The problem was that her son asked teachers questions they couldn't answer and made them cry.
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http://www.kentuckyconnect.com/heraldleader/news/082501/hstatedocs/25homes chool.htm
Published Saturday, August 25, 2001, in the Herald-Leader
Thousands leaving public school behind
By Linda B. Blackford
HERALD-LEADER EDUCATION WRITER
Judy Mortkowitz, a longtime public school teacher, didn't plan on home
schooling her children.
She was asked to -- by a Fayette County school official who said her oldest
son, Jody, was having trouble in middle school.
Was it bad grades or fighting? she asked. No. The problem was that her son
asked teachers questions they couldn't answer and made them cry. Would she
consider home schooling him instead?
Mortkowitz would and did.
Jody, 25, went to college and is now a successful freelance author and
artist.
Now, Judy Mortkowitz is home schooling her two younger children and seeing
more and more parents join her ranks, parents who are dissatisfied with
traditional schools and want to strike out on their own.
In the past year alone, the number of home-schooled students in Kentucky has
surged to 12,491, a 21 percent increase from 1999.
``I think more and more people are hearing about it, and home schoolers grow
up and turn out well, winning national academic competitions on a fairly
regular basis,'' said Michael Fogler, a Lexington musician and writer who
has home schooled his 13-year-old son for eight years.
But the home-schooling boom in Kentucky may reignite the debate over whether
home schools need some kind of oversight to make sure home school is about
school and not about dodging truancy charges.
Unlike surrounding states, Kentucky has very lax laws regarding home
schools, requiring little more of parents than registering their children
and opening their paperwork to state officials if needed.
``It's terrible, and it's worse where we come from,'' said state Rep.
Barbara Colter, R-Manchester, who tried to pass home-school legislation in
1998. ``I'm not worried about the good home schools, but we are one of the
only states that allows anybody or anything to educate a child. If the
mother can't read, how can she teach?''
Reasons behind the boom
Parents give a variety of reasons for choosing to teach their kids at home.
``We want our children to explore and grow, we want them to know how to
think and not what to think, and we can do that with home schooling,''
Mortkowitz said.
Fogler wanted a more flexible atmosphere for his son.
``It was sort of to get away from the grading, ranking, tracking and
competing that go on in schools,'' he said. ``I wanted to see how it would
work to let the child point to his interests and follow that a little more.
I think there's a lot of cases of personalities who just don't fit well the
school model, sitting still at a desk.''
Julie Ervin of Paris wanted her four sons to have a more religious education
than they could get in public schools, and Catholic schools were beyond the
family's budget.
The older boys now work from correspondence classes, and Ervin and her
husband monitor their progress year by year to make sure they want to
continue. The boys work for four hours a day, then go to activities like
piano lessons or 4-H meetings.
``We really like what we're seeing with their progress,'' she said.
Untold numbers
The number of home-school students now make up about 2 percent of Kentucky's
school population, but that figure might be even higher. Home-school numbers
are reported by local school districts, which keep records of students who
leave public school to be educated privately or at home. So if a student has
never enrolled in public or private schools, a district won't know the
student exists.
The number of home schools has also jumped around the nation. In 1994, the
federal government estimated the number of students at 345,000; by 1999, it
was 850,000. But the Home School Legal Defense Association in Purcellville,
Va., puts it closer to 1.5 million home-schooled students nationwide.
Louie Hammons, director of pupil personnel for Garrard County, says the
increased interest in home schools means more parents are interested in
doing it the right way. But there are still parents who use home school as
an excuse to dodge truancy charges, and there are people who offer to home
school their children without ever having finished themselves.
``There are good home schools, and there are people who abuse it,'' he said.
In 1998, legislators attempted to pass laws that would require more
oversight of home schools, like testing home-school students annually -- but
they were defeated by the perceived political might of several statewide
Christian and home-schooling groups.
Colter, who battled the home-school groups in 1998, says she's preparing a
new bill for the 2002 session that will try to curb abuses. Her bill would
require home-school students to be tested and registered, as well as make
sure the educator is educated.
The two largest home-school groups, the Christian Home Educators of Kentucky
and the Kentucky Home Educator Association, have consistently opposed any
attempts to regulate home schools.
But in 1997, the two groups agreed to work with local districts on a set of
``best practices'' to identify problem home schools.
For example, if a parent decided to start home schooling his or her child
the day before the child was brought up on truancy charges, then the groups
agreed that a director of pupil personnel should check that home school,
even though that's not standard practice.
Nearby states, like Tennessee, Ohio and West Virginia, have some
requirements for home-school teachers; although in some states, it's only a
GED. Twenty-six states nationwide require regular testing of home-school
students.
Parents like Fogler say they understand there are abuses in home schooling,
but they think regulation attempts will lead to too much interference from
the state.
``The problem is then they'll have some kind of notion about what we're
supposed to do about education,'' Fogler said. ``The education level of the
parents doesn't make any difference -- what does make a difference is that
the parent is thoughtful and serious about home schooling.''
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