If a homeschooled child learns to code a toy robot, care for a pet rabbit or take cowboy roping lessons, is that an educational expense? to What about jumping on a backyard trampoline for phys ed? A SeaWorld visit for biology?
Arizona parents who don't use public schools can use $7,000 in state funds for "a huge array of school services," reports Linda Jacobson on The 74. Critics want to limit their choices, saying kayaking, horseback riding or a coop for the family's chickens aren't really educational expenses.
More than 46,000 Arizona students now use an Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA), known as an education savings account in other states.
"With passage of a new program just last month in Iowa, there are now nine states with ESAs and at least six more considering them," writes Jacobson. Earlier programs were limited to students with disabilities, low-income families and other groups. Arizona and Iowa are open to all, and a Florida proposal also would be unrestricted. While Republicans champion "family empowerment," she writes, many Democrats see ESAs "as a Trojan horse for the dismantling of public education."
Lura Capalongan, who is homeschooling her kindergartner Lexi, said Arizona’s ESA has allowed her to more than double what she spends on curriculum and materials — items like a small robot that teaches coding and a kit to build a simple scooter.
. . . she hopes to use ESA funds to help pay for the care of her daughter Lexi’s rabbit — items like a hutch, a litter box and nail clippers. Lexi joined an animal club similar to 4-H and is studying the rabbit’s anatomy and nutrition.
. . . Becky Greene, a Mesa parent, has five children, ages 7 to 17, using ESAs. For physical education, they all take taekwondo. She was able to afford a $200 Time-Life series on aviation for her oldest son, a “military history buff,” and a book on the chemical reactions involved in cooking for another son interested in culinary arts.
Newly elected Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs hopes to roll back ESAs to fewer families, but Republicans control the state legislature.
ESA families "agree to provide instruction in the same content areas as public schools," writes Jacobson. Parents don't need to submit a curriculum for some materials, such as board games, puzzles and blocks the parent handbook advises. Others require state approval. "To justify buying a chicken coop for a science lesson, one parent posted a chicken-raising guide."
Teachers are advertising their services to ESA families on Facebook, writes Jacobson. "Teachers for core subjects need to have at least a bachelor’s degree, but for specific classes like art, drama or dance, a two-year degree or a credential is acceptable."
Is sword casting an educational expense? An instructor in the Facebook group promised to teach sword-casting students “archaeology, physics, history and metallurgy.” Texas Republican Sen. Mayes Middleton has introduced a $10,000-per-student ESA bill that would give families total flexibility on how to spend the money, writes Jacobson. "In New Hampshire, by contrast, the state applies some 'Yankee frugality' to its program and rejects requests for purchases that could be used by multiple family members, like a kayak or trampoline."
Parents should have wide latitude to spend ESA money, and teachers should get money to fund special projects too, writes Mike Goldstein. "The number one enemy of K–12 is boredom."
Public school teachers go on Donors Choose to fund activities, including the same ones the ESA story considers "boondoggles," he writes. Coach Smith, at Noble High School in Oklahoma wants kayaks, Mrs. Bustos at Lundy Elementary in Texas is asking for a trampoline, Mr. Pierce in Oklahoma wants to teach roping and Mr. Simmers in Alaska hopes to buy ice skating trainers. There are five pages of teachers seeking funds for chicken coops, Goldstein writes, including Mrs. LaCour in Arizona, and her “Chick It Out” project.
Sounds good to me. My districts claims it allocates app $6k per unclassified student. For that there are no electives and no university prep courses. Compelled nonremedial 12th graders routinely sit in five study halls if they have no one to pick them up early. Those who can't pay the fee for a very limited selection of DE/AP courses are stuck in gen ed. Advanced students get handed the JHU-CTY brochure, and encouraged to take a course on their on dime and time. With $6K, people will move home as the ratio of learning:study hall&review offered at public school is not helpful...students don't have enough time to afterschool and make up for the dumb down in all subjects.
What's really…
FYI, Sea World's summer camp is quite good. For the grade school kids, it's mostly just fun in the park with the afternoons spent playing in the water at a nearby cove, but for junior high it gets more educational. Junior high kids go behind the scenes more to see how the animals are taken care of. For the high school kids it's more of a toe-dip into careers at Sea World, they do hands-on work with the animal exhibits. Pricey, though, especially if you don't live in SoCal and have to fly in. Ann in L.A.
It's hard to believe that Arizona will end up with a better educated public with all this homeschooling; a better state law would devolve such resource funding to more local regions, and the wiser ones, like Montreal, which has the highest percentage of students being privately educated in North America and which regularly gets better returns on its educational investment than does any other Canadian province -- and Canadians are, on the whole, better educated than Americans, in spite of lower spending -- would not pay for educational resources like those being defended here.
How is raising chickens NOT educational? Urban schools have community gardens, rural schools have ag programs, kids can run their own egg businesses and do 4H and crossbreed and whatnot. Also, it looks like the amount received depends on whether your kid is disabled or not. It's a pretty sweet deal, but it looks like most people do not get the full amount.
At any rate, as a homeschooler, something like that would make me less stingy on the textbooks (I might buy the current edition instead of an older one and working around page number and ordering differences). I can't find it on the lists of allowed or disallowed expenses, but I would invest in a full Cog psych eval…
Linda Jacobson ... writes, many Democrats see ESAs "as a Trojan horse for the dismantling of public education."
As if that's a bad outcome?
Once again the concerns are focused on inputs rather than outputs. Who cares if the input is a written plan for a chicken coop or bi-weekly karate lessons? Can we measure the output? Can a kid correctly do the math (word problems) showing how many 4x8 plywood sheets are needed for a coop, a fence, a coop hoop... Can the kid pass a JFK era "physical fitness challenge" * Can the kid even read at grade level? If so, the ESA bought better results than many school districts deliver.
As far as immigrants: In Texas th…