An article in the Anchorage Daily News suggests that at least 1000 homeschooled children, mostly in the Bush, are being left behind.
The article admits that many homeschoolers left to their own resources in Alaska have stellar outcomes. It shows that parents with freedom to homeschool seem to have amazing outcomes with students entering college as juniors in spite of living by their own schedules and whims.
Still, the article goes on to talk about a family with 15 children who learned little more than the bible and the father’s views on religion or a girl who didn’t learn to read until the 5th grade because she and her mother had a bad relationship.
It seems the point of the article was to get the public into a consensus that oversight is needed on Alaskan homeschoolers. The article ends from a quote from a homeschooling mom who agrees that oversight is needed. “I come from a background where I really enjoy having the freedom to make curriculum choices… but I also want kids to be adequately prepared,” she says. “I find it very, very scary that you can home-school under Alaska law in a way that has very, very limited accountability.”
Looking from the outside in a Alaskan Homeschooling I am under the impression that the article is a bit slanted toward homeschool regulation. It starts out with a couple of glowing examples of homeschooling and then ends with a great big “BUT”.
What we must understand is that will be stories on both sides of the fence whether kids go to homeschool or public school. We must also remember that getting to public schools when you live in the Alaskan Bush is difficult at best and that Alaska itself has cut ties with homeschoolers in recent years. To punish good families who have managed to still increase Alaskan College enrollment through homeschooling in spite of geographical barriers and lack of government support seems unfair.
But that’s just me.
There’s got to be a way to help those families who need it without placing undue restrictions on families who are making homeschooling work for them on their own terms.
If you liked this you should also read my blogs at the home blog, the parents blog, and the frugal blog. You can read my recent posts here.
Homeschooling In Alaska – The “Forget-Me-Not” State
Problems with Alaska Charter Homeschools
Alaska Homeschool Groups and Resources A-H
Alaska Homeschool Groups and Resources I-Z