A Virus 'Side Effect': Homeschooling
  
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced public schools will be closed for the rest of the academic year due to the coronavirus. More mayors and governors will likely make similar announcements, if they have not already done so.

Rather than look upon this as a negative, I suspect some parents are enjoying new relationships with their children that full-time work and day care did not allow. This new bonding experience could lead some to continue the practice of educating their children at home once this crisis has passed and public schools reopen.

At a March 27 Coronavirus White House briefing, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said: “Distance learning is happening. States like New Hampshire and Florida have implemented phased and tiered approaches to meet the needs of students in their states. Other schools and states are implementing creative approaches and working through practical realities to help students continue learning.”

Responding to suggestions that not all children can be reached because they lack internet access, DeVos added: “In remote Colorado mountain towns without internet connectivity, teachers are putting weekly learning packets together and they’re holding office hours by phone to help their students when they’re stuck.

South Carolina is deploying 3,000 buses with mobile Wi-Fi hotspots to help kids in remote areas access learning that way.”

On March 30, Ireland’s RTE television network began showing “Home School Hub,” a one-hour program that homebound primary school children “will be able to watch, download and engage with curriculum-based content, project work, and fun activities that will keep them entertained and learning.”

Some parents might find learning at home to be beneficial beyond additional bonding with their children. Concerns about what is taught in public schools — from sex education, to incomplete or even biased views of American history, as well as their failure to uphold moral and spiritual principles (and in some cases undermining them) have made home schooling attractive to growing numbers of parents.

According to National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI), “There are about 2.5 million home school students in grades K-12 in the United States…It appears that the home school population is continuing to grow (at an estimated 2 percent to 8 percent per annum over the past few years).”

The United States is not the only country in which home education is increasingly popular. NHERI reports: “…other nations (e.g., Australia, Canada, France, Hungary, Japan, Kenya, Russia, Mexico, South Korea, Thailand, and the United Kingdom) have also seen increases in home schooling. It says home education cuts across virtually all demographic lines and not just conservative Christians. These additionally include, "libertarians, and liberals; low, middle, and high-income families; black, Hispanic, and white; parents with Ph.D.s, GEDs, and no high-school diplomas.”

A study by Noel, Stark, & Redford (2013) found that “32 percent of homeschool students are Black, Asian, Hispanic, and others (i.e., not White/non-Hispanic).”

The first public school in what was to become the United States was established on April 23, 1635, by Philemon Pormont, a Puritan settler. While for boys only, it was thought at the time that instilling religion and the Bible were essential to a well-rounded education. That was true until the 20th century when court decisions, not the popular will, outlawed collective prayer and Bible reading.

Public education remains the single biggest monopoly in America. Most politicians, with exceptions in some states, won’t allow school choice because they fear the wrath of teachers unions and the loss of campaign contributions.

For those who are able, homeschooling is becoming an attractive option. In that sense, the coronavirus might be a blessing in disguise.

SOURCE 





School Choice Legislation Update

You may not be surprised to learn that teacher unions and their political stooges are using the Coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to mount a vicious attack against school choice.

Yet, sadly, that’s exactly what is happening.

The opportunism of “Big Ed” and these special interest groups is despicable, while the country (and the world) deals with the socioeconomic fallout from COVID-19.

With your support, Heartland will fight back against this blatant disregard for America’s students.

One of the most powerful weapons we have in this battle is Heartland’s Child Safety Accounts (CSA) program, which allow students to change schools if they are victims of bullying or violence.

We have had many conversations with legislators from both sides of the aisle who are interested in enacting CSAs in their states to increase school choice options.

Shockingly, teacher unions have declared war on CSAs—and almost any other type of school choice program—pushing hard behind the scenes to undermine school choice initiatives in many states.

Reports are coming in that coronavirus is the excuse du jour, but you and I know their real intention is to force America’s children into failing government schools.

Here are two major threats I think you should be well aware of:

Tennessee lawmakers are questioning if the Volunteer State can follow through with the massive school choice program it adopted last year. This program came on the heels of Heartland’s legislative testimony in the state. This year, Heartland also sent Tennessee-specific recommendations on CSAs to all legislators in the state.

Utah’s legislature passed a bill to expand education options for children with special needs, but Gov. Herbert recently vetoed it. Our Government Relations team believes this bill would have been a shoe-in under normal circumstances. But we are not living under normal circumstances.
 
