Homeschool, public schools, and online schools

I enjoyed Valerie Moon's post Cyber-charter growth and the development of virtual school programs continue. She has a great summary of some of the issues with homeschools, public schools, and just how online schools fit. This post is worth reading.

Near the start of the article Valerie has a great point: "People who don’t see the public-school-at-home genie (who is just about completely out of his bottle) as the wave of the future usually have some stake in the effects of in-home education that is legally controlled by public authorities." It is clear that more and more people are trying out homeschooling. Unfortunately more and more people in public schools are organizing to fight homeschooling.


Spunky has been blogging about many of the same issues recently. In The Online Charter Homeschool Myth she reminds us that terminology is important; we need to make sure people understand there is a difference between homeschooling and doing public school at home via an online charter school. In This Should Settle It Spunky reports that even the public school system sees children using online charter schools as public school students. And yesterday Spunky reported on Homeschooling in Germany as a warning what increasing government involvement in homeschooling might lead to.


I agree with Valerie, Spunky, and others. We need to be careful that the public doesn't confuse homeschooling with online public schools at home. One main reason for the huge decline in education at public schools has been the increasing government involvement. By educating the public on the difference we may be able to avoid a bigger battle if (or when) the government tries to impose more regulations on homeschoolers.


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