The Protest to End all Protests: Semester Without Students

I am calling for your consideration: A protest against government public schools.

I think we get it now. We understand how to get things done. It’s important to change things and just talking about it doesn’t get it done.We’ve been SCHOOLED by the best. Now it’s time to really stand up for school reform.

We know a new way! We’ve been schooled by the best. The best have taught us that the only way to affect change in an institution that isn’t doing what we want done, is to simply not show up.

Now is the time to take a bold stand. Stand up for school reform by not showing up to school.

Skip School for school reform.

Unlike the day without women, we don’t even have to be all over the place with demands and conditions.

We really just one thing: Until funding can be distributed in such a way that it follows the student to the public/private/alternative school of their choice, students (with parental permission) should follow the example of women, teachers, and disgruntled tribes who are making their grievances known by not showing up. 

We shall call this protest:
“A Semester Without Students.”

Think about it.

Hashtag it. Plan it. Schedule it and let the media know we aren’t going to try to work things out from the inside anymore. Demand change and skip school until things change. It’s the new way around that slow democracy thing.

Show the women and teachers how well we’ve learned.

#SemesterWithoutStudents
#SWS

Skip School Now! It’s Time for DIY Education

I’ve been preaching it for years: It’s time for individuals with the skills and entrepreneurial spirit to just DO IT… and start creating alternative learning businesses, organizations and associations/groups so that anyone can choose to skip compulsory state schooling, and get the education they want for their children.

I was enjoying a new site to me this morning. It’s called Dropout Nation, edited by RiShawn Biddle. In a post from 2011 called The Promise of DIY Schools, RiShawn details how the concept of Do It Yourself (DIY) schools have been a part of our history for quite a long time, especially since the ending of slavery, when public schooling wasn’t immediately available to the children of recently freed slaves.

…Imagine if such DIY ethic was brought into reforming American public education? We’re not necessarily talking about the so-called unschooling movement (which consists of very few kids and their parents), or the more-mainstream homeschooling. This would go beyond that. The idea would be that teachers, parents or others committed to reforming American public education would simply start their own schools, either in their own homes, in storefronts or even in the basements of churches. While the schools would still be subjected to standards and accountability — including testing — to ensure that every child is getting high-quality instruction and curriculum, they would be able to create cultures of genius with little bureaucracy in the way.

I will have some fine points to add to this article, but suffice to say, it’s worth reading.

Another Skipping School post worth reading.

More schools enjoy higher graduation rates thanks to homeschoolers

The numbers are coming in, and darn if I wasn’t right about this.

Bottom line is; more parents are willing to leave their poorly performing public school and possibly do NOTHING, rather than stay in that school and not have enough credits to graduate anyway. Read the Muncie StarPress article here (there are quotes by yours truly there) and then the sidebar article here, that shows many of the schools in the area are experiencing an increase in homeschool transfers and graduation rates.

This all started several years ago, when we thought nothing about allowing children to drop out at age 16. Then someone got the bright idea that ALL children should be forced to graduate high school with a diploma (no matter how worthless it might be.) Now all kids are forced to stay in school until age 18. But with every new law, there are unintended consequences.

In this case children who are leaving schools before 18 (whether the parent is planning to homeschool or not) are categorized by the school as “transfer students” to home education. This isn’t something new, as I’ve been blogging about it for a few years, but it’s not something that’s going to go away, either.

This is the trend I have been calling “Excommunication” for years… ever since the dropout age in Indiana was raised from 16 to 18. I believe that unless this practice is dealt with at the school district level (by allowing children to drop out of schools that are failing them and increasing the number of public choices outside of district public schools) we will see more frequent cases of parents simply LEAVING their schools and not pursuing other educational avenues.

The fact that more and more parents are willing to simply leave their government school and do nothing, says more about the public schooling monopoly and its failures than it does about the homeschooling community.

Archive: Graduation Rates by the Numbers

The following is a reprint (copy/paste) from a a supplement to an article I archived here.

Graduation Rates by the Numbers

Written by The StarPress
10:46 PM, May. 21, 2011

The following represents the number of students from each graduating class (2006-2010) who dropped out or completed a home-school transfer anytime during their high school years before their expected date of graduation. The graduation rate for each year is also included.

