Ramsey Says He’d Put A Home Schooler On The Board Of Ed
Posted on August 21, 2009 at 8:45 amThe Lt. Gov. doubles down on the conservatism:
Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey (R-Blountville) today announced that he will appoint a home school advocate to the Tennessee State Board of Education if elected Governor. Over 60,000 students are schooled at home in Tennessee but they have never had representation on the State Board of Education.
“A growing number of Tennessee parents are choosing to home school their children and it is time they had representation on the State Board of Education,” said Lt. Governor Ramsey. “The decision to home school gives parents control in how their children are educated. As a rule, home schooled Tennesseans are well-educated and important members of their communities - it’s time the state recognizes and honors that positive contribution.”
“Parental choice and innovation are the keys to improving education in our state,” Lt. Governor Ramsey said. “A successful education infrastructure should have thriving public and private schools, charter schools, church-related schools and home schooled students. Every child is unique and should have the opportunity to find the best educational fit for their learning style.”
Ramsey said as Governor his mission for the State Board of Education would be to improve educational outcomes for Tennesseans across the board and not just to represent any one school type. “The state’s obligation is to children and not to bureaucracies, the education establishment, or to interest groups. I will focus my education reform efforts on innovations that are measured in better outcomes for students.”
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25 Responses to “Ramsey Says He’d Put A Home Schooler On The Board Of Ed”
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Mama sayz I be a hih skuul gradeuate
Not all home-schooling families are conservative. In fact, growth has been rapid among liberal and secular families.
In 2007, the U.S. Dept. of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics reported survey data indicating two-thirds of families who home-school chose to do so primarily because of the failure of public education, while only one third cited religious reasons as their primary reason.
Link: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009030
Related Blog Post: http://muddlehood.homeschooljournal.net/2009/08/08/heathen-liberals-do-it-too/
Democrats who attack home-schooling are doing the bidding of their teachers union puppetmasters, but are offending a lot of their own voters.
Home-schooling is nearly as mainstream as private schooling - and as ideologically, religiously and political diverse.
?
Where is A?
Well it is about time
Here it is.
Ohhhhh!!! The socialists ain’t gonna vote for him now!
Glad you are here, A. Was worried about you.
After Haslam wins the primary, he should adopt this policy.
Just when you think they have run out of stupid ideas, up comes this one! Home schoolers obviously do not want to participate in public schools so why should they have ANY say in what policies those schools should follow??? Good thing that Ramsey has a slim to none chance of being elected.
Homeschoolers are not ALLOWED to participate in the state of Tennessee. In Florida Tim Tebow was homeschooled but played for the local team. Homeschoolers pay taxes too.
Bold move by Ramsey. Good policy and good politics.
Martin Kennedy yep and they pay the same taxes for the Athletic programs at all these schools as all other families.
Homeschoolers are better educated and save the School system 1000s of Dollars every year. They pay the taxes to support the school services and never consume any of the value of the services.
“Homeschoolers are better educated”
Prove it. And by prove it I don’t mean take the state average and beat it. Prove it comparing a home school education to those of college bound public school students. Find me one set of parents who have a reasonably good background (say at least an undergradute minor) in english, history, mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, AND economics, etc. etc. You can’t. They don’t exist. So to just throw out worthless statements like “homeschoolers are better educated” doesn’t really add to the debate. Now if you’d like to start the debate asserting that one or more of those subject areas isn’t really important to you and your family and it really doesn’t matter that neither mom or dad are subject matter experts in every subject needed for school - then thats fine. But once you make that argument - you can’t then rightfully compare a home school education to a regular one.
ERIC Identifier: ED480468
Publication Date: 2003
Author: Wood, Patricia
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education
Homeschooling and Higher Education. ERIC Digest.
And according to Rudner (1999), achievement test scores of homeschooled students are high. The students’ average scores were typicality in the 70th to 80th percentile, with 25% of homeschool students enrolled one or more grades above their age-level peers in public and private schools. Christopher Klicka, Senior Counsel for the Home School Legal Defense Association, reports that homeschoolers tend to score above the national average on both the SAT and ACT, the primary tests used by colleges in evaluating college applicants. A study of 2219 students who reported their homeschooled status on the SAT in 1999 showed that these students scored an average of 1083–67 points above the national average of 1016; similarly, the 3616 homeschooled students who took the ACT scored an average of 22.7–1.7 points above the national average of 21 (Klicka, 2002).
yes they are better educated.
“A study of 2219 students who reported their homeschooled status”
Self-reporting scores is a valid basis for a statistical model? Especially when reported by the “Home School Legal Defense Association.” There were only 3616 homeschooled students across the nation who took the ACT?
