Hey, homeschooling parents, what do you think of this idea?
The end product of this year's [Virginia] General Assembly session is making its way across the desk of Gov. Mark Warner. One bit of legislation that should never have made it through the House of Representatives, much less to the governor's office, has gotten the deep-six via the governor's veto.
House Bill 675, jointly patroned by local legislators Ben Cline and Steve Landes along with eight other Republican delegates, one Democratic senator and three Republican senators, would have abolished the requirement that parents who home-school their children possess at least a bachelor's degree...Warner, in his veto, noted correctly that while public school teachers are being expected to adhere to increasingly strict requirements, especially those imposed by the No Child Left Behind Act, loosening requirements for home-schooled children made no sense, and, in fact, were a retreat.
The governor is right. Home education should be based on standards, too, otherwise the drive to require them in public school is nothing but a sham and a means of dismantling free public education in America...
In his veto, Gov. Warner noted he had submitted a proposed amendment to the bill stating that he would be willing to entertain the notion of home-school teachers without college degrees if they had achieved a composite score on the PRAXIS I or SAT I exams not less than the ones required for beginning teachers licensed by the Board of Education. Warner also said that if a parent had achieved a score above the 50th percentile in English and mathematics on a national standardized norm-referenced test approved by the Department of Education, that would be considered suitable.
Posted by kswygert at May 25, 2004 10:24 AM