Posted by
tony on Friday, July 20, 2007 11:37:36 AM
This morning I got a phone call from a fellow Homeschooler. Apparently the School Board held a secret meeting a couple of days ago and made a unamious decision that this coming school year homeschooling parents wouldn't be allowed to bring their kids to school for subjects where lab is needed or advance academics. Our public school system has always worked well with area homeschoolers, but now apparently they don't want to. So instead of being honest and above board about it, they chose instead to be sneaky about it. We area homeschoolers are only finding out today because after the decision was reached they needed to call all the area homeschooling parents and let them know.
A funny thing is that all the homeschoolers in this area are Christians. Is this persecution? I tend to think so. But maybe I'm biased because I am a Christian.
The reason given is pretty lame as well as the underhanded way this was approached by the School board members. Here is what they say: Since the Governor of Wyoming proclaimed his No Child Left Behind policy, the public school system can't allow homeschoolers to use their facilities anymore because Home Students will cause a shift in the percentages needed to maintain a graduating level of 80% from high school. This is preposterious to say the least. The high school is already at 82% and this coming year there are no Homeschool children that are graduating. And even if there was, there will only be a total of 3-4 student in 2 years and this cannot possibly effect the average held now. If it does affect it then the problem isn't the Home Schooler's, but in the public education system itself.
This blog may or may not get seen, but for those of you who care about such things I urge you, especially if you are a Wyoming resident to not let this go unnoticed. We in the area of Sheridan Wyoming are calling, writing, griping and standing up to be heard about this devious ploy to undermine the Home School system and deprive our kids of certain type of advancements we can't possibly afford to get for our kids individually. Even though we have chosen to homeschool we still pay taxes and our taxes still pay the salaries of those officials in the public school system. We are contacting Governor Freudenthal, Barbara Cubin the state rep. all the school board members and of course Christian lawyers. Make your voice heard. This will be updated as time goes on.