Here is the real issue. You wanna homeschool your kid - great! Want national acceptance of homeschooling standards? outstanding. Accept standardized testing and accreditation of homeschool students work. Put a system in place where there is independent, reliable verification that students are learning what their parents are saying their kids are learing. I’m going to have doubts about someone’s educational background if they didn’t go to an accredited school. That doesn’t mean one can’t get a good education from an unaccredited school. It means that the educational program at the school hasn’t been verified by a trusted authority. There are bright students with dedicated parents homeschooling their kids. They are probably going to do very well on the ACT and SAT. Ramsey and the homeschooling activists are trying to force public acceptance of every homeschool diploma issued by any parent or two-bit umbrella assocation who says their kid graduated from high school. Ronald Reagan said it best - “trust - but verify.”
Drawing anecdotes from limited SAT and ACT samples - which are only designed to predict ability to handle college level work and aren’t designed to test for competency in all high school subjects - is still meaningless.
The reality is that homeschool associations and many homeschool parents actively resist such measures as a reliable accredidation program. Some feel that by having an accredited program would mean they would have to teach their kid evolution. Yes - there are some legit umbrella groups that do hold parents and homeschool students to high standards. Great! Then set up a legitimate accredidation program for them so I can believe the diplomas that come out of their inkjets.
We disagree with B.
Tell ya what - those homeschool kids can spell. They are always in the mix in the late rounds of the National Spelling Bee. Of course, at the National Spelling Bee, they don’t ask the kids how old the earth is, so it’s probably not an accurate representation of the totality of their education.
B,
The average ACT score from some metro Nashville schools is 16. What are your fellow citizens to believe with respect to diplomas that shoot out of the districts’ inkjets?
B..
Really are you saying that University of Maryland studies are incorrect.
Wait.. this study was conducted by A STATE SCHOOL, not a home school association.
Wow even a State Run University has proven Home schooled are better educated.
OPPS B. Your Bias is dangling out of your Hanes.
Scholastic Achievement and Demographic Characteristics
of Home School Students in 1998
Lawrence M. Rudner
ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation
College of Library and Information Services
University of Maryland, College Park
Hmmm.. I guess homeschoolers are better educated.
Infact if you read the complete study you will learn that homeschoolers graduate with their 4 year degree in 3.5 Years on average.
Public Schooled 6.1 years,.
Why you ask.. Homeschooled dont need remedial courses.
B, those aren’t self-reported numbers. When you take the SAT and ACT, it lets you indicate if you were a home-schooled student. The homeschoolers are taking the same test, and scoring better! There’s no interpretative spin on the numbers, it’s as simple as that. I was never homeschooled, but I will agree that most of my friends who were homeschooled learned more in school than I did in public schools. Having said that, I’m not sure the government should be funding the homeschool agenda, and I don’t know why a homeschooler would care to have input on what the state does in public schools.
UH OH B your Hypothisis is proving to be incorrect.
Which one? My hypothesis that the SAT and ACT are not high school comprehensive exams? My inclination that there were, contrary to the study above, probably more that 3616 homeschoolers nationwide that took the ACT last year? My hypothesis that without any standards or accredidation system - there is no reliable way to measure the value of a homeschool student’s education? My hypothesis that very few parents are really qualified to teach each and every subject in a typical high school curriculum?
Are there advantages to homeschooling? There certainly can be. Individualized attention. The student being able to focus time on specific areas, etc. etc. That is the decision you get to make as a parent. Namely whether those benefits for your kid outweigh the fact that the rest of the world can legitimately question the rigor of your kid’s education. Why? Because one homeschooling parent can’t legitimately take credit for how well other homeschooling parents teach their kids.
We agree on that B, that there can be advantages to homeschooling. If that is the case why not try to “mainstsream” it? Why not provide incentives in some cases? It saves taxpayer money. I think it encourages what is called “life-long learning.” Why not have a homeschooler on the state board?
There are myriad types of homeschoolers. Some want nothing to do with the state. Others want to work with districts and even alternate their homeschooing arrangements.
We homeschool, not all our children, under the MNPS umbrella so they get tested through MNPS, but we get no access to any activities.
Can you see that homeschoolers become defensive when they are approached with a particular posture?
Ron Ramsey is right when he says that parental choice and innovation are key. Is that such a controversial statement?
I’ll add that from my observation, of many homeschoolers, that if, especially in the early years, you turn off the TV, provide books, legos, a reasonably quiet environment, and a math worksheet each day with some instruction on writing… you can’t screw it up.