Is homeschooling a threat to public schools?

The real threat comes from a political push for vouchers

By: Philip Moscovitch

  More Canadian parents than ever are choosing to homeschool. While they may feel they are making the best choice for their children, are they helping to kill public education in this country?
  Elizabeth Davis of the Homeschooling Legal Defence Association of Canada, says there are "at least 100,000" homeschooled kids in Canada. The group estimates that Ontario has 30,000, BC 12,000 and Quebec 10,000. The Alberta government puts the number in that province at just over 8,000 for 1999-2000.
 

While homeschooling has become rather mainstream, just ten years ago its image was bibles and granola

  Author Wendy Priesnitz, founder of the Canadian Alliance of Home Schoolers, believes the rise in homeschooling is driven by "parental dissatisfaction with public schools - violence, funding and service cuts and so on - and increasing access to Internet sources of information." She estimates the number of homeschooling families at 80,000.
  Numbers are hard to come by because regulations vary. In provinces like Nova Scotia, homeschoolers register directly with the government. In Ontario it goes by school board. In BC it's by individual school. And some homeschoolers never register with anyone at all.
  What is clear is that homeschooling has become more widely accepted. In his 1992 book Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense, David Guterson (who wrote Snow Falling on Cedars) says, "The public, when it thinks of homeschooling, thinks of fundamentalists first and foremost... Throw in, for good measure, a few harmless and wide-eyed granola heads, romantic libertarians, and idealistic progressives, and you've got the whole bizarre recipe."
  Today, the popular image has broadened. Sandy Keane of North Vancouver echoes the feelings of many homeschooling parents when she says, "The school system might not like it, but they don't feel that we're dangerous fringe lunatics anymore."
 

Cuts to public schools and the services they offer may be spurring the move to educate kids at home

  Erika Shaker, director of the Education Project for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, says homeschooling is a cause for concern.
  "This would not be happening if public education was not being starved and if provincial governments were not trashing the public school system," she says. "It's part and parcel of the decimation of publicly funded learning."
  David Flower, co-ordinator of communications for the Alberta Teachers' Association, agrees that the homeschooling movement may threaten public education. But he doesn't see it as a case of the well-off retreating from the public system. He cites religious beliefs as the primary motivation.
  Interestingly, many homeschoolers actually favour a strong public system. Priesnitz describes herself as "someone who believes in the need for a public education system" - albeit one that stresses a "more active, independent and non-classroom-based style."
  Anne Bull of Winnipeg homeschooled her kids for two years. All four now attend public schools. "I'm sympathetic to public schools," she says. "But public schools are hampered by lack of funding and inexperience."
  Helen of Indian Harbour, Nova Scotia, has homeschooled three boys. (She asked us not to use her last name, because her youngest is not registered with the government.) She calls public education "an absolute must," and points out that "all of my tax dollars are going to the public school system."
  The number of homeschooled kids is still tiny compared to the number in private schools. Far more than homeschooling, vouchers - the idea that those who opt out of the public system withdraw their tax dollars - may be the real threat.
  Shaker says "the voucher movement in Canada has not yet taken off." But it does have support. The Canadian Alliance election platform promises to "bring forward tax reform measures to allow parents [whose children are not in public school] to keep more of their income to provide for their children's education."
  Flower agrees that "the voucher movement is possibly more of a threat, especially since both the teachers and the trustees [in Alberta] have noticed a movement in the voucher direction."
  So feel free to keep your kids at home guilt-free - just keep paying your school tax.

Philip Moscovitch (writer@attcanada.net) is a freelance writer in Glen Margaret, Nova Scotia. His family homeschools.

Get More/Do More
The Canadian Home Based Learning Resource Page (www.flora.org/homeschool-ca)

Growing Without Schooling (www.holtgws.com)

Homeschool.com (www.homeschool.com)

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