________________________________________  THE VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT December 28, 2004 Vol. 4, No. 45 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯  Covering education news in Vermont and beyond... Informative, provocative, unique... Published by Vermonters for Better Education  VBE is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to enlist parents and the public at large in achieving quality educational opportunities for all the children of Vermont by monitoring the state of education in Vermont; promoting the value of educational freedoms for all parents; and giving parents the evaluative tools with which to identify excellence. Libby Sternberg, executive director: VTBetterEd@aol.com NEWS & ANALYSIS... VERMONT NEA OUTLINES LEGISLATIVE AGENDA The Vermont legislative session opens soon and the Vermont NEA has outlined their legislative priorities in their January newsletter. In keeping with the union's strong bonds with the Democratic Party, health care is listed as "Public Issue #1" and given an entirely separate article which spells out the union's principles. The Democrats and Progressives made health care their number one priority as well during the campaign season. The "Principles of Health Care Policy Reform" proposed by the Vermont-NEA emphasize reforming the entire system. In fact, the Vermont-NEA states that "no approach to health care reform short of one that addresses the whole system and the entire population can appropriately meet the principles we establish here for proposals we can support." The eight principles listed by the Vermont-NEA include universal access to care, no shifting of costs, establishing access to health care as a "fundamental right of citizenship," and ensuring that health care finance is "adequate, affordable and sustainable." Taken together, the principles could read as an endorsement of single-payer health care. On other issues related more directly to education, the Vermont-NEA has listed these priorities: Teacher quality - the union wants teachers to regulate themselves, instead of being regulated by the State Board of Education. Early education - the union wants more early ed programs. Technical education -the union newsletter only states that Vermont needs to decide what "its approach to technical education generally" should be. Choice - the union is working with others to develop a "successor" plan to Act 150 (which only allows a handful of students from public high schools to choose another public high school). Given the union's strong opposition to school choice, any plan they endorse or create is unlikely to be anything but highly restrictive. Don't look for anything even approaching "moderate" coming from the Vermont-NEA on choice. Retirement - the union is concerned about underfunding of the teachers' retirement system. Labor rights, etc. - the union seeks to shield teachers from any adverse effects of consolidation, and to pass "agency fee" legislation that would require teachers who are not members of the union to pay a fee for the collective bargaining component of their contracts. Education finance - the union seeks to shield the Education Fund from legislative raids. The union wants to insulate Prek-12 education funds "from being intruded on by other government programs." If so, perhaps they will want to join with the Vermont Coalition of Municipalities (see story below) in suing to ensure the Education Fund isn't used for adult literacy and other programs outside the Prek-12 structure.  COALITION SUES OVER EDUCATION LAW According to a December 22 Rutland Herald article, the Vermont Coalition of Municipalities plans to sue the state to throw out the state education property tax because of a "broken promise." In June, the legislature appropriated nearly a half million dollars from the Education Fund to pay for adult literacy programs. However, according to the Coalition, the Fund is only to be used for specific Prek-12 education purposes and adult literacy programs are not among them. In the event that funds are used for purposes other than those specified in Act 60, the property tax should be repealed, Coalition members say.  *   *   * ELSEWHERE  FROM THE U.S. FREEDOM FOUNDATION On the web at: http://www.freedomfoundation.us HOME SCHOOLING RESULTS by David W. Kirkpatrick, Senior Education Fellow The evidence that home schooled students do well is more than special interest pleading. Departments of education in such states as Alaska, Tennessee and Washington have conducted studies that found the typical homeschooled student comes out ahead on virtually every significant measurement. Specific instances abound. One family sent three home-schooled youngsters to Harvard; a homeschooler wrote a bestseller at age 15; homeschoolers placed first, second and third in the 2000 National Spelling Bee; Patrick Henry College in Virginia was founded for such students. Former U.S. Secretary of Education Bill Bennett has suggested, probably only partly tongue-in-cheek, that "Maybe we should subcontract all of public education to home schoolers." Self-esteem is a much-proclaimed goal for students by many public educators, a goal that, whatever its merits as a theory, has created much controversy. One study found that home-schooled children did far better when measured for this attribute as well. Only 10% were below the national average. By definition, among the general student body, 50% score below average. Studies by Cornell University Professor Urie Bronfenbrenner suggest that, at least until age 10 or 12, students who spend more time with other children their age than with their parents tend to rely on other children for their values. The result? They tend to have a lower sense of self-worth, of optimism, of respect for their parents, and, ironically, even of trust in their peers. If he is correct, this is one of the major, and unrecognized, reasons for the growing dysfunction of much adolescent behavior. More than 200 colleges, including such prestigious institutions as Harvard, Yale and Princeton, actively seek to attract such students not only because of their high SAT scores, but for their advanced social skills as well. So much for the rhetorical concern about socialization. A study for the Smithsonian Institution by Harold McCurdy concluded that genius is more likely to develop among children who spend more time with their parents and other adults, less time with their peers, and have freedom to work out their fantasies. McCurdy also suggested that the public school system tends to do the reverse and restrict the development of geniuses. Martin Engle, head of the National Demonstration Center for Early Childhood Education in Washington, D.C. some years ago said children sense rejection if they are schooled too early. Raymond S. Moore, citing Engle in an September 1985 PHI DELTA KAPPAN article, suggested that "early schooling may be the most pervasive form of child abuse in the Eighties." That may be carrying things a bit too far. But, in the face of the evidence, there is no justification for the hostility so many public school supporters seem to feel toward homeschoolers. In district after district they are rejected when they try to participate in a limited number of school activities, academic or extracurricular, although a number of states now require public schools to allow such participation. In Pennsylvania, which lacks such a law, hundreds of school districts do this voluntarily. As Stephen Arons wondered in his book "Compelling Belief," "Why is it that millions of children who are pushouts or dropouts amount to business as usual in the public schools, while one family educating a child at home becomes a major threat to universal public education and the survival of democracy?" Speaking of taxes, homeschooled students, whether there are 850,000 or 2,000,000 of them, save the taxpaying public billions of dollars a year by withdrawing from the public schools. Using $9,000 per pupil as a rough approximation of current annual spending on public schools, homeschooled students save the taxpaying public from $7.65-$18 billion a year. It has been estimated that homeschooling parents spend about $800 of their own money annually to educate each child. In brief, while no one should be compelled to undertake the unusual dedication required to homeschool their children, those who wish do to so should not have government place bureaucratic roadblocks in their way. The evidence to date makes it clear that the success rate is much higher for homeschoolers while the actual cost is lower -- as little as zero for taxpayers. The results benefit students, parents, family and society. It doesn't get much better than that.  David Kirkpatrick is a Bennington native, a former public school teacher and a former officer in the Pennsylvania NEA. He now lives in Pennsylvania. *   *   * The VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT is published by Vermonters for Better Education 170 Church Street, Rutland, VT 05701, 802.773.5240 Contact VTBetterEd@aol.com for more information.   Subscribe Here SubscribeRemove

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