[cfgeeks] IAIT (It's an Inscoe Thing...)

[Karen Hill]

Speaking of the band thing...checked out his MySpace.  They sound really good.  Hope to see something come of it for them...


----- Original Message ----
From: Kevin P. Inscoe <kevin at inscoe.org>
To: Central Florida Geeks <cfgeeks at mail.cfgeeks.org>
Sent: Monday, March 12, 2007 4:16:52 PM
Subject: Re: [cfgeeks] IAIT (It's an Inscoe Thing...)


On Mon Mar 12, 2007 at 12:05:56PM -0700, Karen Hill wrote:
> Hey Kevin,
> 
> Weren't your kids home schooled?  What's your opinion on the below?

One was K-12 and is now a Pharmacist Assistant (oh and a band), one who has a
learning disability (public screwl until 9th grade) and finally one who is
public screwl and in the gifted program..

> From Home Education Foundation:
> http://www.flhef.org
> ______________________________
> 
> Dear Leaders,
> 
> This is long, but I asked several people to help me cut it down. All
> of them said it was important information, so please persevere and
> read it all.
> 
> Many of you may have received an alert or had a friend forward the
> HSLDA alert to you this week regarding HB 799 (SB 2822) -- K-8

Used to be a member of the Home School Legal Defence Fund but have not been
in many years now so don't get the newsletters any longer.

> Virtual School Programs. To eliminate confusion at the outset, the
> Florida Virtual School s. 1002.37 F.S. and the K-8 Virtual School
> Program s.1002.415 F.S. are different. The K-8 Virtual School Program
> is for Kindergarten through 8th grade public school students. Two
> different state-approved private vendors, The Connection Academy and
> The Florida Virtual School Academy (formerly the K-8 Academy founded
> by Bill Bennett) provide students with a computer and curriculum for
> which the private schools receive about $5200 per year. The K-8
> Virtual Schools are considered public schools and students are fully
> enrolled in this program and have to take the FCAT. The Florida
> Virtual School http://www.flvs.net is an online public school, serves
> grades 7-12, offers courses on a course by course basis and serves
> home education, private school and public school students free of
> charge. HB 799/SB 2822 will not affect the FLVS.

Ok a thing about Florida's Virtual Schools. Yes we went though this and in
the end gave up. You see FLVS is NOT a curriculum. In fact it isn't even an a
school. All they do is allow you to take *some* classes virtually but you
still have to find a local teacher, register with the county, and find most
of your curriculum else where. It is handy if for say your kid breaks an arm
or is laid up for a long period of time or for some reason can't come to the
classroom in person but useless if the reason you are doing this in the first
place *is* the curriculum. Soo we went with the default route by registering
with the county and paying a *registered* teacher friend to grade the work
yearly to make the state and county happy. 

http://www.hslda.org/laws/default.asp?State=FL


Ok having said that...

> HEF is aware of HB 799 and SB 2822, has been in touch with committee
> staff and will be working with the bill sponsors on this issue. HB
> 799 will be heard in Education Innovation and Career Preparation on
> Tuesday. The bill is one of the Speaker's "100 Ideas" and is a
> leadership bill. HEF looks at bills very carefully before deciding
> to oppose a bill, especially if it is a leadership bill. We may need
> to have these same people help us when something is proposed that
> will adversely affect home educators. We need to be very careful and
> contemplative about our position and actions. HEF likes to take a
> more friendly approach to legislation than starting with the phone
> blitz. I know there will be some changes to this bill as it goes
> through the process, so opposing it now is NOT the right time, even
> if we do oppose it later.
> 
> Also, after carefully thinking through this bill and the arguments in
> the HSLDA alert, I want to give you some more food for thought.
> 
> HSLDA states in their alert that they are opposed to virtual schools
> for the following reasons:
> 
> "Much freedom is lost as the homeschool movement slowly becomes
> secularized. If your child is enrolled in one of these virtual
> schools, the following occurs: (1) your children become public school
> students; (2) your homeschool must use a secular public school

yes.

