Homeschool Regulation

It looks like education officials in Mississippi are itching to add some regulation to that state's homeschool laws, according to this article in The Clarion-Ledger.

I live in a highly regulated state, where we must submit curriculum and year end assessments. We also have to prove via official documentation that we have legal custody of our own children if either parent has a different last name than the child.

But, hey, the state is just doing its job, right?

Mississippi, on the other hand, has no homeschooling oversight. Says one homeschooling mother, "You have free rein to teach your children what you feel like they need to learn."

But Hank Bounds, state superintendent of education, says that "free rein" also allows parents to let their children become dropouts.

He said some dropouts start with disgruntled parents who get angry with school officials and pull their kids out of school with no intention of ever schooling them.

[...]

"We realize there are situations where parents don't want to be involved; they don't want to be engaged with the school. They've had attendance officers knocking on their doors, telling parent they must get their children in school," he said at a recent news conference on dropout prevention. "They completely disengage themselves and disengage their children."

I happen to be of the school of thought that "innocent until proven guilty" means innocent until proven guilty. In other words, if the state superintendent of education wants to investigate parents when there is probably cause that there is educational neglect, he should do so.

It should not be the general rule that parents are forced to jump through a series of often ridiculous hoops to prove that they are actually homeschooling. A policy of that sort - the sort we have here in Vermont - assumes guilt, until we prove otherwise.

That goes against the very spirit of our system of law. Not to mention that it takes time away from what I am here to do, which is educate my children.