New York Home Schooling

Julia Levy’s article on the decline of home schooling in New York touches on many salient points, but on the whole reflects a lack of knowledge about home schooling in general and New York home schooling in particular [“Fewer Students Home-Schooled in New York,” New York, August 9, 2004].

When the New York City public school system was re-organized – i.e., switched from district offices to regional offices – some home-schoolers were “lost” or “misplaced” in the resultant chaos: years of required paperwork disappeared, and several children were shown as enrolled in high schools when they were still being home-schooled. Therefore, any Department of Education statistics are questionable at best.

Entertaining the possibility that the statistics are accurate, the apparent decline may be due to several factors. It’s true that a certain number of families home-school “underground” for philosophical reasons – they object to any government involvement in the education of their children – but absolutely no one knows the extent of this occurrence. In addition, many home-schoolers are “aging out” of the reporting system.

When a home-schooler reaches the end of compulsory school age -17 in the city; 16 elsewhere in the state – families are no longer required to register with their regional or district offices or submit paperwork. So, there are any number of home-schoolers completing the equivalent of 12th grade, but no longer under the jurisdiction of the DOE. My son is one of them.

The only factor that makes me think that the New York City decline might be real is the demographic of the New York City home-schooling population. As with almost everything else concerning this great city, home schooling in New York City is unique.

Once you cross the Hudson River, home schooling largely becomes a conservative Christian phenomenon. Here in the city most home-schoolers belong to explicitly nonsectarian support groups and many of the parents come to home schooling through an interest in the liberal alternative school movement.

My personal observation is that Christian home-schoolers, because of their comfort with authority, are much more likely to have highly organized support groups that, in the end, are longer-lived and more effective in helping families to homeschool their children right through the 12th grade. The looser structure and emphasis on individualism of the non-sectarian groups tends to give them a shorter shelf life and far less group activities for children beyond the age of 12.Thus, more of these teens in New York City opt for traditional high school.

Lastly, New York, in actuality, has what I consider to be a moderate home-schooling regulation. Yes, the required paperwork and testing are annoying, but not onerous, so I would disagree that it is “tough” to home-school in New York.

The hardest part for me was communicating with DOE employees assigned to home-schooler oversight. Though the ignorance, incompetence, and disorganization of DOE employees was discouraging to deal with, it only reinforced our decision to home-school.

ILENE HELLER
Manhattan

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‘Senator Clinton Promotes Byrd’s Anti-Bush Book’

Jill Gardiner’s report that Senator Clinton was promoting Senator Byrd’s anti-Bush book was interesting reading [Democratic National Convention, July 27, 2004].

A former Ku Klux Klan member, Mr. Byrd is the champion of pork-barrel spending. Over past decades, the West Virginian has been a major obstructionist to progressive Civil Rights legislation. His grateful constituents have named so many facilities after him, the only thing left is the outhouse.

Guess he left his old Klan outfit in the closet when visiting the Big Apple for his book debut on the night of July 26. How quickly we forget that both Senators Byrd and Clinton had no problem participating in the political lynching of Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi. Mr. Lott’s poor judgment in comments made during Senator Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday party concerning Thurmond’s 1948 Dixiecrat Party presidential run cost Mr. Lott his Senate majority leadership post.

Both Mr. Byrd and Mrs. Clinton also recently joined 98 other Senators in passing legislation to give the Federal Communications Commission more power in its ongoing crusade to censor Howard Stern and other press and broadcast industry entertainers. Mr. Byrd is some role model for Mrs. Clinton to emulate. But then again, political birds of a feather flock together.

LAWRENCE PENNER
Great Neck, N.Y.