Prosecutor alleges Md. parents watched teen daughter ‘slowly die’
The 911 call was bad enough: an unresponsive teenager inside a Maryland townhouse. It was only when police arrived that they understood the full horror of what was happening.
A 17-year-old victim, who weighed 79 pounds and for months couldn’t move on her own, had been living on a makeshift bed in the living room, the windows of the home covered in blankets, officials said Thursday. Inside were the girl’s parents and six other minor children as young as four years old, according to court records...
...Maryland law stipulates that parents or guardians who opt to home-school their kids have to annually verify their home-school program with the local school system or another institution that provides oversight.
The parents are required to submit reviews to thelocal school system. and school officials can ask for material that proves the student is receiving regular instruction. But the reviews can only be conducted at a time and place mutually agreed on by both the parents and the school system.
Montgomery County Public Schools requires reviews in December orJanuary and May orJune of each year, said schools spokeswoman Jessica Baxter, but there is no state requirement that students have to be present for their reviews — only their academic work does. Baxterdeclined to provide information about whether annual reviews were conducted for the Moore family in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, again citing privacy laws...
WASHINGTON (7News) — Homeschooling is surging and the families its attracting defy the traditional notions of who homeschools and why.
Parents, who say they're done with school politics, inequitable treatment and a one-sized-fits all approach are finding creative solutions to maximize their child's abilities and educational experience.
For aspiring 6th grade baker and entrepreneur, Tyce Yorke, it means cake design is part of his curriculum...
In The New Yorker, author: Casey Parks. To read the whole story go here.
When Victoria Bradley was in fifth grade, she started asking her mother, Bernita, to homeschool her. Bernita wasn’t sure where the idea came from—they never saw homeschooling on TV. But something always seemed to be going wrong at school for Victoria. In second grade, a teacher lost track of her during parent pickup, and she wandered off school grounds. Bernita went to see the principal, intent on getting the teacher fired. The principal asked if she would consider taking an AmeriCorps position at the school. Bernita cut back her hours at the hair salon she owned and started doing community outreach, assisting teachers and hosting parent meetings.
In 2011, Bernita moved her family—which also included her older son, Carlos—to Detroit’s East English neighborhood, where she bought a three-story, yellow brick house for twelve thousand dollars. Victoria, then in fourth grade, transferred to Brenda Scott Academy, where two girls began bullying her. One wrote “I’m fat” in black pen on the back of Victoria’s shirt. On another occasion, one of the girls spit at Victoria. She screamed at them, and was suspended. (That year, administrators suspended three hundred and forty Black students, or forty-two per cent of the school’s Black population, and another sixteen Black girls were arrested there.)
And:
Early one evening last July, before Victoria’s senior year, Bernita and Victoria pulled into their driveway and found that a container of dish soap they’d bought at Sam’s Club had spilled in the trunk. While Bernita bailed out the soap using a three-ring binder and some old rags, Victoria looked down the cracked driveway and pointed at a swarm of fireflies. “What makes them glow?” she asked.
Bernita watched Victoria chase the fireflies around the yard for a few minutes. This, she thought, was what a Black kid’s life should feel like—happy and unencumbered. She told Victoria to find a Mason jar. They ran through the grass until Victoria had trapped a single glowing insect. Afterward, they sat on their stoop, researching the specimen on Victoria’s phone. They learned that the bugs belong to the family Lampyridae, and that a bioluminescent enzyme makes them glow.
As Victoria scrolled, Bernita laughed. “You do know this is homeschooling, right?” she asked.
Victoria looked up from her phone. The fireflies lit up around them. “Really?” she asked.
“Yep,” Bernita said. “This is homeschooling. This is science. We about to do this for real.”
Black families have only recently turned to homeschooling in significant numbers. The Census Bureau found that, by October, 2020, the nationwide proportion of homeschoolers—parents who had withdrawn their children from public or private schools and taken full control of their education—had risen to more than eleven per cent, from five per cent at the start of the pandemic. For Black families, the growth has been sharper. Around three per cent of Black students were homeschooled before the pandemic; by October, the number had risen to sixteen per cent.
ROCKVILLE, MD — More parents in Montgomery County are opting to home-school their children or send them to private school amid the coronavirus pandemic, enrollment data found.
The data, released Tuesday at a school board meeting, showed that 51 students left Montgomery County Public Schools to be home-schooled between July 1 and Sept. 16, 2019. During that same time period in 2020, 984 students ditched public school...
...Christine Colburn pulled her daughter, Calle, out of Montgomery County Public Schools when she finished second grade.
Colburn said her last straw was being called into the school because Calle was "fidgeting" at her desk. Colburn discovered that Calle was finishing her work much more quickly than her classmates, and then was expected to sit quietly at her desk until 30 other students caught up.
"I asked if she could be given other work to do, or be allowed to take a book out of her desk and read, and I was told that wouldn't be fair to the other students," Colburn said. "I love all children, but I'm worried and concerned for my child first."
In MCPS, 93.9% of classes are taught by highly qualified teachers. One would think therefore that there is more than enough brainpower here, making the hiring of consultants from British Columbia at a cost of $200,000 per year to the taxpayers a spendthrift solution -- particularly objectionable when the times demand fiscal restraint. Besides, do such professionally trained teachers need hand-holding sessions with partners coming from thousands of miles away or could they not benefit just as much from free or low-cost webinars and webcasts? (What do you think, Mr. Leggett?)
If I am irate as a taxpayer, I confess to being amused as a homeschooling parent. Every year, the NEA publishes a resolution condemning "home schooling programs based on parental choice" as being unable to "provide students with a comprehensive education experience." Fast-forward to B-81 to read the most recent one and read here a brief description of one home schooling program based on parental choice -- one that does not cost the taxpayers a red cent. Of course, if one's definition of a "comprehensive education experience" demands the intervention of highly paid consultants flown in from foreign lands, homeschoolers are indeed doomed!
Interesting, too, is the fact that the NEA argues that "all expenses" must be "borne by the parents/guardians" and instruction "should be by persons who are licensed by the appropriate state education licensure agency." Pity the poor taxpayers and enjoy the exquisite irony. Taxpayers get stiffed for hundreds of thousands of dollars for advice to improve Montgomery County's educational system. Meanwhile, Jerry Weast and his NEA-card carrying friends actually attempt to prevent homeschooling parents from using their own money to enroll their children in classes taught by professional educators, as the letter published in the Extra-Credit column makes it clear.
It was not so long ago that Jerry Weast was in fact trying to discourage underperforming students from taking the SAT, according to several high school principals. Such students, I venture to say, would make acceptable homeschoolers for MCPS. The ones who must be thwarted, however, are the ones who would help raise the standardized test scores in their home schools. Let's face it: in Jerry Weast's world, students are pawns who are used to make The King look good and powerful. It's all about how you play the game.
Mark Twain got it right -- "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."
Maryland law recognizes home instruction as an alternative to public school enrollment and as a means for students to receive regular, thorough instruction. Currently, home school students are expressly authorized to participate in public school standardized testing.
The Montgomery County Board of Education opposes:
Any requirement that home school students be allowed to participate in public school athletics or other extracurricular activities.
Anyone know the rationale behind the BOE's opposition to allowing home schooled students to participate in public school athletics and other extracurricular activities? Does anyone really benefit from this policy?
