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Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Home schooled kids should not be able to partake in public school services and activities.

Let me ask you a couple questions.

Should a parent that chooses to home school their child be able to come up to their neighborhood books and take a set of books, or a computer, or a roll of toilet paper, box of pens or even an eraser. Should they be able to drop off their kid for lunch and breakfast? Should they expect a paraprofessional to cover the class when they have to go to the bathroom?  Should the public school provide a sub when the home school parent is sick or has appointments they need to take a day off to run?

I don’t think they should.

Likewise I don’t think parents that choose to home school their children and it is a choice, nobody is forced to home school, should be able to drop their kids off for clubs, extracurricular activities or even sports. Those quite often are not considered when taking kids out but in a lot of ways are just as important as reading wring and arithmetic.

Some make the argument that they are paying taxes and should be able to take advantages of the things offered. I think this is a terrible argument and misses the big picture. Public schools are not here to benefit one child or one family, they are here to benefit all of us whether we have children or not and that is why we all contribute to their upkeep. Families that don’t have children who have no need for school services are not exempt from chipping in because of it.

So yes home school families do pay taxes and thank you for your contributions but I believe that if you opt your student out which is your right, it should mean you opt out of everything not the few things you might like or want.  

There is a bill working its way through the Florida legislature which allow home school, charter school and even private school kids more access to the services that public schools provide and it’s a horrible bill that steals resources from those families that are in public schools which by the way despite their warts as a group are by far the best thing going.

2 comments:

  1. I think it is a great idea to allow home-school students the opportunity to use services at the public school. Yes it is a choice to home-school your child and we do pay taxes to keep them schools running, the children fed (free/reduced lunch) and the teachers paid. But what most home-school disagree on, is the curriculum the schools provide. Which some parents choose a Bible based curriculum that a public school can not provide. Home-school children attending a public school for social activities has nothing to do with curriculum. Another point, why would we have to opt out of the whole public school, when there is some benefit that we as tax payers are paying for anyway. That is like being an oxy-moron, paying for something but you are not using it. Also I am starting to wonder, whomever wrote this, has any children.....

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  2. What about all the families, tax payers that don't have children or who have graduated? Lets just ignore them and subsidize the few that have decided to opt out of public schools? No public schools and all they provide should just be for public school kids. Home schooling is a choice, pay for your own services and activities.

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