Via OfficialWire: A bureaucrat in the UK apparently made up this statistic to support his effort to crack down on homeschooling. In fact, did you know government officials are twice as likely to lie to get their way?

Children being educated at home are twice as likely to be abused and should be closely monitored by social services, a British educator said Friday.

Graham Badman, former director of children’s services in Kent, reviewed the home-school policy after a 7-year-old girl, Khyra Ishaq, was starved to death. Read more…

UPDATE: The Sun UK also has a story about the abuse of Khyra which also has a sidebar with a similar quote by Badman. Here he sheds a bit more light is saying:

I HAVE met lots of families who are doing a great job in providing a good education in a loving environment.

But the review also revealed the proportion of home educated children known to social services with a child protection plan is double that of other children – a worrying statistic.
Read more

So, do we know that social workers routinely visit homes of government-schooled children?

Via St. Petersburg Times, Florida.

TRINITY — When Florida lawmakers required public school districts to provide local online course offerings, they decided the programs would be open only to students who had spent at least one full year in the public schools.

Wendy Howard and her daughter Jessica, who was being home-schooled last year, decided that wasn’t fair.

They began a petition drive a year ago to change the law, and this year they’ve persuaded some high profile lawmakers — Sen. John Thrasher, R-Jacksonville, and Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami — to carry a bill for them. Read more…

TIME (remember the magazine?) has a story on the Romeike family recently granted asylum to escape Germany’s homeschool prohibition.

The Romeikes are not your typical asylum seekers. They did not come to the U.S. to flee war or despotism in their native land. No, these music teachers left Germany because they didn’t like what their children were learning in public school — and because homeschooling is illegal there.

“It’s our fundamental right to decide how we want to teach our children,” says Uwe Romeike, an Evangelical Christian and a concert pianist who sold his treasured Steinway to help pay for the move. Read more…

Via OneNewsNow.com. Of course, all kinds of homeschooling are on the rise.

A recent article in The Washington Post reports an increasing number of Muslims are turning to home schooling their children as an alternative to sending them to public schools, and that they are doing so for similar reasons as many non-Muslims: “stronger academics, more family time, the ability to control their children’s social interaction, and being able to teach them a Muslim worldview.” Read more…

Via OneNewsNow.com. Of course, all kinds of homeschooling are on the rise.

A recent article in The Washington Post reports an increasing number of Muslims are turning to home schooling their children as an alternative to sending them to public schools, and that they are doing so for similar reasons as many non-Muslims: “stronger academics, more family time, the ability to control their children’s social interaction, and being able to teach them a Muslim worldview.” Read more…

The usual left-wing hate-speech from Falls Church News-Press Online.

It is generally understood that today’s youth are more supportive of equality for gay and lesbian people. Faced with losing the next generation, fundamentalists are ferociously scrambling to capture the minds of youth through homeschooling and the subversion of public education.
By sequestering students at home or creating public schools where the only drink served in the cafeteria is Kool-Aid, they hope to reprogram tomorrow’s leaders.
It appears America’s religious fanatics are modeling their efforts on the success of radical Islamists in the Middle East, who reversed the trend of secularization in the region by hijacking education. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman recently wrote about this phenomenon: Read more…

He ironically ends his piece with the statement: “While paying attention to school boards is boring, it must become a priority for all Americans who want schools to be about education instead of indoctrination.” I’d say conservative or not, that’s the reason many have decided to homeschool. Both left and right are guilty of hijacking the education system and now those who try to escape are demonized.

The usual left-wing hate-speech from Falls Church News-Press Online.

It is generally understood that today’s youth are more supportive of equality for gay and lesbian people. Faced with losing the next generation, fundamentalists are ferociously scrambling to capture the minds of youth through homeschooling and the subversion of public education.
By sequestering students at home or creating public schools where the only drink served in the cafeteria is Kool-Aid, they hope to reprogram tomorrow’s leaders.
It appears America’s religious fanatics are modeling their efforts on the success of radical Islamists in the Middle East, who reversed the trend of secularization in the region by hijacking education. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman recently wrote about this phenomenon: Read more…

He ironically ends his piece with the statement: “While paying attention to school boards is boring, it must become a priority for all Americans who want schools to be about education instead of indoctrination.” I’d say conservative or not, that’s the reason many have decided to homeschool. Both left and right are guilty of hijacking the education system and now those who try to escape are demonized.

The Daily Planet is hosting the Carnival of Homeschooling: House Fever Edition this week. “House fever” because she doesn’t live in a cabin. I suppose one could also have “double-wide trailer fever” or “apartment fever” or maybe “tug-boat fever” for the select few boat-schoolers out there.

It seems this winter is dragging out as long as it can! I know its still February, but its almost March and that means its time for winter to hit the road! Being the lover of hot weather and sunshine that I am, I have house fever! Which is cabin fever except I don’t live in a cabin. But there are definitely plenty of things to keep me busy waiting for this winter to finish out!

Things like learning about different festivals and holidays… Read more…

Next Tuesday that carnival is going to be hosted right here on the newly reborn Homeschoolbuzz!

This is a test.

Via the guardian.co.uk. About the recommendation to criminalize home education in the UK, which is now a proposal to require registration. What problem does this solve?

The government rejected the NASUWT’s advice to the Badman enquiry that it should criminalise home education altogether. Nonetheless, in a bill to be debated in the Commons this week, it proposes a compulsory registration regime which most home educators fiercely oppose.

Its attitude is typified in the way it would deal with unregistered families. Non-registration would not be unlawful, so the state would not punish parents. Instead it would punish the unregistered children: it would empower local authorities to issue school attendance orders, and statutorily ban them from even considering the quality of education actually being provided. The government further proposes that having received parental notification of a decision to home educate, a school should hold a child for 20 school days. Such a measure would serve no educational purpose and would delight bullies.

Parents would be forced to seek permission not to delegate their responsibilities, and made to satisfy local authorities that their annual plans are “suitable” – a de facto ban on more autonomous styles of education. Families would be subject to compulsory inspections. The presumption would be that parents are not fulfilling their duty unless hey can prove otherwise. As Ralph Lucas asked in the Lords debate, “What have these people done?” Read more…