Utterly Meaningless

I read this article too. I don’t get your last statement

And all non-Christian home educators will be interested to learn that they apparently prefer to see homeschoolers dependent on the state.

Here’s the line from the article, As Christians, they prefer to see homeschoolers totally independent of the state when it comes to the education of their children

Whose the “they” in your sentence that prefers homeschoolers to be totally dependent on the state?

“They” equals “all non-Christian home educators.” The “As Christians” implies a bit of exclusivity, no?

My point was the clause “As Christians” was completely unnecessary. Why not just start the sentence with “They prefer…”?

Of course, the point he failed to address is that if the state provided the funds with no restrictions on curriculum choices, an equal percentage of his high and mighty Christian homeschoolers would jump on the taxpayer funded gravy train.

Sorry Daryl, but that’s all old news from where I sit: in Alaska. Sam makes some good points, but misses the boat on several important ones. For instance, Anchorage has been a very up-to-date, cosmopolitan city for 30-40 years now. Hardly the backwoods burg he tries to paint it just emerging from. But I digress…

He also misses the boat by targeting the IDEA program – it’s only one of many, many such programs up here, and they’re so popular that most Alaskans equate homeschooling with attending a cyber charter school. Independent homeschooling is outside the norm in Alaska, which is pretty sad, becuase Alaska has one of the best homeschooling laws in the country:
homeed...a.html

SB 134 passed unanimously both Houses of the Alaska Legislature in April, 1997 and became law on September 2, 1997. SB 134 adds an exemption to the Compulsory Education Law in statute allowing children to be homeschooled by a parent or guardian. No strings attached. The text of the bill (now law) follows:

BASIS Text for CSSB 134(HES)
SB 134 SO134B

“An Act relating to home schooling for elementary and secondary students.”
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:
*Section 1. AS 14.30.010(b) is amended by adding a new paragraph to read:
(12) is being educated in the child’s home by a parent or legal guardian.

When these programs first got started Mark and I held meetings and attended meetings and tried hard to prevent their taking hold up here, but to no avail. People like what these programs offer, and bona fide homeschooling is in grave danger in this state.

And Chris is right – the only thing keeping many Christian homeschoolers from taking advantage of the programs is HSLDA’s position on charter schools. But from the discussions on state homeschooling lists here, I think the majority of families enrolled are still Christian.

And you’re right too, Daryl. Charter/cyberschools spread to many other states a long time ago.

Well, I find this to be an interesting article. Helen, I appreciated your comments above. It looks like we may very well be moving to Alaska late next year, and I was happy to see what the laws are up there. Any guess what programs we WON’T be enrolling in???

Good! I’ve been working toward another attempt to encourage resistance to the “Programs,” and we’ll need all the help we can get up here…