Wrong focus on home schooling

Tera Costa Howard and her fellow Democrats want to punish families who want better for their children. During COVID she sponsored legislation to arrest people who protested outside the school district administration objecting to the draconian rules wrongfully instituted. They refused to extend the Invest in Kids Scholarships. School choice is only for them as CPS/CTU leaders send their kids to private schools on the taxpayer dime.

Now she wants to go after families in home schools. Costa Howard’s latest attack is a complaint that claims home-schooled children are being abused and under educated, so the state needs to get in these homes to protect the children. They need “government monitoring.”

National Home Education Research shows home schooling scores 15-25 points higher than public schools, with Black students scoring 23-42 points higher. The degree of state control is not related to academic achievement. Home-schooled socially, emotionally and psychologically do well and are above average. Home-schooled score above average on ACT/SAT tests.

A Wirepoints report from the ISBE Scorecard in 2022 showed 30 Illinois public schools where not a single student was proficient in reading. In 53 schools, no student was proficient in math. In both cases, a majority of the schools were Chicago schools.

Wirepoints reported Spry Community Links High School in Chicago spending in 2019 was $19,733 per student, 2022 it was $35,608 per student. The ISBE rated Sandoval High School as commendable when not one of the 113 students are at grade level in math or reading. Ralph Ellison Chicago International Charter School spent $24,000 each on 172 students, was labeled “commendable” and zero students are proficient in either reading or math.

I think the Democrats need to clean their own house before they go into anyone else’s.

Tony Atkins

Wheaton