Muncie Community Schools

2006
Graduation rate: 68.1 percent
Dropouts: 68
Home-school transfers: 11

2007
Graduation rate: 73.4 percent
Dropouts: 51
Home-school transfers: 48

2008
Graduation rate: 78.9 percent
Dropouts: 25
Home-school transfers: 121

2009
Graduation rate: 84.5 percent
Dropouts: 16
Home-school transfers: 146

2010
Graduation rate: 90.3 percent
Dropouts: 7
Home-school transfers: 143

Delaware Community Schools

2006
Graduation rate: 83.8 percent
Dropouts: 22
Home-school transfers: 1

2007
Graduation rate: 85 percent
Dropouts: 24
Home-school transfers: 6

2008
Graduation rate: 85.7 percent
Dropouts: 13
Home-school transfers: 8

2009
Graduation rate: 90.8 percent
Dropouts: 7
Home-school transfers: 20

2010
Graduation rate: 93.2 percent
Dropouts: 8
Home-school transfers: 18

Wes-Del Community Schools

2006
Graduation rate: 89.7 percent
Dropouts: 7
Home-school transfers: 0

2007
Graduation rate: 91.8 percent
Dropouts: 5
Home-school transfers: 0

2008
Graduation rate: 87.7 percent
Dropouts: 5
Home-school transfers: 3

2009
Graduation rate: 96.7 percent
Dropouts: 2
Home-school transfers: 5

2010
Graduation rate: 93.7 percent
Dropouts: 4
Home-school transfers: 2

Liberty-Perry Community Schools

2006
Graduation rate: 85.6 percent
Dropouts:
Home-school transfers: 0

2007
Graduation rate: 87.2 percent
Dropouts: 6
Home-school transfers: 1

2008
Graduation rate: 90.9 percent
Dropouts: 3
Home-school transfers: 2

2009
Graduation rate: 96.6 percent
Dropouts: 1
Home-school transfers: 3

2010
Graduation rate: 97.5 percent
Dropouts: 1
Home-school transfers: 6

Cowan Community Schools

2006
Graduation rate: 98 percent
Dropouts: 1
Home-school transfers: 0

2007
Graduation rate: 92.2 percent
Dropouts: 3
Home-school transfers: 0

2008
Graduation rate: 84.8 percent
Dropouts: 3
Home-school transfers: 1

2009
Graduation rate: 89.8 percent
Dropouts: 2
Home-school transfers: 0

2010
Graduation rate: 95.7 percent
Dropouts: 1
Home-school transfers: 3

Yorktown Community Schools

2006
Graduation rate: 88.3 percent
Dropouts: 11
Home-school transfers: 2

2007
Graduation rate: 93.2 percent
Dropouts: 5
Home-school transfers: 2

2008
Graduation rate: 88.1 percent
Dropouts: 15
Home-school transfers: 5

2009
Graduation rate: 93 percent
Dropouts: 5
Home-school transfers: 8

2010
Graduation rate: 95.3 percent
Dropouts: 2
Home-school transfers: 14

Daleville Community Schools

2006
Graduation rate: 84.4 percent
Dropouts: 2
Home-school transfers: 1

2007
Graduation rate: 81.6 percent
Dropouts: 6
Home-school transfers: 0

2008
Graduation rate: 85.2 percent
Dropouts: 7
Home-school transfers: 2

2009
Graduation rate: 87.5 percent
Dropouts: 6
Home-school transfers: 5

2010
Graduation rate: 78.7 percent
Dropouts: 8
Home-school transfers: 6

Source: Indiana Department of Education

Outpatient Orphanages: Schools keep kids, jobs in house

Yeah… I know I use hyperbole like some people use too much ketchup on mac-n-cheese. (What… you don’t? Try it sometime.) So it should be nothing new, when I point to stories like this: Delaware Community Schools will run its own latchkey program to minimize job cuts | The Star Press and say, “See? See? We are on our way towards finding a great new purpose for America’s anemic district schools. Some day, they are going to eventually start keeping kids overnight, then for the week. And then when it’s determined that ‘certain’ kids’ family life just doesn’t meet government standards, compassion will rule the day.

And in the name of compassion, we will think nothing of taking those “at risk” children off the hands of those bad parents!”

Okay… you’re right. This isn’t going to happen in the near-near future. But what other future for our public district schools can you think of? They are terrible at actually educating kids, and they are constantly complaining that parents aren’t getting their kids “ready to learn” before they get to school….

Don’t you think there’s just going to come a time when (in order to save jobs, because we should always have government schools!) they’ll suddenly find out they are better suited for “taking care of children” than many parents?

If your only criticism is that it makes you uncomfortable when I call Government Run Public Schools “Welfare Schools” or “Outpatient Orphanages” then I think you’re just in denial. Think for a moment and take a stab at what YOU think the future holds for public district schools.

Get back to me.