MAJOR ALERT for Private School and Homeschool Parents. The Plan: Your Child WILL be Taught Common Core. WITH UPDDATE

State education departments can gain control of private education and homeschooling through more regulations, oversight, reporting requirements, teacher licensure mandates

Do you think you have freedom to educate your child as you, the parent, sees fit?  Do you look to the State for educational development/delivery for your child or have you selected private/homeschool options?  If you have chosen private/homeschool options, it may not be  much different than the public school education offered by the state of Alabama.   The state not only controls the public development/direction of education, it will also control both private/homeschool educational development/direction. 

Watch this Alabama Department of Education Private School Licensure Meeting at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/35665549.


 A reader contacted me and wrote:

This video of the Alabama State Department Education meeting with private, church, and home school representatives will make your blood boil.  They are creating a new department, charging new fees, implementing unprecedented oversight and reporting requirements, and monitoring the list of those schools that do not register with the State Department of Education.  If you do not register, your students are unable to attend a postsecondary institution (2-or 4-year).  Home schoolers MUST report attendance, grades, coursework, etc. to the local school superintendent on a regular basis.  I could go on and on.  Please take the time to watch it!  Please share this with everyone in our group and others...

You can scroll down on this link and read the Facebook comments.  Common Core will be adhered to through these new regulations for private schools and homeschooled students.  From a reader:

Let's just avoid the question on the HS front. Yes, you can teach your kids, as you like, as long as the umbrella school complies with everything needed around the 26-28 mark to get the license. Didn't that list of requirements include that all teachers must be state certified before they would offer the Umbrella school's license? Didn't it also clearly say that the curriculum must comply to state standards or as we all know the COMMON CORE standards? If our Umbrella School has to provide a list of curriculum wouldn't that again take the child's education out of the parent's hands? Doesn't that mean I have to teach what my cover school tells me to teach and I need to be certified by the state? I am a little shocked that this is being discussed in AL of all places, so maybe just maybe, the distress I'm currently feeling is keeping me from looking at this objectively. Does anyone else find it ironic that this guy was hired about the same time our state school board adopted the CC to receive additional federal funding. Why didn't this get down to the local level where our local elected school board reps could review all of this and bring it to our attention? Are they really working for our children or were they looking at all of those new federal dollars that would be lining their pocket and the AEA? Just curious and like I said maybe my shock is getting the best of me now.

These private schools and homeschooling groups should know what is store for them in Alabama.   It is mentioned around the 28 minute mark or so that tutoring must be done by an Alabama licensed teacher.  Does this mean students cannot be taught by a parent who does not possess a state teaching certification?

We warned about this type of power grabbing that we spotted in a previous virtual school bill in Missouri.  From Homeschoolers, Beware of Educational Carrots Offered by Virtual School Courses:

We recently wrote "Will Home Schooled and Private Schooled Students have to take Common Core Assessments" and state legislation about this issue being questioned by a private school in Deland, Florida.  The school was requesting clarification from the Governor about language which seemingly indicated private school credits would not transfer to public schools in certain courses because the private school tests were not under the same assessments (common core) as the public schools.

Missouri Senator Jane Cunningham introduced SB706  in January 2012 that should have triggered concern in the homeschooling community.  The bill contained language for virtual schooling which has been offered to home schoolers by various school districts:

A student may enroll in the virtual courses or programs
2 offered by any virtual education provider or school district in Missouri
3 that meets the standards of the department of elementary and
4 secondary education and is accredited. The department may offer its
5 own virtual courses or programs. Any student who enrolls in a virtual

6 course or program under this section shall be considered a public

7 school student and shall take the components of the statewide

8 assessments under section 160.518 that relate to the virtual course or

9 program in which they are enrolled.

The virtual nonresident student's
10 district of residence shall pay the school district or charter school
11 providing such virtual education an amount equal to seventy-two and
12 one half percent of the previous year's statewide average current
13 expenditure per average daily attendance.

The Alabama Facebook commenter is correct.  "Statewide assessments" = Common Core assessments.  Bureaucrats will try to tell you assessments are taken from "Missouri Learning Standards" or "Alabama Learning Standards" to hide the fact that they are aligned to Common Core State Standards.  

Is a government entity dictating how/what private schools/homeschooling parents teach coming soon to your state? Private school parents and homeschool parents better watch their state education departments closely and be prepared to stop this invasion of their freedom to educate their children in the manner in which they deem appropriate. 

Update:  Here's a great link from the36review.com on the Alabama decision:

The Alabama State Department of Education is also creating a new unit:  The Office of Non-public Schools.  This new office will fall under the Office of Supporting Services.

This means we are also treated to the Orwellian lunacy of a very publicly funded “Office of Non-public Schools.” 

Why should public education create an office for non-public schools? 



Update July 28:  Parents receive reprieve for now.