy as any government agency can be. There is nothing in place here currently or in the near future that shows us that one more program to administer will be any easier for them to handle.

Parents, remain active, remain engaged, remain involved.  Keep an eye on your individual school district…keep an eye on your elected politicians. (The key word there is elected…they are there because of your vote.) Ask their opinion on virtual education before you vote for them. Write letters, emails, and CALL. Let them know YOU ARE OUT THERE.  Join the coalition. Before school starts in August, let’s make it the goal, as parents, to have 2000 or more people registered on the Coalition website. I registered just recently and you can’t believe what kind of information is there. Raise your voice. Let your voices be heard loud, and clear and strong. You want this and you are not going away. A reminder, too. If you are in the program currently, please let the school know what your intention for the fall will be.

I certainly would agree with those who lack confidence in their district. However, perhaps I’m approaching this issue in the wrong way. I’m more than willing to be proven “wrong.” I hope I will be.

 Am I the only one that feels like this about the school districts, or are there others like me?

“Jeb Bush’s Reforms Improved Public Schools”

TOWNHALL

April 17, 2008 Is demography destiny? If so, say some experts, states with growing Hispanic populations seem doomed to fail, weighed down with ineffective school systems and abysmal test scores. One academic goes so far as to predict the Southwest will become the “
Appalachia of the 21st Century.” His logic was simple: Hispanic populations are growing rapidly, Hispanic students under-perform academically, southwestern states are doomed. Balderdash. States can overcome this challenge. Exhibit A:
Florida under Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist. Startling statistics show that with abundant school choice and systemic education reform,
Florida ’s Hispanic students already eclipse the average academic performance of many states.

Tackling education reform in Florida is a tougher nut to crack than in Massachusetts or
New Hampshire . Low-income students make up more than half the K-12 student body, with a “majority minority” ethnic mix.
Florida ’s per student funding is below the national average. Governor Jeb Bush pushed through a bracing dual strategy of accountability from both the top down (high-stakes state testing) and bottom up (widespread parental choice) in 1999. Governor Bush’s A+ Plan emphasized standards for the schools and transparency for parents. Schools faced real consequences for prolonged failure, including school vouchers for their students. Bush’s school choice strategy also included the creation of the nation’s largest voucher program–the McKay Scholarship Program–for students with disabilities and the “Step Up for Students” tax credit for economically disadvantaged children. Today, 820
Florida private schools educate 19,000 children with disabilities through McKay. A similar number of low-income parents exercise choice through the tax credit program.
Florida also has a vigorous and growing charter school movement, with 375 charter schools educating over 106,000 students. So what does
Florida have to show for this tough mixture of testing and parental choice? The best source of data to answer this question comes from the federal government. The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) tests representative samples of students in the states on a variety of subjects. NAEP provides the nation’s most reliable and respected source of K-12 testing data.

Children who do not learn to read in the early grades almost never recover academically, falling further and further behind with each passing grade. Reaching the middle school years, they literally cannot read their textbooks and often become academically frustrated and disruptive. Hopelessly behind, these children begin dropping out of school in large numbers in the eighth grade. Researchers, therefore, focus heavily on fourth grade reading scores as a bellweather for the effectiveness of schools. In 1998, a stunning 47 percent of
Florida fourth graders were on this dismal track, scoring “below basic” on the NAEP reading test. In 2007, 70 percent of
Florida fourth graders scored basic or above on reading.The percentage of Florida children failing to master basic literacy dropped by 36 percent in less than 10 years–a remarkable achievement. Meanwhile, the percentage of fourth graders scoring “proficient” increased by 54 percent, and the percent scoring “advanced” (the highest level of achievement) doubled, from four to eight percent.

Best of all, improvements among Hispanic and African American students helped to drive the overall results. Scores of
Florida ’s Hispanic students have soared in recent years.
Florida ’s Hispanic students now have the second highest reading scores in the nation, and African Americans score fourth highest.

The average Florida Hispanic student NAEP reading score (conducted in English mind you) is now higher than the overall scores of all students in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Hold on to your hats, because this list is likely to grow in coming years. Florida ’s free and reduced lunch eligible Hispanics outscore the average for all students in several of  the above states, including
California.

In 2007, a family of four needed to earn $20,650 to be qualified for a free lunch, $38,203 for a reduced price lunch. Nationwide, approximately 80 percent of free or reduced lunch children qualify for a free lunch. Median family income in
California , by comparison, is $64,563.

Likewise,
Florida ’s African American scores have soared since 1998; from significantly below the national average for African Americans to significantly above. In 2007, Florida ’s African American scores nearly tied the average score for all students in
California.