Although times seem dire, there definitely is light at the end of the tunnel. Indeed, our CSA program is the beacon of light that will outshine the darkness that government schools have shrouded upon our education system.

We will continue to promote CSAs, along with other school choice programs, to policymakers throughout the country. But we can’t do it without the help of freedom-loving people like you.

If Tennessee and Utah continue on this path, it could set a very dangerous precedent that other states likely will follow.

Via email from dhoyt@heartland.org





Coronavirus Australia: Mass exodus of older teachers and pregnant women likely to be enforced

A mass exodus of older teachers aged over 60 and pregnant women from the nation’s schools is likely to be enforced for the next six months under a back-to-school plan being considered by political leaders.

As the national cabinet meets today to consider a battle plan to make schools safer for teachers, the Prime Minister has ramped up his call for teachers to return to the classroom.

But the push will come with some conditions, including guarantees that at-risk teachers can work from home, free COVID-19 tests for educators, more soap and hand sanitiser and a phased return to classes.

The ban on at-risk teachers may include pregnant women, over 60s and even teachers aged over 50 with asthma and heart disease, who will be encouraged to work from home.

But it could also spark teacher shortages with up to one in five teachers likely to be in an at-risk category.

Federal and state officials have told news.com.au mandatory temperature checks had not been proposed in official health advice to national cabinet.

Futuristic handheld scanners were deployed across Singapore in recent months allowing for contact-free temperature checks in schools and for classes to remain open.

That prompted calls for similar checks in Australia. But officials don’t believe it’s an option here. One reason is that young children’s temperature can often spike when dropped off by parents and childcare and preschool.

“It is fraught. Only non-contact laser type thermometers would even be considered from a health perspective and finding more than 2000 for every school in Queensland would be a challenge,’’ Queensland Teachers Union president Kevin Bates said.

“Singapore was checking every child and have still had to move to close schools as infection rates got out of control. Many of our members would like it but we would probably prefer to rely on parents monitoring their children’s health and not sending their children to school if unwell.”

After cases spiked again this month, Singapore has now joined Australia in effectively closing schools.

Mr Bates said teachers remained frustrated with the mixed messages that large gatherings were safe for schools but not for adults who were banned from eating in restaurants and pubs.

“What we have heard over and over again is that kids don’t give it to other kids and that’s great. But what about teachers?’’ he said.

“Our concern is that schools could become hot spots for the spread of the disease.”

When school returns on Monday in Queensland, COVID-19 safety rules will require a ratio of just 12 students to each teacher to allow for social distancing.

But Victoria is standing firm that it will not consider any return to classes until at least July 12.

“My advice to the Victorian Government was and continues to be that to slow the spread of coronavirus, schools should undertake remote learning for term two,’’ Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton said.

“This is because having around a million children and their parents in closer contact with each other, teachers and other support staff has the potential to increase cases of coronavirus not just in schools but across the community.

“Schools are not ‘dangerous places’ and parents should feel comfortable sending their kids to school – if they need to. But the mix of onsite and off-site learning supports better physical distancing overall, reducing risk as we drive new cases down. As risk changes, we’ll reassess.”

Teachers and parents remain sharply divided over whether it is safe to return children to classrooms.

According to a news.com.au survey with more than 40,000 respondents, 44 per cent of parents believed it was safe to return to school while 56 per cent disagreed.

Scott Morrison revealed this week he would send his two daughters Abigail and Lily back to school in a “heartbeat” if they were going to be taught by teachers, complaining the distance learning model was “childminding”, not education.

The Prime Minister’s daughters have relocated with his wife Jenny to live the Lodge in Canberra during the COVID-19 crisis so he can attend daily briefings with heath officials and staff.

But the PM said he would not send his kids back to their Sydney private school until it went beyond “looking at a screen”.

“I kept my kids in school till the last week because they weren’t getting taught in school in that last week, they were looking at a screen. That’s not teaching; that’s child minding,” he told 6PR radio.

“It isn’t just about that kids can go along and sit in a hall and be minded; we want them to get educated.

“We’re on school holidays in NSW so the kids are at home but I’d have them back in a heartbeat if they were getting taught at school. At the moment we’re lucky they can have a learning environment at home.”

SOURCE