The top reasons for a family to choose alternative instruction are 1) the kid isn’t excelling and 2) bullying.
Beyond that, the data on our public school failures are well documented, though they never seem to make these types of articles about parents choosing different paths for their kids’ education.
For example, in Pierre, HALF our kids aren’t proficient in reading, math or science. And the request for a strategic plan to turn things around (even just the request to get rid of our failed balanced literacy program) has been totally ignored.
The best part? Our Pierre administrators love to cite that Pierre is better than the SD average. Lol.
Last point. I love when school administrators like Cynthia pretend like so many of these homeschool kids could be falling through the cracks (with zero evidence to prove it). And yet she never mentions the thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of kids who come to school religiously but can’t demonstrate proficiency on any of our state tests.
The stats to this point on homeschooling are awesome - congrats to everyone who worked on the ‘21 legislation to make this possible. It’s only a matter of time before the state GOP gets the courage to aggressively put an end to the failed monopoly that is public education in this state. Tick. Tock.
Schools seem to only see dollar signs when they see our kids. They certainly have not been actually educating our kids when proficiency rates are absolutely abysmal (averaging less than 50% for math, science, and grammar)...and they’re concerned about a few homeschoolers not taking standardized tests...really?! We homeschooled our two sons and gave them a far better education than the public school ever could have. Not every family is able to homeschool though and for them there should be a public school system that actually educates the child and doesn’t just try to get them to fill a seat so they can more money to pay superintendents and administrators ridiculously bloated salaries for results that should demand they get far, far less! Competition is a great thing and if this spurs the public school system to rethink their approach, that’s a great thing!
Indeed an informative article. What's missing is exactly why the kids are being exited by their parents (not the fault of the article). Because of the lack of available specific facts on why the kids are being homeschooled (if indeed they are), we are left (as apparently are the educators) to speculate on which of the possible reasons (if any) are the true reasons. It should be required that the school systems determine exactly why children are pulled from accredited public or private schooling. The information gathered should be private as to any one household's reasons, but the public needs to know the reasons in order to properly evaluate our school systems and to determine whether the kids are indeed getting as good or a better education outside established accredited schools. Proper education for children is not optional. Some people, of course, just won't agree with any oversight, but we can't as a society afford to drop the ball and let a generation slip through the cracks. As a responsible society, we need to assure that the next generation will be productive. We should not just assume that all parents are acting (or even capable of acting) both competently and responsibly in successfully educating their children. This is too important for all of us.
The legislature made it impossible for the school systems to determine exactly why children are pulled from accredited public or private schooling when they passed the legislation that allowed for only the state to be notified and to not the individual school the student is enrolled in.
The one positive thing that happened during covid shutdown is that parents found out what schools were teaching about CRT. And how public schools are failing children. We need a complete overhaul of our education system and school choice with vouchers will do that. Teachers unions should not be controlling our children’s educations. They have proven that.
The reason that I still remember the names of all my teachers in grammar school (up to 6th grade) is that each one contributed a critical mass to my later development as a human being surrounded by others...
My husband and I both work full time (3 12 hour shifts) and our kids are homeschooled, although we do participate in the public school for extracurriculars. We wrestle with our schedules and employers so we can alternate working days and be home with the kids. We are often up late and sacrifice things like date nights in order to plan and create a challenging and appropriate curriculum for our children. If we could send our kids to school instead, and know they would receive quality education without indoctrination, we likely would (though we do love having the extra time with them.) Even having the option would take some worry off our shoulders. However, in spite of the taxes we pay and our active roles in the community, we don't have that option.
Public education has been systematically and deliberately stolen from us by forces that wish to turn our children into Marxist activists instead of educating them. Does every parent have the ability to teach their kids all things they'd learn in public school? No. Some parents can only foster their childrens' creativity, encourage their curiosity, and help them love learning. But because public schools not only neglect to teach reading and math adequately, but also actively teach things that are harmful, children are STILL better off in such families than in the school system.
This is not an attack on individual teachers, many of whom care about their students and may believe that what they are doing is right. But most of our current teachers were educated in ways that push progressive beliefs over high educational standards.
