HEADS UP: MISSISSIPPI
The chief edu-crat wants to “verify” that home educating parents really are:
Mississippi’s school chief said he wants homeschooling organizations to help craft ways to ensure homeschooled students are truly being educated.
State Superintendent of Education Hank Bounds called some situations “child abuse.â€
“We want you to enjoy the freedom you have for homeschooling,†he said.
“But you must realize we all have this moral and ethical responsibility to deal with those situations where clearly it’s nothing more than a child abuse situation when parents pull their children out of school, say they’re being homeschooled just because parents … don’t want to be involved in the education of their children,†he said.
Jeanne, Natalie– time to rally the troops.
10 Responses to “HEADS UP: MISSISSIPPI”
![]() Comment by Nance Confer November 18th, 2006 at 10:36 am |
LOL — they don’t even know how many kids are being hsed. How are they going to “verify” anything? Nance |
![]() Comment by Tammy Takahashi November 18th, 2006 at 11:07 am |
Ah right! Makes SO much sense… since the school system is so successful at making sure that none of their kids are being “abused” by “not getting an education”. And since all the parents who send their kids to school are so obviously doing so because they want to be involved in their children’s education. Isn’t that kind of like sending your children to live with relatives so that you can be involved in raising them? Bah. |
![]() Comment by Carolyn Smith November 18th, 2006 at 6:08 pm |
Don’t Mississippi schools rank somewhere near the bottom? (correct me if I am wrong-thought I heard that somewhere). So I would think most parents truly concerned about their children’s education would think of homeschooling or private school with such dismal schools. So shouldn’t these educrats be focusing then on the problems they have within their schools? Or is this just an attempt to focus attention somewhere else…—-Carolyn |
![]() Comment by Jeanne November 18th, 2006 at 6:14 pm |
I see that Natalie has already posted this to the Mississippi PEAK homeschooling list. Having moved back to Virginia, I can’t do much other than spread the word, which I will do. It’s odd; Mississippi is at the bottom of sooo many lists having to do with education. However, in my opinion, it’s one of the top places to homeschool in the country — but additional “scrutiny” could threaten that bright spot. I would love to see a “top states to homeschool in” list developed and publicized. Among the things to be considered: legal atmosphere/freedom, curfews, museum availability/policies, etc. Perhaps if we presented the governors of these states with “Homeschool Appreciation Banners,” officials there would be a little less eager to ruin their state’s positive reputation for being a “good homeschool state” with unwarranted “scrutiny” of parents who are taking direct responsibility for their children’s education. |
![]() Comment by Daryl Cobranchi November 18th, 2006 at 8:01 pm |
Jeanne, Sorry– I’d forgotten about the VA move. As for your suggestion, sounds interesting. Of course everyone’s going to think their state has some of the best museums/activities 🙂 |
![]() Comment by Natalie November 18th, 2006 at 8:51 pm |
Hi Daryl and folks, I came across this last night after hearing that JT and Dave (a local talk show) mentioned it on the air. Lo and behold, that article had appeared in the Clearly Lying (er, Clarion Ledger) that very day. VPS passed and was signed into law earlier this year. My theory is that Bounds (State Super) is using child abuse to inflame and gain support. I believe his true aim is to route homeschoolers into the state’s new VPS program. And you all are echoing a lot of our concerns; namely, with such a dismal reputation, why don’t they clean up their own backyard and leave us alone? IAATM |
![]() Comment by Christine G November 18th, 2006 at 10:32 pm |
“parents pull their children out of school, say they’re being homeschooled just because parents … don’t want to be involved in the education of their children,†That is completely bass ackwards thinking. |
![]() Comment by Alasandra November 19th, 2006 at 10:10 am |
I am very concerned about this. Thanks for the post Daryl, the more people who are aware of the situation the better. |
![]() Comment by JJ Ross November 20th, 2006 at 9:24 am |
Frames, data, quotes, arguments etc to mine –free from commercial, religious or political spin — are still open for reading (just not commenting) here and particularly here. |
![]() Comment by COD November 20th, 2006 at 2:00 pm |
Somewhere in my comments I’ve got a hysterical comment from somebody defending PA as a great place to homeschool. The ranking could be an interesting project. Hopefully it’ll get farther than the infamous homeschool wiki at my site 😉 |