> curriculum; (3) you must be supervised by a certified teacher from
> the public school; (4) your children must be tested with the state
> assessment; and (5) your house is open to home visits by school
> officials and possibly social workers.

yes but we are already anyway.

> These programs pose a danger, particularly because early statistics
> show that 80% of those who first enroll in a virtual school were
> previously homeschoolers."

I don't think this changes anything.

> Every family registered with the county is NOT a "true" home educator.

BWAHAHAHAHA! Please don't make me laugh!

> While the HSLDA reasons may be valid, there is another side to this
> issue. Florida has many parents who use the home education program
> for a variety of reasons; many of which are not good. They may be
> trying to escape truancy charges, their child may refuse to go to
> school, the child or parent had a disagreement with the teacher or
> administration, school safety, illness and the list goes on. You, as
> leaders, have heard them all. HEF does not consider those
> parents "true" home educators, although they may become one.

Well excuse the heck outta me but some of those are perfectly valid reasons!
Maybe I don't like the bonehead who someone chose to principal the screwl
*someone* chose for me. What options do I have? This comes across as "high
and mighty" only *we* the religious screwl organization can be the one true
eduma-cator. Uh-huhh...

> Many home education leaders have complained to me about these
> families and asked what can be done to make sure they are
> not "abusing" the home education law. HSLDA members are screened and

Why are you worried about this?? No Child Left Behind fixes this (as much as
I disagree with it and it's a joke). You can't get a diploma unless you are
with a private FS 102.55 accredited school, go through the school board or
get a GED. End of story...

> K-8 Virtual School enrollment makes the student a public school
> student.

Yes exactly. What sets this apart from FLVS is the assignment timelines. In
FLVS you have a year to complete assignments in FLVA you have something like
several days just like real screwl. in FLVS also you have email
correspondence with the instructor wheras in FLVA you call them on the phone
or in some cases even online chat and video conferencing. 

> Thirdly, parents who would withdraw their child from a home education
> program to enroll in the K-8 Virtual School would most likely put
> their child back into public school sooner or later. Leaders see
> these parents all the time. They only plan to home educate for one
> year or possibly two; they want you to tell them where to pick up
> their curriculum and where they can drop off their child. Most of
> these parents have the public school mentality and want someone else
> to do the work for them. How many times has the school district home
> education contact said to you, "Oh, it isn't the home educators like

That probably true.

> HEF looks at this a little differently than HSLDA. I believe that
> these virtual schools can make believers out of public school
> parents. I have seen parents of special needs children who left the
> public school system on a McKay Scholarship give up thousands of
> dollars of government dollars to enroll in a home education program
> because they saw the benefit to their child. They would have never
> decided to home educate without first seeing the results. We may
> lose some families to the public school options, but we may gain
> others who will be true believers in the benefits of home education.

Probably true again.

> Is this homeschooling?
> The Florida Virtual Academy is a public school program. It is not
> homeschooling. FLVA provides another high-quality education option
> for your family. FLVA will be the right option for many, but

Again FLVA is just home based virtual public screwl. Probably good for home
bound and laid up students, etc..


> certainly not all, families. Because it is a public school program,
> parents who enroll their students in FLVA can disenroll at any time
> if they are not satisfied with the program. We believe that families
> should be able to choose the program they feel is most appropriate
> for their child's education-and that they should be able to choose
> public schools, private schools, homeschooling, or virtual schools.
> FLVA seeks to be one more option to help you obtain the best possible
> education for your children.
> 
> HEF is NOT opposing HB 799 (K-8 Virtual School Program) and ask you
> not to for the following reasons:

I dunno have to read the legislation to see what it would mean to home
schoolers particularly religious ones. HSLDA does have a slight tendency to
be alrmist but just have to see what the fuss is all about.

-- 
Kevin P. Inscoe                       Amateur Radio Call Sign: KE3VIN
Deltona, FL 32738                                28.9497N by 81.1952W
kevin [at] inscoe [dot] org                    http://kevininscoe.com
GPG 0x61288D53
"The mysteries of the Universe are revealed when you break stuff." 
- Coop, Megas XLR
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