Senators Molly Baumgardner and Beverly Gossage and Representatives Chris Croft and Rebecca Schmoe gave disparaging comments about public schools and promoted homeschooling and preventing any oversight of homeschools at a recent event which the Kansas City Star addressed. We’d also like to know if any of them have seen “Shiny Happy People” on Netflix.
“I have nothing against either home schooling or faith-based schools like the Catholic elementary school and three Catholic universities I’m grateful to have attended. But I never thought that the state should pay for that education.
“And I do hear comments that ‘we do it so wrong in the classroom,’ where students are supposedly seen as ‘just numbers” as both unfair and all too common from those whose actions, even more than their words, say that they do not oppose the privatization of public education.’
Here’s more:
“Schmoe reportedly told the group that when she was a paraeducator in public schools, ‘the accountability in how the money was being spent was nonexistent. You guys are doing it right. Your kids are not just numbers in a formula to get more funding.’ That’s almost funny, as unlike public schools it’s home schools that are unregulated. So the state isn’t tracking whether or to what extent ‘you guys are doing it right.’ And the blanket indictment that public schools see students as ‘just numbers’ is a calumny against the hardworking educators who see many state lawmakers trying harder to defund than to defend them.
“She ‘urged parents to stay updated on current efforts in the Legislature to make all-day kindergarten mandatory in Kansas and provide pre-K or ‘tiny K’ classes for ages 3 and up,’ the story said. And Baumgardner promised, the piece went on to say, to oppose any effort to mandate the home visits that would provide oversight for home-schooled children.
“All four lawmakers, the story in the Lion said, ‘discussed how more public school students are failing basic academic standards.’
“Baumgardner told me she is not familiar with the Herzog publication, The Lion, had not had a chance to read the story I’d sent her about the home schooling event and would never say such a thing about public schools: ‘I have never said public schools are failing and I never will.’
“She said she does support public schools, but ‘I always will support a parent’s choice’ and does not see those things as in competition, though they certainly can be.
“The vouchers and education savings accounts that Baumgardner supports would not, she said, impact the public schools from which home school students withdrew, because the school district would still get that funding for the following two years. But eventually, serving fewer students would cost the district, right? ‘Eventually, the money goes away,’ she said, ‘but the expense for the child is no longer there.’
“In rural districts in particular, even the loss of a small number of students can be devastating…
“Gossage, a former teacher who left her classroom job to home-school her son to help him overcome his dyslexia, reportedly told the group that she had to come up with her own lesson plans because ‘we do it so wrong in the classroom. Thank you for home-schooling your children.’
“Gossage is 73, so this was presumably decades ago, at a time when all special needs were less well understood than they are today. But it is true that special education is not currently fully funded by the state in Kansas, which means that districts have to cover the difference themselves, at the expense of other programs. And this is money that could otherwise be spent on hiring more teachers.
“Croft, who has a daughter who home-schools, ‘encouraged home-schoolers to surround themselves in a community around a legislator ‘champion’ and start sharing their ideas and thoughts now before the legislative session starts’…
“But what’s surprising to me is that Kansas schools, after being underfunded for years under former Gov. Sam Brownback, are doing as well as they are: Kansas is actually one of only six states where ACT scores held steady last year, even as nationally, scores declined more steeply than in a decade….
“Why do home-schooled students not deserve the same oversight and protections that kids in more traditional settings have?
“Croft said, ‘I don’t think this is an issue of wanting no oversight, but instead wanting the government to work for the people, not against them. Our home-schooled children are widely succeeding in education and career, and their families have some really innovative ideas to foster that success. … I certainly don’t want to take action that could get in the way or favor one style of home schooling over another. Parents know what’s best for their children, it’s not the job of the legislature to direct the upbringing of their children when these students are performing very well.’
“Unfortunately, all parents do not know what’s best; in 2021, according to the National Children’s Alliance, 77% of abused children in this country were hurt by a parent. This does not implicate home-schoolers any more than other parents, but abusers do tend to isolate their victims.
“Baumgardner harshly criticized public schools for using online learning during the pandemic, and in 2021 supported the ‘Back to School Act’ requiring schools to discontinue online instruction.
“But online learning is the primary learning methodology for the home school and private microschools she supports, so why is that different?
Read the full op-ed from the KC Star here: https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/melinda-henneberger/article278913404.html?fbclid=IwAR2PdMcJSavSdPFbQi3rjvR6RsGOBHuuP5tcr–Ni_CQbMY18lgMuZA8XIU
Originally posted on Facebook on Sept. 5th, 2023