NC home schools to get public money, taxpayer money.

[madfloridian]

Here is an article from Mother Jones about this. I can only imagine what these vouchers will do to the public school system as far as draining their resources.

Please note that a home school is only required to have a teacher with a high school education. Talk about lowering standards?

North Carolina Home Schools to Get Public School Money

In July, the increasingly right-wing legislature in North Carolina passed a bill to divert $10 million from the public school budget to create vouchers that would give low-income students up to $4,200 a year to pay for private school tuition. Such vouchers are a popular conservative proposal for "reforming" failing public schools.

North Carolina's vouchers, which will become available in 2014, allow public money to go to unregulated private schools that are not required to meet any educational or teacher preparation standards. In addition, thanks to the way the law was written, the money will be available to "home schools"—literally schools set up in someone's house. Homeschooling traditionally has been done by parents. But the state recently changed its home schooling law to allow people who aren't parents or legal guardians educate kids in a group setting. The only requirement for such schools is that the teacher have a high school diploma, that the school keep immunization and attendance records on its students, and that it give kids a national standardized test every year.

NC Policy Watch, a project of the nonprofit North Carolina Justice Center, went out and found some interesting "home schools" that may be eligible for taxpayer funding next year. The Paramount Christian Academy has one teacher who teaches her granddaughter, a neighbor's kid, and one special-needs student. It uses textbooks from Bob Jones University and A Beka Book, whose offerings we've chronicled here at Mother Jones.

As Deanna Pan explained last year, such instructional materials teach Bible-based "facts"—such as the existence of the Loch Ness Monster. The materials also suggest that the Ku Klux Klan "tried to be a means of reform, fighting the decline in morality and using the symbol of the cross" and that dinosaurs and humans lived at the same time, for instance. Gay people are singled out for special scorn in one Bob Jones teachers' guide, which says that they "have no more claims to special rights than child molesters or rapists." And math haters—these books are for you.

The reformers want to make the public schools better, they say. Yet they are pushing ideas like this which will weaken public schools by having their resources taken away. These precious resources will be given to private religious schools and home schools with lowered requirements for teachers and almost no standards for the students.

Just as we are entering the intense stages of Common Core with not enough funding to handle it, people with high school educations are being paid to educate their children at home with no required standards.

There are excellent home schools going on in this country. I had several home schooled students enter my 4th-6th grade classes. They were usually outstanding students. But they did not get taxpayer money to do it, they paid for it themselves. That is how it should be.

This is a very strange era for education. Standards are being lowered while it it claimed they are being raised. It's like the "reforms" are moving ahead with defunding public schools and public school teachers who don't have the money to stop them. And these public school advocates are without powerful voices to get people to stop and listen.

[slw75]

1. That's nothing

Check out this one:

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/12/15/3463202/nc-schools-deal-with-fewer-dollars.html

I'm really scared to have my son entering NC school soon.

[madfloridian]

10. It's a shame.

Schools without text books that are up to date. We always got new texts every 4 or 5 years. Except that by the time I retired the big map in my room still showed the Soviet Union. I kept ordering a new map, but the school couldn't afford it anymore.

[blkmusclmachine]

2. This is the plan to help blow-up Public Schools. And this plan radiates from the White House down.

[madrchsod]

4. once you unleash the dogs of war they never come back

duncan was the worse secretary of education ever. he never went to a public school and he sent his kids to a 25,000 or so a year private school.

remember the president and friends never went to a tax payer funded public school.

[madfloridian]

8. Yes, it does.

From the top down.

[marmar]

3. Jesus, Maria y Josef.

[madrchsod]

5. dam even i could get a job at my age....

hell i have 90 some college credits...of crap, i might be over qualified

[madfloridian]

7. What did you just say?

If you said what I think you said...then it does not deserve an answer.

[mountain grammy]

9. With few exceptions (like health) I think home schooling should be illegal.

[madfloridian]

11. At the least have higher requirements, and no public money.

I have seen some good work being done in home schools, but it is just wrong to take money from public schools for it.

There have been horror tales of the FL McKay corporate vouchers for those who are disabled or handicapped. Unqualified people have opened schools, gotten state money, and then found to be in horrible condition. These vouchers I believe do at times go to home school.

[madfloridian]

12. Largely unregulated...

http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2013/10/29/school-voucher-program-for-students-with-disabilities-begins-accepting-applications/

The NC State Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA) began accepting applications on October 1 for the Special Education Scholarship Grants for Children with Disabilities program. As of last week, the NCSEAA has received 248 applications submitted by parents wishing to receive $3,000 in taxpayer funds per semester for their special needs children to attend private and home schools in the state.

“We will begin notifying parents of their award status right around November 15,” said Elizabeth McDuffie, Director of Grants, Training and Outreach for the NCSEAA. Those who are awarded the grants will receive reimbursement checks to apply toward tuition, fees and other related expenses incurred for the spring 2014 semester. The program should be able to accommodate roughly 875 students, depending on award amounts.

Private and home schools in North Carolina are largely unregulated, but they do have to comply with minimal state regulations, including providing evidence of fire and safety inspections, immunization records and standardized test results. The Division of Non-Public Education (DNPE) publishes annually a list of private and home schools that are in compliance with state law.

Yet getting money from the taxpayers.