Kelly Flynn is wrong on home-schooling issue; It’s not odd, it’s about opportunity, says Flint Journal guest writer Ed Tate.

Retired state Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Levin stated that "Home-school has a very long and honorable tradition." Levin was the chief justice for the DeJong case, which established the legal right to home school in Michigan. On July 20, 2008, The Flint Journal published a column by Kelly Flynn titled "Home schooling should be a choice — however odd." Her conclusions that home schooling is "odd" and that Michigan should put more legislation in place are wrong.

Ms. Flynn stated that "home schooling is an odd choice when I look at the bounty offered in the public school system."

However, well over one million home schoolers disagree with her. The US Census Bureau estimates 86 percent of home schoolers report dissatisfactory academic environment or instruction as one of the reasons they home school. While home schooling is not for every family, the public education system is not for others. The pioneers in home schooling risked fines and imprisonment for this freedom.

Home schooling is pursued for many reasons. The majority of families who home school are solidly middle-class. Most are a two-parent household with a stay-at-home parent.

More of the story…

A bill to amend 1976 PA 451, entitled "The revised school code," by amending sections 1561 and 1578 (MCL 380.1561 and 380.1578), section 1561 as amended by 1996 PA 339.

Sec. 1561. (1) Except as otherwise provided in this section, every parent, guardian, or other person in this state having control and charge of a child from the age of 6 to the child’s sixteenth birthday shall send that child to a public school during the entire school year. The child’s attendance shall be continuous and consecutive for the school year fixed by the school district in which the child is enrolled. In a school district that maintains school during the entire calendar year and in which the school year is divided into quarters, a child is not required to attend the public school more than 3 quarters in 1 calendar year, but a child shall not be absent for 2 or more consecutive quarters.

House Bill 5912 (2008)

Like many 16-year-olds, Peter Webb, of Kalamazoo, enjoys hanging out with his friends, playing guitar in a band and talking to friends online. He has gone through the usual rights-of-passage — prom night, SATs — and is really looking forward to going to college. He has already accrued more than a dozen credits at Kalamazoo Valley Community College.

For a kid who left conventional public and private elementary schools behind at the age of 9, these may sound like unbelievable accomplishments. They are not unusual for a home-schooled student.

Peter is one of hundreds of students in Kalamazoo County’s thriving home school community — a diverse network of families who have made the commitment to teach their children at home.

But don’t take the term "home schooling" too literally Peter cautions, "It isn’t just about sitting at home doing your own little thing out on a limb."

"Kalamazoo is home-school friendly because we have so many options," says Peter’s mom, Tami Webb, executive director of the Kalamazoo Area Home School Association.

"The Home School Performing Arts of Kalamazoo does drama classes and plays. The Kalamazoo Area Tutors have almost any academic class you could want for your child. The Kalamazoo Nature Center, the Air Zoo and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts also have classes. Area support groups have field trips galore. There are several different sports available through the home-school sports leagues. So you can just pick and choose what you want."

This form of education is possible under The Michigan Revised School Code, Section 380.1561, exemption (f). The exception allows children to forego the required public school attendance if "the child is being educated at the child’s home by his or her parent or legal guardian in an organized educational program in the subject areas of reading, spelling, mathematics, science, history, civics, literature, writing and English grammar."

More of the story