Archive for January, 2008

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Poll bodes ill for Nevada schools, group says

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

“Carson City – A survey concluding that only a small percentage of Nevada residents would send their children to public schools if they had other options was called a warning to educational leaders that the state public education system is not meeting the needs of parents or their children.

Just 11 percent of Nevada residents who responded to a recent survey on educational issues said they would send their children to public school if they had the freedom to choose any available option, according to the survey of 1,000 Nevada residents for the Nevada Policy Research Institute and the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice that was released Tuesday.

Nearly half of respondents, 48 percent, would choose a private school, 23 percent would select a charter school and 15 percent would opt for home schooling. Three percent chose a virtual school for their children.”

For the complete article see:

http://www.lvrj.com/news/14900886.html

Posted in Nevada | No Comments »

Extracurricular activity bill heads to Senate

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

“Over the continued objections of the Utah High School Activities Association, the Senate Education Committee pushed forward a bill that would define how home school students can participate in public school sports.

While home-schoolers can participate on approval of specific districts, Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Eagle Mountain, has said he is concerned that hostile districts would limit a student’s participation, and thus the need for statewide legislation.On Monday, Madsen offered an amendment to the bill that addresses eligibility concerns. That includes anyone with disciplinary problems in public schools who would try and withdraw, only to come back as a home-schooler. The bill would now require those students to clear up any problems first.

That wasn’t enough for Mark Van Wagoner of the Utah High School Activities Association. Because home school students already can participate in activities on approval of districts, he sees the bill as something more.

“What we have here is an argument about, I believe, parent rights,” Van Wagoner said.

By proposing state law about home schooling kids in public school settings, he said Madsen was also creating a special class of student.

“It gives a special exception for a parent to judge the academic progress of their students for participation in (public) school,” he said.

Van Wagoner was opposed by Paul Mero, president of the conservative Sutherland Institute.

“I, for one, take umbrage at that sort of legal sophistry and obstructionism. The issue of home school academic eligibility was settled long ago and correctly,” he said. …”

To read the entire text please visit:

http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/253152/17/

Posted in Extra Curricular Activities, Utah, athletics | No Comments »

Dropout age, smoking ban among issues for debate in ‘08

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

“The Iowa Legislature is now in its third week of the 2008 session, and some bills are starting to move through the committee process. Much of our focus will be on preparing a balanced and thoughtful budget. Yet there are also many other issues which we’ll be asked to consider.

Several of these issues are resulting in a variety of e-mail messages to me. The first is changing the compulsory school attendance age. Current Iowa law requires students to be enrolled in school to the age of 16. House File 2039 would raise that age to 18. This would apply to school districts, accredited nonpublic schools and students receiving competent private instruction (home schooling)…”

For the complete text visit:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008801290347

Posted in Iowa | No Comments »

Home-schoolers take to the court

Monday, January 28th, 2008

“It looks like any other high school basketball practice.

Players dribble around chairs, run sprints and scrimmage. They shoot, they dribble, they pass. Nothing out of the ordinary, really, until the coach needs to summon a couple of his players. He wanders over to a door on the side of the court, and pulls them out of class.

It’s one of the few traditional ones they’ve been in all day.

This practice belongs to the Vicksburg Warriors, Warren County’s newest basketball team. Made up entirely of home-schooled children, they have a dozen players on the roster and are about to wrap up their inaugural season in the first Mississippi Home School Tournament Saturday in Jackson…

The team was the brainchild of Storey, who has home-schooled six of his seven of his children over the last 10 years. A Vicksburg native, Storey was living in Virginia when his son Byron got involved with a team of home-schoolers. When the family moved back to Vicksburg in 2006, a group of home-school families were interested in starting some sort of organized sport.

Home-school families choose to teach their children at home, rather than send them to public or private schools. Parents who opt for home schooling believe the less-structured, more intimate teaching environment allows their children to better grasp material. Some groups of home school families have traditional classes for certain subjects — like the small Latin class Storey pulled his players out of — but the usual setting is a one-on-one or family environment.”

For the complete story visit:

http://www.vicksburgpost.com/articles/2008/01/28/sports/sports01.txt

Posted in Extra Curricular Activities, Mississippi, athletics | No Comments »

5 questions with Charles Webb

Thursday, January 24th, 2008

“The Graduate, Charles Webb’s 1963 debut novel, became a classic 1967 movie. Webb discussed his new sequel, Home Schooling, with USA TODAY:

1. Why now? It was to round out my career in fiction and tie up the loose ends that I went back to the original fictional characters I had created……

4. Isthe home schooling that Benjamin and Elaine do for their boys like what you did in real life? The methods in the novel are identical to those we used with our own sons. Sadly, it seems the religious right has hijacked this movement since then.”

For the complete article read here:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2008-01-23-webb_N.htm?csp=34

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Bill would change home-schooled students’ access to activities

Thursday, January 24th, 2008

“Mark Madsen didn’t go so far as to name a bill after Tim Tebow, but when a home schooled kid from Florida can win the Heisman Trophy, he said perhaps it’s time to allow all home school kids into extracurricular activities.

