In some ways, home schooling has come of age. But some still see home-schoolers as peculiar, and even a threat to society. Across the country, the growing ranks of home-schooled children once considered products of prudish or overly religious parents who didn't want their children to learn about sex or evolution have evolved into a new breed suddenly being sought by colleges and universities.
With home schooling finally legal in all 50 states, the future holds the prospect of greater acceptance, experts say. They expect intense recruiting of home-schoolers by institutions of higher learning, more legal victories by associations that support home schooling and an explosion in the ranks with the use of technology such as the Internet.
But supporters also expect the continuance of prejudice and governmental interference-especially from the nation's education associations. The prejudice against home schoolers ranges from those who pigeonhole Christian home-schoolers in particular as radical fringe extremists, to the education lobbies that see every home-schooler as a financial loss to the public schools, where funding is based on enrollment.
The prejudice permeates the media's representation of home schooling. In the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, a May 1, 1995, article in Time magazine linked home-schoolers to the extremist component of the "radical right in America" that spawned such terrorist acts.
Such connections are symptomatic of the prejudice that causes problems for home-schoolers in some parts of the country, said Christopher J. Klicka, executive director of the National Center for Home Education and senior counsel at the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). "The future holds more problems with social workers in some states," he said.
HSLDA has filed civil rights suits against child welfare departments, "for going too far" in Michigan, California and Virginia, Klicka said. State affiliates of national education associations often band together to try to push legislators to introduce bills that would give local schools broad regulatory powers over home-schoolers.
The groups lobbying for restrictions include the National Education Association, Parent Teachers Association, National School Boards Association, National Association of Elementary School Principals and National Association of Secondary School Principals.
The reason for the onslaught is clear, said Jay Butler, spokesman for the National School Boards Association (NSBA). "Districts are reluctant to let home-schooled kids come in and take math or biology classes because if they're not registered, the school doesn't get state aid for that kid."
-RMoss4@compuserve.com