#65: Understanding the Truth Behind Accepting State Funding for Homeschool

Trigger Warning!! Listen, we don't judge, but we DO want people to make informed decisions and not be tempted by the carrots the *powers that be* dangle for us- before they bind our wrists with the rope those carrots are dangle from!

This week, embark on an insightful exploration of homeschooling with Andrea from Idaho, a mother of four and a homeschool graduate herself, who joins me, Cheryl, to discuss the nuances of teaching children outside the traditional classroom. Andrea's rich narrative provides us with a window into her decision to educate her kids at home, highlighting the unique challenges and freedoms that come with homeschooling.

Confronting the tentacles of government funding within the homeschooling sphere, we navigate through the potential pitfalls that financial assistance can bring. Digging into the ripple effects, such as stifling creativity and risking overregulation, we emphasize the need for vigilance in maintaining the freedom to educate at home. Tapping into resources like Homeschool Idaho and the Tuttle Twins series, Andrea provides insights on navigating education and legislation, all while fostering a supportive homeschooling community. Join us on this journey of discovery, and become part of the conversation shaping the future of home education.

Andrea's Instagram

http://www.elijahstanfield.com/

Homeschool Idaho FAQ

Article on School Choice

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Welcome to this week's episode of the Homeschool How-To. I'm Cheryl and I invite you to join me on my quest to find out why are people homeschooling, how do you do it, how does it differ from region to region, and should I homeschool my kids? Stick with me as I interview homeschooling families across the country to unfold the answers to each of these questions week by week. Welcome, and with us today we have Andrea from Idaho. Andrea, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. I'm excited. So why don't you just start off by telling us how many kids you have and their ages and what sort of got you into the homeschooling world?

Speaker 2: 0:46

Yeah, so I've got four kids and they range from age two up to 11. So we've got 11, 10, um six or no, he's seven, seven and three.

Speaker 1: 0:56

Oh, that's awesome, and you have a very young face. Do people often think like one of the kids.

Speaker 2: 1:05

Yeah, I'll open the door sometimes and they're like is your mom here? And I'm like I am the mom.

Speaker 1: 1:09

I don't know what you're using for skincare, but it's working. I just have really oily skin.

Speaker 2: 1:16

That's funny, but yeah, so I was actually homeschooled, so it was kind of an easy decision for us. I really loved to be homeschooled and so I really wanted to provide that opportunity. And I also have some learning struggles and so I figured my kids would most likely also have some of those things and they do Some even worse than I do and so I just wanted to be able to provide the space to learn how I was able to learn. So that's why we decided to homeschool. I don't ever remember having the conversation with my's why we just decided to homeschool. I don't ever remember like having the conversation with my husband are we going to homeschool? It was just always. This is what I'm doing, so it was just kind of just there from the beginning.

Speaker 2: 1:59

So that's kind of.

Speaker 1: 2:00

I mean, luckily, my husband is happy about it and he's on board with it, but I, it was never really like hey, can we do this? It was just like this is the boat you're. You're either coming on or not. Um, now, let's so. Let's rewind back to you being a homeschooler. Growing up, did you have siblings?

Speaker 2: 2:20

Yeah, so I'm the oldest of six kids and I went to kindergarten and then my mom actually pulled all of us out. Well, I guess she started homeschooling me at the same time. My brother was ready to enter school and she always thought that it was to help my younger brother. But as I grew up she's like oh, maybe it was for you Because I had so many learning difficulties. So it was, it was a real blessing. And then my sister was actually she passed away from cancer. So when she was first diagnosed she sent all of us to the public school.

Speaker 2: 2:53

We were able to choose and we felt like, you know, each kid just kind of picked where they wanted to go. So I actually graduated from a traditional high school, but I was only there for a year and a half and I graduated a full year early because by then I just knew how to learn and I had taught myself how to do things and I was like high school is so dumb, I did not want to be there. So I started college at 17 and ended up doing a degree online after I transferred. But anyway, so I've, I've done a lot I've also done.

Speaker 2: 3:24

There's this popular thing with the bridge programs, where you get funding from the state. So it was actually my mom had us enrolled in those and now I actually speak out against those because of the dangers that they pose for homeschooling. So that's kind of that's kind of got. What got me into why I'm online with my page is to teach people and so that we can preserve homeschool freedom, because I loved being homeschooled and I loved the minimal regulations that we have in Idaho. Every state is different, but I think the less regulations you have, the better chance that your kids can thrive, because every kid is so different and the state is no way going to be able to know what's best for our kids 1,000% and I'm glad that you're on today so that we can talk about that a little further.