The Eagle Mountain senator defended his bill on Thursday in the Senate’s Education Committee, arguing against the charge that parents would home school their children for the sole purpose of being able to hide academic progress while still getting them into sports.Madsen called that idea one of the “potential little horribles” thought up by opponents that research doesn’t back.

“Somehow every parent is suspect and a closet perjurer ready to abandon their honor so that their kids can participate in extracurricular activities,” he said.

The time for being suspicious of home school parents is over, he said, as similar bills are popping up across the country and the home schooling population grows and becomes more legitimized.

But the eligibility question wouldn’t go away on Thursday from both sides of the aisle. Sens. Patricia Jones and Ross Romero, both D-Salt Salt Lake City, said they are willing to support a bill if it includes third party tracking of academics. Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, agreed. The bill will be held in committee until changes can be made.

Mark Van Wagoner of the Utah High School Activities Association said he couldn’t support the bill either. An attorney, he said he’s “seen parents suddenly forget the facts they once knew when their child had a chance to play on the basketball team. If they are cheating, how do we catch them?” ”

 To read this article visit:

http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/252848/17/

Posted in Extra Curricular Activities, Utah | No Comments »

Fast-spreading autism steals children away

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

“….My grandson, Benjamin, was diagnosed with the most severe form of autism at an early age. His mother and father, out of necessity, designed their own program for their son because professional intervention is very costly.

They mimicked to a certain extent the teaching program recognized by the American Autism Society and kept their son in intense, structured, homemade therapy sessions seven days a week.

He is now six years old, and has responded to his parents’ home schooling program they choose to call behavior modification. We believe early intervention was the key that opened the door.

Their principles have worked for them, patiently taking one baby step at a time, “building skills upon one another like a pyramid,” according to his mother.

Our family has had so much success with the homemade program that others are knocking on the door asking for the secret. Our heartache has been eased with time as we see progress day by day. Doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center agree that the program has been successful for Benjamin, who has a high IQ.

At six years old, he can read the encyclopedia; he does 9th-grade math and his art works hangs in the Kennedy Art Center in Nashville. He is a blossoming musician.

I relate this story to encourage parents and grandparents of other autistic children; it takes grit and determination, as well as ingenuity. ”

To read the complete story please go to:

http://www.kentucky.com/589/story/292137.html

Posted in Kentucky, Special Needs | No Comments »

Teen building his own electric vehicles

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

“He’s finished one, so why not convert a second?

Andrew Angellotti spent nine months and about $6,000 to buy and transform his gasoline-powered 1988 Mazda B2200 pickup into an electric vehicle. Now he’s doing the same with a 1992 Toyota Tercel.

And, by the way, he’s 17.

“I think alternative energy is very important in our future,” said Andrew, who is homeschooled. “I just wanted to get the word out that electric vehicles are possible.”

Andrew said he was 14 when got the idea to convert a vehicle after reading about it on the Internet.

He started his project in August 2006 — using his own money to buy parts on eBay and over the Internet — and finished it in May 2007.

Out went the gasoline engine, the gas tank and exhaust. In went an electric motor, adapter plate connecting the motor and transmission, a control system, battery charger and 20 golf cart batteries (four are under the hood and 16 are in the pickup bed).”

For complete story read:

http://blog.mlive.com/flintjournal/newsnow/2008/01/teen_building_his_own_electric.html

Posted in Michigan | No Comments »

Top school has vacancies

Sunday, January 20th, 2008

“Here’s an unexpected scenario:

A top-ranking southern Mecklenburg public school with a good reputation — normally the formula that produces an overcrowded school — has open seats and could use more students for next year.

That’s the case at Crestdale Middle School in Matthews, a formerly overcrowded school in the midst of an unusual cycle, said Scott McCully, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools executive director for student placement…

There’s room for 22 more kids each in the sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade levels, McCully said. Families who aren’t satisfied with their child’s 2008-09 school assignment and who live in Crestdale’s green transportation zone in the eastern region, can apply through 10 p.m. on Jan. 31. If there are more applicants than seats, the district will hold a lottery.

A situation such as Crestdale’s might cause debate over whether it was built in the right location, whether CMS officials projected population growth correctly, or whether it’s evidence that more families are choosing private and home-schooling options instead of the public school system.”

To read the complete article visit:

http://www.topix.net/content/kri/2008/01/top-school-has-vacancies

Posted in North Carolina | No Comments »

Daytime Curfew

Friday, January 18th, 2008

“The Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services gave the city a two hundred and thirty thousand dollar grant , so that more officers will be patrolling city streets.

Police say students need to be in school or at home between the hours of 9:30 AM and 1:30 PM. Kids caught breaking the daytime or nighttime curfews will be arrested, because police say truancy often leads youngsters to commit crimes or other unwanted juvenile behaviors.

Chief Jimmy Hughes, of Youngstown Police Department, says parents of the students can also be cited, and even face jail time, if their kids are caught on the streets when they should be in school.

The crackdown started on Tuesday and already police say they’ve cited ten kids for truancy.”

Link to the article online:

http://www.wytv.com/news/local/13841092.html

Posted in Curfew, Ohio | No Comments »

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