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FOR NEARLY 2 MILLION American children, the commute to school is a walk to a special corner of the house where books, art supplies, a computer, and other learning materials abound. The home-school phenomenon, which began in the 1950s with liberal parents looking for a less-rigid learning experience for their children, has swept the nation over the last two decades. Today, more than 16,000 children in Virginia participate in home education, and what was once a somewhat shadowy, quasi-legal recourse for parents dissatisfied with the public schools has become an up-front, legal, and, by all counts, successful alternative to public education.
Now, Del. Rob Bell of Albemarle County would like to make home-schooling even easier. He's introduced House Bill 675, which would allow parents with a high-school education to teach their children without further restriction. Currently, those who teach at home must have a bachelor's degree in any subject--no education courses are required. If they don't, their children must be enrolled in a state-approved correspondence course or use another approved curriculum.
But all home-schoolers must report annually to the superintendent of their local school district on their progress. This evidence of academic achievement can be in the form of standardized test results, a report from a correspondence school, or a portfolio of the student's work. In any event, by Aug. 1 of each year, a public-school official has the chance to review the progress of each home-schooled child--and presumably take action if that child's education is not moving forward.
Isn't that enough? What difference does it make what educational level the parent achieved if the child is progressing satisfactorily?
Belle Wheelan, state secretary of education, disagrees. She says changing the bachelor's-degree rule would be a "travesty." The irony of her example--she says that her own son barely squeaked through high school and "I wouldn't want him teaching any grandchildren I have. He's not qualified"--does nothing but fuel the debate. The state's top professional educator has a son who just got through school, but she wants to limit non-professional educators--who are demonstrably successful in educating their own children--because they never went to college? That's nothing but the voice of the educational establishment protecting its turf. By Ms. Wheelan's standards, "uneducated" Abraham Lincoln couldn't have taught Civil War history to his son.
Virginia's public schools do a fine job of educating thousands of youngsters. But those who choose to home-school are not opting for a second-class education. Home-schooled kids consistently score above average on the ACT and the SATs. They've been wowing the country with their success at the National Spelling Bee and the National Geography Bee. And the educational level of the parent-teacher matters little: Researchers including Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute and Larry Rudner of the University of Maryland find that high schoolers being educated at home by a parent with only a high-school diploma are still scoring 20 to 40 points above the national average on standardized tests.
Passed by the House, Del. Bell's bill almost went down in the Senate Education and Health Committee last week. It comes up for a vote again tomorrow. Spotsylvania Sen. Edd Houck could cast the deciding vote. Let's hope he recognizes the proof is in the pudding--and in those annual progress reports.
If the kids are doing well, free up the parents. As Habitat for Humanity's Millard Fuller wisely notes, "It's not your blue blood, your pedigree, or your college degree. It's what you do with your life that counts."