Speaker 1: 4:07

First of all, I am so sorry to hear about your sister. I can't imagine going through that and I would imagine that, like maybe going into the public school though you probably weren't happy about that Maybe just having like the change of get your mind kind of off of things might have helped a little bit. So you know, when, when people come to me and talk about, like you know, reasons why they can or can't homeschool, it's like well, it's not, there are. You don't have to decide that homeschooling is your way of life forever and that's the only way to do it. You can go in and out like you. You're in kindergarten, in the school, then homeschooled, then went back in for a specific reason.

Speaker 1: 4:46

And I think people feel like they can't go back and forth between the decisions and you absolutely can, depending on what your circumstances are at the time and what works for you and your family. And it's not to think of yourself as, oh, I failed at homeschooling because I sent my kid back into public school. It's like no, you were just making the best decision for what was going on at that time. So I think you have a really unique perspective. I'm super happy that you're here today, so all right. So did you ever, when you were homeschooled, did you ever feel like, oh, I'm missing out on the things that traditional school provides, like the prom and all. Like you know, dating and that sort of stuff?

Speaker 2: 5:28

Well, so by the time I was, I actually did go to prom because I was, I was in the school at that point. I when I was actually being homeschooled. I don't remember feeling that or thinking that because I had even I had gone to kindergarten. I don't think I'm a very social person, so I don't think it really hurt too much. I had siblings and I really just love learning. I loved the piano, I spent a lot of time on the piano, so I don't think I really missed it.

Speaker 2: 5:59

And then, having experienced those things with high school, so because I was able to compare both of them, I was like I wasn't, I wasn't missing out, because I could see both sides, and I'm sure some people. It's just going to be different kid to kid and we'll tread, we'll decide what to do when our kids are older, but you can create those experiences. I don't think that we necessarily have to have the public school in order for kids to have friends, go on dates, have good experiences, like that's not something that the public schools can solely provide. It's kind of for maybe sports, I don't know, but I'm not really into sports, so I've not like logically thought through that. I'm sure you could create it, but that's a tricky part, but I wasn't into that, so it didn't hurt.

Speaker 1: 6:44

Yeah, and, and in some States, like you said, the rules vary, um, but in some States homeschoolers are it's it's mandated that they have to be allowed to play in the school sports. Where I am in New York, you are not allowed at all to be in the school sports. But there are other things like, for instance, soccer and t-ball. I mean, when kids are young, that's more of the community, the town that puts that on so they can be involved in that. And you know, my son was in wrestling. Even though it was a school thing, they did it at a wrestling facility, so he was able to do that. He didn't have to be enrolled in the school to do that.

Speaker 1: 7:24

And then, as you get older, I know my sister's kids, like when they played basketball well, the really good ones were always on a travel team which was like that above and beyond extra team and that was not associated with the school. So there's always these options and, like you said, you can create it if you just want to do like I was, thinking something like oh, flag football would be fun if, like every first Friday of the month, I had, you know, a group of 12 kids here to play flag football, or you know manhunt or something like that. You know that you, you just create that and so it. Yeah, you can. You can have those experiences for sure.

Speaker 1: 7:59

Now, you were talking about how you advocate for not getting the funding, um, which is allowed, and I'm not too I know what you're talking about, how you advocate for not getting the funding which is allowed. And I know what you're talking about, but I'm not too familiar with it. So if you could kind of break that down for us, what do some states offer, or is it the whole federally Like? Every state offers this.

Speaker 2: 8:19

So it's state by state. As far as I know, I haven't heard of a federal thing coming for homeschooling, but I'd be against that as well. So there's a couple different things that go on. Sometimes you have a there there's not like a for sure name, sometimes they're just called homeschool, charter schools or funded charter schools or bridge programs, so sometimes they're actually a public school, but you get the money to do school at home. So so that's one version. Then you have traditionally they're called ESAs or vouchers, or sometimes they're called tax credits, where you get even more money sometimes and that can go directly to homeschoolers.

Speaker 2: 8:57

Sometimes it's really, really confusing. But the main point is that anytime that there's funding coming from the government in any form, there are going to be some regulations attached, and usually the regulations start small and then they start to increase, and that's what people need to be aware of, and we can go as deep, we can go deeper. I don't know. Maybe that's a good if you have more questions, that I can keep going down, but sometimes I get going and I'm like I need to stop, though I've got to make sure we don't sound stupid, definitely and just like everything else.

