Draft #2 for position paper

Why homeschooling should not be placed on a higher standard than public school

I went into some deep thought about how homeschooling is thought of by the world as well as in America in various states. The state governments in the extreme corners of the states do not seem to be very allowing of any regular homeschool regiment. Speaking from a perspective of living in the four corners of the United States at some point in my homeschooling life, I can say that homeschooling is a very efficient process when properly used and enjoyed, but can be diluted by the system surrounding it which is regulated by the state government's school board which has mostly public school oriented administrators. Homeschoolers should not be placed on a higher standard than public school students because the systems are designed together and both have valid curriculums.

Georgia state legislation requires that every homeschool student have at least a single four and a half hour unbroken session of learning each day, and requires a detailed report on how much the student only seemed to learn. Though this as a concept isn't bad, the sheer fact that it needs to be an unbroken session (meaning no breaks and constant "Learning") just restricts the freedoms of a homeschooler to make them work more to get a proper education on their schedule. Florida has less of a time frame but still requires that the session be unbroken and uninterrupted even with family emergencies.

Texas is one of the few states that actually understands homeschooling and frees it up to where someone just needs to say they are homeschooling their child to qualify and be able to graduate. Granted, this may just add to the false stereotype of "Dumb Texans"; however, there are plenty of intelligent people who have come out of those systems because they were able to achieve more by recalling detail of what they learned versus what a manuscript from a public high school had told them in interviews. Several Commanders and Captains in the Navy in modern day America came out of homeschooling programs, including Commander Hennings, Commander Andrew Wiest, and Captain Douglas Perry.

Though there are instances where homeschoolers and parents of those homeschoolers end up abusing the system to "Make up" a diploma so that they're not forced into spending more money or having to send in the actual reports and various paperwork involved to make sure education is being given to the child. Though, this mindset still creates a problem of homeschoolers having to do more to get their diploma and to apply to colleges and various other organizations, such as the military. Personally, I’ve had trouble moving about the states and getting the letter of intent to homeschool into the school boards as they do not agree with homeschooling proper.

The Military applies more harsh standards to homeschoolers by making them jump through more hoops to try to enlist or even get on commission to be an officer. They have to make better test scores in both PT and the ASVAB to enlist in any portion of the military, while public schoolers have to make much less score points to pass and enlist.