Until schools fix the classroom environment by eliminating "restorative justice", stop pushing trans ideology, return to phonics and traditional mathematics, raise standards, and cease trading an area safe from school shootings for a "safe space" away from parents, more and more families will decide to homeschool. If the public schools are losing money anyway and don't like it, perhaps they should consider the harm they are incurring by enslaving themselves to the requirements of the DOE instead of educating our nation's children in an effective way.
It was only a matter of time before this idiotic idea reared it’s ugly little head again...
More than HALF our kids aren’t proficient in math, reading or science, but yes, let’s ban kids from debate, chess club, and cross country. Yeah, okay. Very inclusive of you, Franie.
Actually, the same teachers from our Classrooms are the coaches or directors of these programs , plus, the monies homeschool kids take away from Public Schools does not cover the expense you should then be paying to the Public Schools for these extracurricular programs . Possibly you could form your own Extracurricular programs. This has nothing to do with being “ inclusive” . This is now a dollar issue .
Whatever materials and time homeschooled kids use up is more than made up for in the taxes we pay and otherwise don't get any return from. I fail to see what your comment had to do with the actual point I am making, which is the disastrous and absolute derailment of public education. The situation has to change or our society won't survive. Having homeschoolers and other alternative students involved only helps to highlight that fact.
You have shared a bit of your reality - without indoctrination, eliminating "restorative justice", stop pushing trans ideology, actively teach things that are harmful - Your children will learn when they get older there is an entire world of information that was not shared with them. Restorative justice reflects the willingness to have empathy and understanding, trans people are human - that is trans ideology - Peace and kindness are not harmful - but ignorance is
I have shared my opinion, but I don't have my own reality. There is just reality, the same for all of us. Of course "trans" people are human, I don't believe in magical thinking so I know that when a human begins to identify as something other than their true sex, they don't cease to be human. They also don't cease to be their actual sex. Restorative justice says that certain children cannot be disciplined for their actions because they belong to a certain identity group. It eliminates the color blind, merit based structure that has made us the greatest society on earth-until now.
What many of these homeschool proponents fail to point out, is that the 50% of kids who are not proficient in reading, math, or science, are not the kids who will be homeschooled to improve their scores. In many cases, there are other factors in these children's lives that are affecting their school performance and they are likely not the cohort whose parents will pull them out to homeschool and turn things around.
My child attends Pierre Public Schools, and scores in the top 5-10% on the standardized tests. The public school is not failing my family. However, I personally place more weight on whether my child has actually mastered these skills, versus their ability to score well on a test. Those who define success as a score on a standardized test needs to do some more learning themselves.
In response to extracurricular participation by homeschooled children. If the school isn't getting the $7,000 per child for that student, they are under no obligation to provide extracurricular activities to homeschool families. As someone already said in these comments, it's a monetary issue. If you want to benefit from the extra services of the school district, you need to enroll in the school district. And to the arguments about we all pay our taxes so we are contributing - I contributed for years before I had children, my parents still contribute and all their children are grown, my siblings contribute yet do not have children. Those obligations do not end due to not having children enrolled in the school district - thus, homeschoolers should be in the same boat.
Hmm - What is Restorative Justice in Schools? Restorative justice is an alternative to using punishment-based approaches to school discipline and behavior management in K-12 classrooms. It focuses on repairing harm through inclusive processes that bring together students and educators. When you speak of the trans agenda you ARE dehumanizing - making less than human - you are promoting exclusion and condoning treating another person as less than human. You have not walked in their shoes - you do not know their reality anymore than someone knows your reality. "Certain identity group" not sure what you are or are not saying here - I can surmise however I will leave it to be to reveal what you are saying. Are you referring to the "color blind", merit system in South Dakota - white is right the rest are intentionally left behind? The greatest society on earth- is a propaganda statement - what makes the Unites States greater than other countries?
You obviously do not have all of the facts you need. Keep your kids home and start your own football team . You are really out of touch with our SD Public Schools and their Educators . Maybe check in with a Parochial School for these options , for extracurricular activities that would be better suited for your kids .
The top reasons for a family to choose alternative instruction are 1) the kid isn’t excelling and 2) bullying.