Speaker 1: 9:31

Like you said that, okay, they're called tax credits. Oh well, I, that sounds good. You know I pay taxes and my kid doesn't go to the school that I pay taxes to, so I would like a credit. That makes sense If I'm not using the thing I'm paying the taxes for, you give me a credit, so I and it and it's so like this dangle the carrot thing.

Speaker 1: 9:52

Just like I use social media all the time, like, ooh, hey, you want to connect with all these cool people and you can sell products and you could do this and, you know, become part of a homeschool Facebook groups and do meetups. That's all wonderful. They're dangling the carrot, but on the back end, they're like and we're going to listen to everything you say all day long and we're going to throw ads in your face because we heard that you're out of toothpaste and you know, here's this brand new toothpaste that we're trying to get you and you know. So it's like um, there's, there is always a catch. They're always dangling the carrot so that they can like I don't know, dangling the carrot so that they can like I don't know, beat you over the head with it. So, yeah, get into, like what are some of the regulations that you've seen, or that you predict that maybe down the road this little tax credit might restrict us from doing as homeschooling families.

Speaker 2: 10:38

Yeah, so there's the one in Idaho. So obviously I'm going to be more focused on Idaho because that's where I've studied. But a lot of these are going to apply very similarly throughout all the states. So what? For example, we had one that is called Empowering Parents Grant and it was offered to all students, and what we found with that is it was so hard for people first to get money at all. So it puts families kind of in a pickle, like they're expecting the money and then they can't get the money, and then they find out they can't hardly spend it on anything, and then a lot of the money is just spent on, like managing this program. So why is this tax money? It just feels like so much of it is being wasted. If we I think most people can actually afford to homeschool, it doesn't really cost that much money. But as soon as you have a couple people signing up for these programs, then they're like, oh, it's successful, it's successful, let's do it again, let's raise taxes more so that we can offer this again when, if you would have just let us have our own money homeschool families are very resourceful we would have figured it out and been able to offer things cheaper and better because of the natural way of how the free market works. But when you have this money just coming to you from the state, which is from your neighbors right, a lot of this is a lot more than you would ever pay into taxes you get that money. And then Let me know if I get too confusing. Sometimes I get lots of thoughts coming in. I'm like, okay, which way are we going here? But when you think about it, you have your other neighbors.

Speaker 2: 12:09

Not everybody agrees with homeschooling, and if it's their tax money too, right, we always say it's our, it's my tax money. Well, they actually probably paid more into it than you did. And if you want to go see, take a look at any homeschool page on social media and you'll see a lot of people that really don't like homeschooling. Those people are paying taxes as well and they're going to be fighting to get to get rid of of homeschooling or regulate us Like they want that to happen too. So the regulations get tighter and tighter and tighter.

Speaker 2: 12:37

And then you also have the other side of when you have money offered to you that you didn't earn right, I know, technically it's our money, but you didn't earn it it feels more like a birthday present or something right. You just hand it over that kind of naturally. It just kills creativity. Why would I spend my time coming up with a cheaper, better, more affordable way for this problem that exists in homeschooling, when the state is just going to offer me money and then I can go pay too much money for someone else to solve this problem? So it's just kind of a natural thing that happens.

Speaker 2: 13:16

I think sometimes people get in their mind like oh, socialism is bad, blah, blah, blah, and they like they turn it into like this tribal war thing one against the other. But I want people to remember that these are actually the Republicans are usually the ones pushing this funding coming to the homeschools because they think that it's going to improve the public school systems. And then you've got. Usually the Democrats want to regulate more. But I'm like let's forget all that and let's just remember that the natural thing that happens when you are offered money that you didn't directly earn is that it's going to have one, the regulations. Two, it's going to kill the creativity, it's going to make it so people. It just really kills that motivation and that's one of the other problems that I see.

Speaker 2: 14:00

Another problem is that and this has happened, this has already affected us we signed up for gymnastics class. Every other homeschool family there was a funded homeschool, except for us, I believe. I didn't like verify every single person, but I just you know from hearing from the conversations. Well, the next semester they raised the prices. Who does that kick out? First? It kicks out our family. We can't compete with the. Sometimes it's $1,700 per kid, sometimes it's $3,000 per kid. I think in Texas that's like $10,000 per kid. There's no way that my family can compete against that.

Speaker 2: 14:35

So then, when you think about what is the actual role of government, it's to protect my freedoms and my liberties. Well, how is putting me out of business, my homeschool out of business? That's not the role of government. They think that they're helping by offering this money, but it actually is not. It's not helping Because if I want to say I'm going to homeschool, I don't care about the money, I just want to be able to homeschool my kids, how is best for them?

