Tennessee Legislator Defends Curriculum Choice for Fellow Home Schoolers
by Jim Brown
January 7, 2005
(AgapePress) - A Tennessee politician is decrying efforts to increase government regulation of home schooling in his state.Several Tennessee lawmakers intend to introduce legislation this year that would require home-schooled students to take the same state-mandated achievement tests as their peers in public schools. But State Representative Bill Dunn of Knoxville, who has home schooled five children, strongly opposes the plan because of the restrictions it could place on what home-schooling parents teach their children.
"The test would have to follow whatever curriculum the student is following -- and if you just take the state test, it means that we'd have to change the curriculum for every home schooler to be that of which the public schools have ... and that's a horrible idea," Dunn says.
In fact, he says, it would undermine one of the attractive aspects of home schooling in general. "The wonderful thing about home schooling is that the parents and the students can get down and create their own curriculum that takes advantage of the strengths and weaknesses that the student may have," he shares.
According to the state representative, Tennessee home schoolers are flourishing academically. He points out one example -- a local home school group recently won a scholars bowl competition by defeating all private and public schools in east Tennessee. So why, in light of such academic success, would state politicians push such a measure? Dunn theory is that they are beholden to the state's teachers unions.
"I guess they feel like they can curry favor by going after home schooling since sometimes there's [sort of] an animosity between the two groups," he says, referring to home educators and public school educators. "Yes, we should be interested in how [all Tennessee students] do -- but we don't need the government to come in and take over what family can do a wonderful job of."
Dunn predicts the proposed legislation may make it out of the Education Committee, but will not survive on the floors of both the state House and Senate.
Michael Farris, chairman of the Home School Legal Defense Association, has addressed the issue of standardized testing in the past. He noted several years ago that the "vast majority" of home schooling families already give their children such achievement tests on a regular basis -- and that many states require that as a condition for the right to home school.
But according to Farris, a national testing program proposed by former President Bill Clinton many years ago would have, in effect, imposed a national curriculum. The HSLDA spokesman says testing is a "great idea" -- but that "family accountability works far better than government mandates any day."