Beyond that, the data on our public school failures are well documented, though they never seem to make these types of articles about parents choosing different paths for their kids’ education.
For example, in Pierre, HALF our kids aren’t proficient in reading, math or science. And the request for a strategic plan to turn things around (even just the request to get rid of our failed balanced literacy program) has been totally ignored.
The best part? Our Pierre administrators love to cite that Pierre is better than the SD average. Lol.
Last point. I love when school administrators like Cynthia pretend like so many of these homeschool kids could be falling through the cracks (with zero evidence to prove it). And yet she never mentions the thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of kids who come to school religiously but can’t demonstrate proficiency on any of our state tests.
The stats to this point on homeschooling are awesome - congrats to everyone who worked on the ‘21 legislation to make this possible. It’s only a matter of time before the state GOP gets the courage to aggressively put an end to the failed monopoly that is public education in this state. Tick. Tock.
Schools seem to only see dollar signs when they see our kids. They certainly have not been actually educating our kids when proficiency rates are absolutely abysmal (averaging less than 50% for math, science, and grammar)...and they’re concerned about a few homeschoolers not taking standardized tests...really?! We homeschooled our two sons and gave them a far better education than the public school ever could have. Not every family is able to homeschool though and for them there should be a public school system that actually educates the child and doesn’t just try to get them to fill a seat so they can more money to pay superintendents and administrators ridiculously bloated salaries for results that should demand they get far, far less! Competition is a great thing and if this spurs the public school system to rethink their approach, that’s a great thing!
Indeed an informative article. What's missing is exactly why the kids are being exited by their parents (not the fault of the article). Because of the lack of available specific facts on why the kids are being homeschooled (if indeed they are), we are left (as apparently are the educators) to speculate on which of the possible reasons (if any) are the true reasons. It should be required that the school systems determine exactly why children are pulled from accredited public or private schooling. The information gathered should be private as to any one household's reasons, but the public needs to know the reasons in order to properly evaluate our school systems and to determine whether the kids are indeed getting as good or a better education outside established accredited schools. Proper education for children is not optional. Some people, of course, just won't agree with any oversight, but we can't as a society afford to drop the ball and let a generation slip through the cracks. As a responsible society, we need to assure that the next generation will be productive. We should not just assume that all parents are acting (or even capable of acting) both competently and responsibly in successfully educating their children. This is too important for all of us.
The legislature made it impossible for the school systems to determine exactly why children are pulled from accredited public or private schooling when they passed the legislation that allowed for only the state to be notified and to not the individual school the student is enrolled in.
The one positive thing that happened during covid shutdown is that parents found out what schools were teaching about CRT. And how public schools are failing children. We need a complete overhaul of our education system and school choice with vouchers will do that. Teachers unions should not be controlling our children’s educations. They have proven that.
The reason that I still remember the names of all my teachers in grammar school (up to 6th grade) is that each one contributed a critical mass to my later development as a human being surrounded by others...
BINGO!!!!!
My husband and I both work full time (3 12 hour shifts) and our kids are homeschooled, although we do participate in the public school for extracurriculars. We wrestle with our schedules and employers so we can alternate working days and be home with the kids. We are often up late and sacrifice things like date nights in order to plan and create a challenging and appropriate curriculum for our children. If we could send our kids to school instead, and know they would receive quality education without indoctrination, we likely would (though we do love having the extra time with them.) Even having the option would take some worry off our shoulders. However, in spite of the taxes we pay and our active roles in the community, we don't have that option.
Public education has been systematically and deliberately stolen from us by forces that wish to turn our children into Marxist activists instead of educating them. Does every parent have the ability to teach their kids all things they'd learn in public school? No. Some parents can only foster their childrens' creativity, encourage their curiosity, and help them love learning. But because public schools not only neglect to teach reading and math adequately, but also actively teach things that are harmful, children are STILL better off in such families than in the school system.
This is not an attack on individual teachers, many of whom care about their students and may believe that what they are doing is right. But most of our current teachers were educated in ways that push progressive beliefs over high educational standards.
