Why are public schools so afraid of Homeschooling?

Question

Is it the government money they don't get because the teacher can't add a student to the attendence sheet?

Answer 1

That may be part of the reason, but I would never want to lump the whole system together. There are some wonderful public schools out there, with committed and caring teachers and faculty.

I believe that a lot of the "fear" you mention is more a fear of the unknown. To a public educator, it may not make sense to "mess with" a system that seems to be working for them and their students. For others it may be taken as a personal offense that it seems to others they are uncapable of doing their job.

I think a better understanding of what homeschooling really looks like and is able to accomplish for students and for our country on a whole ( producing well rounded, well educated, involved citizens) is a key to help relinquish some of these flames of fear or misunderstanding.

I believe it is up to each family and the parents of that family to make wise, informed choices for our children and as a community to work together to raise and educate the next generation. If that is public school for some , Christian school for others, and homeschooling for the rest~ GREAT!

I would love to see us all work together and not against one another to see this accomplished!

Humbly submitted,
Homeschooling Mom ( university educated) to 5 with one more on the way :-)

Answer 2

After my divorce last year I moved to the town with the best school system in the state. The teachers, administration, and school board are all very supportive of homeschooling. Many parents in this town homeschool one child, and publicly educate the other (based on the individual children's needs). Some parents are on a 1/2 and 1/2 plan, school half time, and home school half time. People in the community who find out my son is homeschooled are all positive, including public school teachers, including the teachers in whose classrooms I volunteer (teaching science and helping/tutoring students individually)

LAST yr, I lived in the city with some of the WORST schools in the state, our district being the worst in the city. The principal and teachers were all very against homeschooling, even loudly chiding me in public upon finding out I homeschool my son. The schools there remain unwilling to provide any kind of services to homeschoolers, or accept services (like volunteers) from among homeschooling families.

So I guess my guess is that ego has something to do with it; in the town where ALL the kids do really well, they do not feel intimidated by homeschoolers and their success. Economics has something to do with it; here, the schools have plenty of money, and homeschoolers don't "take away" needed money.

Funny thing is that HERE, I would be willing to send my son to school if he wanted to go. In the old place I wouldn't have even considered the public schools as an appropriate place.

Answer 3

First to dispel Kenneth's falsification: Teachers do not HAVE to have a Master's degree to teach. Most teachers receive their Master's degree because we, as teachers, are required to take classes at our own expense (and it increases your pay to have a higher degree).
As for greed, I don't know if that is to viable either. Sure the public schools are given money based on a formula that is related to the number of students in school on a given day. However, I guarantee that I sure would not have minded having fewer kids in class! Public schools are overwhelmed with students and no where to put them. This is partly because of money and partly because of administrative neglect. I have had classes as big as 53 for high school classes that are required. My middle school classes averaged 34. Those numbers make it impossible to give students the attention they need even staying after school to help!
As an educator I am not against home schooling as long as the parent is qualified to teach (that does not mean college educated!). Home schooling takes time, money, and patience! Time is the one that usually gets parents the fastest (especially inner-city parents) because of work schedules and such. The best thing to do is team up with friends or a church support group so you can each support the education of your children. I also suggest that a parent who wants to home school takes a class in curriculum just so they understand the process of developing a curriculum so they can better evaluate what they are using to teach their children.

Teachers do not have to be certified and many private schools that are highly successful do not use certified teachers instead they look at what the teacher has done, their philosophy, their dedication, their education, and past success. I am not sure public education works everywhere but it does work in some places. If you choose home schooling just do so carefully and be wise about your decision do not jump into it out of frustration.

Good Luck!

Answer 4

you specifically asked why the public schools themselves are afraid of home schooling, so I will address that first.
a) Most districts I am familar with, Detroit, Warren Consolidted, Redford, don't have any fear to waste. They are struggling to reduce drop-out rates and raise test scores
b) of the districts that I know that could be afraid of HS, it would be an ego crusher (AGAIN, I find myself agreeing with Glurpy!!!)
c) the HS students and parents are (at least the ones on this discussion board) talented and prepared to get involved. Every school wants families like that. And they also appear to be 2 parent households, with some adult staying home, and have a computer, so materially, they appear rather blessed
I believe its the public in general that is insulted by home schoolers, IMO HSing is a better-than attitude, smacks of a superiority complex. If there is anything to fear from the HS movement is that more child abuse will occur under the guise of HSing

Answer 5

I would say that it's for the money. Homeschooled families still pay taxes, but it's not that same as the so much per head that the school gets from the government.

Also, the powers that be are afraid of kids coming up that can think for themselves.

Answer 6

public schools are afraid of homeschooling because it works so much better and efficiently than public schooling. anytime you put government, with the red tape and "process", in charge of anything you can bet money it is going to lag behind the private sector. think i'm wrong, look at the post office... ups is spanking it all over the world because the post office is run inefficiently with tremendous overhead and managment costs while ups is run efficiently, ala the priveat sector.
public schooling is no different, the powers that be have decided to force an agenda into public schooling that promotes more social driven agendas and home schools promote academic agendas. since the goal of schools is supposed to be academia, public schools are getting throttled in sat scores every year. hence the fear they have for the home school agenda.
for those who think i have been smoking my socks, pick up a public school text book and try to find "any"thing about u.s. history that contains more than a passing thought. i have a freshman in high school and I, not the school system, am teaching him about the greatness of this countrys past while the school system is teaching him spanish and world culture courses. i have no problem teaching a global studies course in ththis time of global econony. but in an eight hour school day we seem to be sacraficing "the constitution" and "bill of rights" not to mention the the reasons for the revolutionary and civil wars, all to satisfy some politians need to include social and economic priorities in thier stump speech.

for anyone having trouble with my punctuation or capitalization... i graduated public school. 'nuff said

Answer 7

They lose money for every student that is no longer enrolled

Their incompetence is clearly shown by the success that homeschooled students are having. I read where even homeschooled kids whose parents did not have a high school diploma do better than public schooled kids

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53622

Answer 8

Public Schools get funding for every child attending the school every day. That is why so many schools have cracked down on absentism. They also get so much money for lunches, breakfasts, books and misc. supplies. Not to mention, teachers, aids, and other employees.

Answer 9

Because the school systems recieve money from the state for every student. Also this is why the schools are getting strict on truancy. Everyday a student misses school they dont recieve money for that day. It always comes back too money.

Answer 10

The problem is that educators are fed the lie that teaching requires some kind of special qualification (other than knowledge of the subject). The truth is that the only qualification is that you know, or can gain access to, the information required and that your motivation is to prepare your student for life.

They are also concerned about the almighty socialization question because our society sends the message that having good social skills means conforming to social norms (ie giving into peer pressure on most issues)