
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 17, 1993                   TAG: 9306180392
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

LEARN BEFORE ATTACKING HOME SCHOOLS

BECAUSE of home-school advocate Mike Farris' entrance into the mainstream political process, references to home education appear occasionally in this newspaper. Apparently considering home educators to be a fringe group, you demonstrate either a willful or a malevolent ignorance of the subject. Those educating their children at home are a small minority, but it seems that journalistic competence and accuracy would require research on any subject covered in news or an editorial. Your recent writings on the issue neglect some germane information.

The 5,800 children you say are educated at home is an inaccurate figure, since the source of this information is the civil authorities' tally of those who educate their children under the provisions of the Virginia law passed in 1984. This group comprises only one segment. Another is composed of children who are not sent to school because of what the law calls parents' "bona fide religious training or belief." Since no provision in the law requires them to report their activities to anybody, no one knows how many there are. Even those who notify government's school officials of their convictions are not included in the calculations. Existence of this group, size unknown, renders the number incomplete.

Your assessment of reasons parents teach their children is similarly deficient, and it appears to be an attempt at stereotyping them into a pro-ignorance stance. Public schools' teaching of sex education and evolution as fact has prompted some parents not to trust the government to teach their children. Also, what some perceive to be academic deficiencies bring them to conclude that they could provide a superior education.

Nevertheless, home educators have more diverse reasons for what they do. Some believe it is their responsibility to God to teach their children, even if they would have few problems with the content of a school education. Certainly there are varied reasons for what you admit to be a 25 percent annual growth in the number of Virginia children being taught by their parents.

Opposing a tax break for home educators because they are not the only nonusers of schools who help finance them is certainly reasonable. Those who pay taxes help fund other programs and services that they do not personally use. If a tax break were given, would not a better reason be that the parents of the 5,800 recognized home-educated students are saving the state up to $29 million in expenditures? Certainly Virginia could find some way to show appreciation to those who save the taxpayers' money, and provide their children with a superior education.

When you say, "It is one thing to permit home schooling. It is quite another to encourage it with tax breaks," you demonstrate prejudice against and unfamiliarity with the subject. After Farris' nomination and during the campaign season, home education will be mentioned. If you consider it newsworthy, why not educate yourselves about it? KENNETH W. JOHNSON ROANOKE

by CNB