As a homeschooling family it is not often that we are exposed to the inner workings of public school education. Unless you have a child playing a public school sport (which is allowed in some states and not allowed in others) or you have a child that requires what would be traditionally be called I.E.P. services, a homeschooling family typically has no reason to interact with its local public schools.
Because we have moved around so much and because we have children who both longed to play public school sports and need I.E.P. services, our family has probably had more exposure to public schools than a lot of other homeschooling families (aside from the fact that at different points in their lives my children have all attended a public school).
Recently, I was struck by the utter disparity in our country's public school system when Sarah was denied special education services by the Charlotte Mecklenburg school district especially because she was provided with an abundance of services by her school district in Indiana (as a homeschooling student). Which got me to thinking about the children that actually attend these schools in these different cities in these different states in this SAME country and their very different public school experiences.
In Indiana, Sarah had access to any and all braille supplies she needed: paper, graph paper, tactile math supplies, a laptop, an iPad, adapted chemistry sets, adapted geometry sets, a brailler, graphs, charts - you name it and the school district would procure it for Sarah at no cost to us. She worked with an Orientation and Mobility teacher, received Braille tutoring, Nemath Math Tutoring, etc...all through the public school system as a homeschooled student. The school district is also the same one that Sarah attended for a year as a freshman. They were amazing all around. Its students had great equipment, opportunities, and buildings.
I knew that we had it good in Indiana when we moved to North Carolina. I did expect that North Carolina would provide some services, but when I reached out to the district I was told that Sarah would receive nothing from them besides the federally required testing services to see if she had a need for special education services. The state had limited funds for students like Sarah and Charlotte decided to allocate its funds to offering homeschooled students speech therapy for those in need of that service. They do not provide any supplies, any tutoring, anything. Zip. Zilch. Zero. To be honest, for a hot minute I was flabbergasted. How could I go from one amazing situation to such a potentially bleak situation just because our family moved states?
Now, I am not too worried about Sarah because I have already reached out to a state agency that provides support for the blind and the NC school for the blind to see what assistance I can get for Sarah. Plus, I am a bit of a bulldog when it comes to my kids, and so I will find a way to see that she gets what she needs. What has me so upset isn't that Sarah was denied services through the local school district, but rather that not every child has the luxury to seek out services to meet her/his needs. In our country it seems that getting a great education is a luxury. WHAT?! How can we justify that?
How many public school kids, because they did not go to school in the "right" district with the "right" amount of funds, have fallen through the cracks? How many kids didn't get to take certain classes that would create a spark in them, or participate in certain extracurricular activities, or have access to safe school transportation? (Let's not even get on the topic of teacher salaries and how little they are paid and the disparity among pay between states and cities in those states.)
It is crazy to me the disparity between how different cities are able to educate their children and how different states are able to educate their children. Don't we teach children that they all have value? Don't we teach children that the way to get ahead in life is to stay in school? Then why don't we educate them as if they all have value?! Why don't we create a system where kids want to stay in school?
If that is what we preach as a society, then why the heck aren't we living up to that credo?! Why don't all public school children have access to great schools? If Charlotte schools cannot afford to pay for services for students like Sarah, what are they not able to pay for for their own school children? And why is it that way? Why can Plainfield, Indiana offer a gluttonous education to not only its students, but to those like Sarah who don't even opt in to their program?
I just don't understand how our educational system can be the way it is. I don't understand why it hasn't changed. I don't understand how people who make decisions such as how to allocate funds for educating our future don't change it in a way so that all kids, whether they live in Delaware or California or Texas have access to equally great public school opportunities. A family shouldn't have to to make privileged decisions like pulling their kids out of the system to homeschool, or send their kids to private schools, or just happen to live in the "right" district in order for their kids to receive a good education. We should be offering and providing all of our kids amazing opportunities to learn in public school settings, so that those who cannot homeschool (or attend private school) have equal access to learn.
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