Michael Hawks (not his real name) has wanted to become a firefighter all of his life. After years of involvement with the junior version of the local fire brigade, it was time for him to take the classes he would need as a firefighter. But at 16 years of age, his high school was not willing to allow him to take the courses at the local community college. So he left the public high school and enrolled in a private school that would. This June, at 18 years of age, he will turn out as a firefighter, on his way to becoming a paramedic.
Cory Page (also not his real name) is a child actor enrolled in the private school. He does commercials and background work while also attending the same community college. Every semester the private school vouches for his attendance, enabling him to pursue both career and classes.
The students cited above attend what is known in homeschooling parlance as an “umbrella,” which vouches for their attendance in a private school while allowing them to pursue a course of study that serves their needs. The school is building a close relationship through a “bridge” program with the community college. The college provides diagnostic testing that goes beyond the state exit exam, proficiency support (remedial classes), talent and interest mentoring, and dozens of career certificates besides the A. S. and A. A. degrees. Teenagers who have lost faith in the school system attend a school that considers them to be the client of a service provider, one that can turn a once- compulsory attendee into an active educational consumer.
These and other individually homeschooled students may be, in the future, unable to pursue their dreams if a California state appeals court ruling that severely restricts homeschooling is allowed to stand. Students will be required to prove seat-time attendance; teachers will be required to have credentials. That would leave students in a system which The Pacific Research Institute, a San Francisco-based free market think tank, recently awarded 11 Ds and Fs out of 17 grades, and concluded the education situation is “quite dismal.”
This challenge to choice is not going unanswered. The Homeschool Association of California and the California Homeschool Network have both “lawyered up,” with Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, which is headquartered in Palo Alto, representing HSC, and Baker & McKenzie, which has 150 offices around the world and in Palo Alto, working with CHN.
The data says that children in California schools are not doing well, and that homeschooled children do better. As the owner of a private school, which is classified as a homeschool under this decision, I am of the opinion that the values-laden attitude of a judge that says all children belong in a seat, in a room, in those same brick-and-mortar schools is arrogant and elitist. Will data trump values? Tune in next week.
TM Willemse is the owner of a private school in California.
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