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Home school vs public school has become an issue recently, and specifically tax payers paying for home school thanks to Rick Santorum. From the comments many of the home school threads have been getting there is some confusion over terms and what is and is not homeschool. I'm going to cover these definitions from a legal standpoint, though even that is difficult as legalities vary from state to state. Some states allow home schoolers to utilize public school services without taking away the home school protections and lack of tax payer funded status, others do not. In some areas it varies even from district to district. First though I’m going to deal with the Rick Santorum myth.
For three years Rick Santorum claimed to be home schooling his children in Pennsylvania while not even living in Pennsylvania. The bill for this was picked up by the state for his children to attend the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School. There are a couple of problems with this. First, if he was not living in PA at the time, his children should not have been registered there and PA should not have paid anything. Secondly, a public cyber charter school is not the same as home school. It’s a public (tax payer funded) school that happens to occur online. Since 2006, according to Salon.com, his children have been registered as home schooling in Virginia.
Now for some definitions over the jump.
Essentially Homeschooling is by definition when a parent or guardian oversees their child’s education instead of sending them to a public or private school. Homeschooling is parent guided education, though there are several ways it can be accomplished. They can purchase curriculum from companies directly, they can design their own, they can use unit studies, but it rarely looks like curriculum from a traditional brick and mortar school. Methods and philosophies of home schooling vary greatly from family to family and even from child to child, to fit with the capabilities and needs of the individual students. Unschooling is, for regulation issues, included in home schooling, though the Unschooling philosophy is guided by the child with the help of the parent. Regulation of home schooling varies greatly from State to State but is legal in all 50 States of the US.
A Charter School is a tax supported school granted by a charter between a granting body and an outside group (usually teachers and/or parents) to achieve set goals. Charter school regulation varies also from state to state and they are rarely held to the same standards as traditional public schools. These are still within the Public school system however, and your tax dollars go to fund these.
A Virtual School can be public or private and student services and courses are done online. Children who go to a Virtual School may learn at home, but they are not home schooled because the curriculum is not parent guided, it’s guided by the institution itself. Some of these are funded by tax dollars, others are funded by private tuition. There is usually no government regulation of virtual schools.
An Umbrella School is a home school association designed to assist parents who are home schooling their children by providing assistance fulfilling State educational requirements. These are not tax funded schools. Umbrella schools often provide report cards, keep attendance records, assist with curriculum, and provide student ID cards. Some states require homeschoolers to operate under an Umbrella School.
School at home or Alternative Learning Experience (ALE) programs do include learning at home but under the direct oversight of a public school, such is used when a child is too ill to attend school, or is using a state sponsored virtual school. ALE can also include children who attend traditional school a few days a week but perform most of their school work at home. As these fall under the Public School system, they are tax funded. Often ALE programs are confused with home schooling.
Public or Traditional School is a brick and mortar school run by the state with a set curriculum and students divided by age/grade run by school boards and funded by public tax dollars. This is what most people think of when they think of “school”.
Private School is also a brick and mortar building, but these are funded by private groups and through tuition paid by parents. They are run by a private group rather than the government and are not regulated by the State. Private schools often follow a certain philosophy or religion.
I will admit I do not know the regulations for home schooling in every State. I do belong to several home schooling groups, however, and I know of no instance where home schooling, legally home schooling, is funded by tax payer dollars. If a family identifies as a homeschooling family, whether they use public funds, virtual schools, private programs, or none of the above, we at Education Alternatives consider them homeschooling families as well. As individuals, we have differences of opinion about this concept, but as fellow members of a community, we respect each other's choices.
Rick Santorum can say he was home schooling his children in Pennsylvania all he likes, it doesn’t change the fact that legally his children were enrolled in a public virtual school NOT home school. Unfortunately, Rick Santorum’s claims have caused a lot of confusion and uproar both here and nationally about what home schooling is and how it is funded. However, in the spirit of not falling for Republican Spin, I present to you the definitions of what home schooling is, and the facts of what actually occurred per Rick Santorum’s family. Now that we are all on the same page with definitions and what is and is not publically funded, perhaps we can have a better discussion on how home schooling can be a progressive act without being sidetracked by misunderstandings of terms.