Until schools fix the classroom environment by eliminating "restorative justice", stop pushing trans ideology, return to phonics and traditional mathematics, raise standards, and cease trading an area safe from school shootings for a "safe space" away from parents, more and more families will decide to homeschool. If the public schools are losing money anyway and don't like it, perhaps they should consider the harm they are incurring by enslaving themselves to the requirements of the DOE instead of educating our nation's children in an effective way.
Why then, do you expect your kids to be eligible to participate in Extracurricular activities ? They shouldn’t be allowed.
It was only a matter of time before this idiotic idea reared it’s ugly little head again...
More than HALF our kids aren’t proficient in math, reading or science, but yes, let’s ban kids from debate, chess club, and cross country. Yeah, okay. Very inclusive of you, Franie.
Actually, the same teachers from our Classrooms are the coaches or directors of these programs , plus, the monies homeschool kids take away from Public Schools does not cover the expense you should then be paying to the Public Schools for these extracurricular programs . Possibly you could form your own Extracurricular programs. This has nothing to do with being “ inclusive” . This is now a dollar issue .
Whatever materials and time homeschooled kids use up is more than made up for in the taxes we pay and otherwise don't get any return from. I fail to see what your comment had to do with the actual point I am making, which is the disastrous and absolute derailment of public education. The situation has to change or our society won't survive. Having homeschoolers and other alternative students involved only helps to highlight that fact.
You have shared a bit of your reality - without indoctrination, eliminating "restorative justice", stop pushing trans ideology, actively teach things that are harmful - Your children will learn when they get older there is an entire world of information that was not shared with them. Restorative justice reflects the willingness to have empathy and understanding, trans people are human - that is trans ideology - Peace and kindness are not harmful - but ignorance is
I have shared my opinion, but I don't have my own reality. There is just reality, the same for all of us. Of course "trans" people are human, I don't believe in magical thinking so I know that when a human begins to identify as something other than their true sex, they don't cease to be human. They also don't cease to be their actual sex. Restorative justice says that certain children cannot be disciplined for their actions because they belong to a certain identity group. It eliminates the color blind, merit based structure that has made us the greatest society on earth-until now.
Excellent informative article!
What many of these homeschool proponents fail to point out, is that the 50% of kids who are not proficient in reading, math, or science, are not the kids who will be homeschooled to improve their scores. In many cases, there are other factors in these children's lives that are affecting their school performance and they are likely not the cohort whose parents will pull them out to homeschool and turn things around.
My child attends Pierre Public Schools, and scores in the top 5-10% on the standardized tests. The public school is not failing my family. However, I personally place more weight on whether my child has actually mastered these skills, versus their ability to score well on a test. Those who define success as a score on a standardized test needs to do some more learning themselves.
In response to extracurricular participation by homeschooled children. If the school isn't getting the $7,000 per child for that student, they are under no obligation to provide extracurricular activities to homeschool families. As someone already said in these comments, it's a monetary issue. If you want to benefit from the extra services of the school district, you need to enroll in the school district. And to the arguments about we all pay our taxes so we are contributing - I contributed for years before I had children, my parents still contribute and all their children are grown, my siblings contribute yet do not have children. Those obligations do not end due to not having children enrolled in the school district - thus, homeschoolers should be in the same boat.
Hmm - What is Restorative Justice in Schools? Restorative justice is an alternative to using punishment-based approaches to school discipline and behavior management in K-12 classrooms. It focuses on repairing harm through inclusive processes that bring together students and educators. When you speak of the trans agenda you ARE dehumanizing - making less than human - you are promoting exclusion and condoning treating another person as less than human. You have not walked in their shoes - you do not know their reality anymore than someone knows your reality. "Certain identity group" not sure what you are or are not saying here - I can surmise however I will leave it to be to reveal what you are saying. Are you referring to the "color blind", merit system in South Dakota - white is right the rest are intentionally left behind? The greatest society on earth- is a propaganda statement - what makes the Unites States greater than other countries?
You obviously do not have all of the facts you need. Keep your kids home and start your own football team . You are really out of touch with our SD Public Schools and their Educators . Maybe check in with a Parochial School for these options , for extracurricular activities that would be better suited for your kids .