After years of trying and failing to raise the educational performance of our students, our state has finally decided to develop stricter criteria for graduation.
They are thinking about increasing the graduation requirements to match college admission requirements, so that more kids can go to college. The high schools are hearing from businesses and colleges that their students are not prepared for college OR for the work force.
Seems so perfectly logical and obvious that you wonder why they hadn’t thought of it before! One small problem: no money. The plan is now going through the State Board of Education, and then it has to get through the State Legislature for funding. With a 5 billion dollar deficit this year, funding for this brilliant move is in doubt.
I have a couple of thoughts here:
First: don’t feel like you can’t do a good job of educating your children at home. I know a lot of homeschoolers with a lot of different kids and styles, and I haven’t seen one that wasn’t prepared either for college or the work force.
Second: recognize that our home schools don’t have the kind of bureaucracy demonstrated here. We can change our graduation plans in minutes – just by making a decision. We don’t have to worry about reducing class size (unless we have a LOT of kids!) None of us operate our household on a 5 billion dollar deficit. We get to decide what graduation requirements that are right for our kids. Usually that’s when they are either ready for college or to live on their own.
Finally, we have the flexibility to take feedback and change what we do, even in the middle of a school year. It is amazing how efficient homeschooling is when compared to a government bureaucracy!