If Florida can maintain the current momentum,
Florida ’s African American students will have their own long list of states that they outperform. As it stands, they already score higher than the average for all students in Louisiana and
Mississippi.

Florida ’s reform record provides hope to a nation struggling to improve education and to close racial achievement gaps. Given the proper incentives, public schools can improve. Disadvantaged children can learn at levels previously thought reserved for the privileged. It now falls to current Governor Charlie Crist, who served as Florida Education Commissioner during the Jeb Bush administration, to keep these gains going.

Demography need not become destiny, in the Southwest or elsewhere. Reform minded governors must realize that the education unions fought Jeb Bush every step of the way. The prize, an education reform legacy which is the envy of the nation, was well worth the fight.

(CNSNews.com) - A ruling by a California appeals court that parents “do not have a constitutional right to home-school their children” drew harsh criticism from religious conservatives on Friday, one of whom said the decision makes tens of thousands of parents into criminals – “the equivalent to drug dealers or pick-pockets.”

“The court is guilty of an imperious assault on the rights of parents,” James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family, said in a press release responding to a three-judge panel from the 2nd District Court of Appeals, which ruled on Feb. 28 that parents without teaching credentials cannot home-school their children.

“How dare these judges have the audacity to label tens of thousands of parents as criminals – the equivalent to drug dealers or pick-pockets – because they want to raise and educate their children according to their deeply held values?” Dobson asked.

At the center of the case is a Southern California couple, Phillip and Mary Long of Lynwood, who home-schooled their children through a program at the Sunland Christian School in Sylmar. The family came to the attention of Los Angeles County social workers when one of the children claimed the father was physically abusive.

The workers then learned that all eight children in the family were home-schooled, and an attorney representing the two youngest children asked the Juvenile Dependency Court to order that they be enrolled in public or private school to protect their well-being.

Parents who fail to comply with school enrollment laws “may be subject to a criminal complaint against them, found guilty of an infraction and subject to imposition of fines or an order to complete a parent education and counseling program,” wrote Justice H. Walter Croskey, whose decision was joined by the other two members of the panel.

But the case before the judges “involved one couple – the ruling should have been confined to that one couple, not used to punish an entire class of people, the vast majority of them religious conservatives,” Dobson said.

“The scope of this decision by the appellate court is breathtaking,” said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, which describes itself as “a legal defense organization specializing in the defense of religious freedom, parental rights and other civil liberties.”

“It not only attacks traditional home-schooling, but also calls into question home- schooling through charter schools and teaching children at home via independent study through public and private schools,” Dacus noted in a press release Friday.

If the Feb. 28 decision is not reversed, “the parents of the more than 166,000 students currently receiving an education at home will be subject to criminal sanctions” if they continue to live in California, he added.

Well-meaning but gullible parents

Until now, the state allowed home schooling if parents filed paperwork to establish themselves as small, private schools, hired a credentialed tutor or enrolled their child in an independent study program run by an established school while teaching him or her at home. Enforcement was left up to local school districts with little oversight.

To receive a five-year preliminary teaching credential in California, one must have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university and pass a number of examinations.

Such requirements are supported by a number of unions – including the California Teachers Association (CTA), the state’s largest teacher’s union.

“We’re happy,” said Lloyd Porter, a member of the CTA board of directors. “We always think students should be taught by credentialed teachers, no matter what the setting.”

Another supporter of certification for home school teachers is the National Education Association (NEA). Calls seeking a response from the NEA were not returned by press time, but the organization has posted on its Web site an article written by Dave Arnold from the group’s Illinois chapter entitled, “Home Schools Run by Well-Meaning Amateurs.”

“There’s nothing like having the right person with the right experience, skills and tools to accomplish a specific task,” Arnold wrote. “Whether it is window-washing, bricklaying or designing a space station, certain jobs are best left to the pros. Formal education is one of those jobs.”

In his opinion, many home schools are run by “well-meaning but gullible parents,” including those who educate their children according to their “religious convictions” and see home-schooling as the best way to combat our nation’s “ungodly” public schools, Arnold wrote.

Those parents “would be wise to help their children and themselves by leaving the responsibility of teaching math, science, art, writing, history, geography and other subjects to those who are knowledgeable, trained and motivated to do the best job possible,” Arnold added.

Nevertheless, Dobson noted that he views the court’s decision “an all-out assault on the family, and it must be met with a concerted effort to defend parents and their children.”

“We will team with key allies and use every means at our disposal to make sure that not just every Californian, but every American, is aware of this miscarriage of justice,” Dobson said. “And we’re hopeful that, in the end, common sense and legal sanity will prevail.”

That battle may not be far off, since Phillip Long – the father in the original case – has already vowed to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.