Speaker 2: 15:02

I don't need the regulations, I'm going to figure it out on my own. And then you've got other people oh, I want free money, I don't care about the regulations, that's fine, I'll deal with it, but then the prices raise for everyone. They can still afford it, and it makes it harder for me, who just wants to be left alone. It makes it harder for us to be able to keep homeschooling, and I think that's another big problem that we face is these are just the natural consequences of how the state money works, and it's not that my side's right and the other side's wrong. It's just what happens, and I think that that's an important part that we need to keep in mind is there's no right or wrong. This is just what happens.

Speaker 1: 15:41

Well, let me start off by saying, girl, I've worked for the government for 16 years 16 years and the last 10 of them being with welfare and food stamps and all the other money that could siphon down, and I can a thousand percent verify that what you are saying is absolutely true, and it doesn't just stop with the homeschool, it is with welfare. Do you? If you guys would be shocked at the regulations and not regulations that make sense, that go along with when you apply for assistance, when, if I was a single mother and I needed assistance to you know, keep my house afloat for an immediate amount of time. The regulations in place pretty much make that impossible for me to just use it for a small amount of time and then get myself back on my feet. That's the intention and that's what they tell you the intention is. But the regulations behind that do not support that.

Speaker 1: 16:52

And you can talk to people who grew up. I was just watching the Plandemic 3 movie and Mickey Willis, who created that, talks about that, how his mother was on the system when he was a kid. And it is set up for you can't even have a two-parent household and be on assistance. So it's yes, you are a thousand percent correct and I can see the regulations. Like you said, you might not have any regulations right now to sign you up, but that's the carrot to lure you in. And oh look, we can do gymnastics. Like you said, the gymnastics is now going up. Well now, now maybe it doesn't even cover gymnastics. So now you've got a gymnastics teacher who she's just trying to make an honest living too, and she raised her prices, thinking, wow, I can. You know people can afford this. Now, the demand is so high I can do this. And then all of a sudden nobody can do it anymore, because now gymnastics is not part of what they're going to cover.

Speaker 2: 17:52

Now they're only going to cover the Rockefeller curriculum.

Speaker 1: 17:57

So now you can't get whoever a Becca's or the Good and the Beautiful or all about. You can't get that stuff anymore. You can only get what they've approved, and that might not be right now or in a year from now, but that might be five years down the road and it's only going to get more strict. And what you're reporting might get more strict too, because they want to know that you're using their curriculum. In New York right now we have to report our intention for the year and then every quarter what we actually did. Did we fulfill that intention? And I know some states you don't have to do anything, but that can get way more.

Speaker 1: 18:33

I think New York is one of the stricter ones and I mean even that can go down to what is your day to day. You know how many hours did you spend on this? Submit tests, you know, and, like you said, homeschoolers we do this because we want a different way to teach our kids. So if now we have to give them tests every week or month or quarter to prove how you know what they're doing, which the tests? I mean, it's like what's stopping you from writing down the answers? I don't even know. So what's the point of them at all? Right, but yeah, you make so much sense and and wow, I really hope people I'm just thinking like the snippets that I could share on social media with just the stuff you were saying, and I'm wishing I put makeup on because I'm like, oh, this would go viral if everybody like knew this information and thought of it this way.

Speaker 2: 19:24

Right, and that's what I try to talk about on my page. Unfortunately, I think it kind of rubs people the wrong way, because they all of a sudden, like feel guilty. They feel guilty that kind of. They were deceived, right, they thought that this was a good thing, they were following the Republicans pushing these things and they're like then they don't want to believe it, right, Like they're really like offended, and I really I don't know.

Speaker 2: 19:50

Sometimes it's hard of how do you, how do you have this conversation? I found that it does. People don't want to talk to me sometimes because I'm vocal about it, because I I talk out about it and say, look, what you're doing is is, you know, is is harming homeschooling Like no, it's not. No, it's not like that. You don't want to believe that. Even talking to my mom, because she had us signed up, it took me months of talking to her like, mom, no, do you understand, though, what has happened now? Because the school that we were signed up for has now turned back into a full public school. You have to have a teacher, you have to log on at certain times. There's an in-person full public school and then there's an online version. If people want that, that's fine, but we have got to make sure that people understand that that is not homeschooling. There is a different way to do it and they need to stop calling themselves homeschooling, because it really confuses our legislators as well, because they can't keep track of all this stuff.

Speaker 1: 20:51

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Speaker 1: 21:57

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Speaker 1: 22:36

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Speaker 2: 23:12

Yeah, I wish my stuff would go viral, but I think it also comes with a little bit of like. What is she saying?

Speaker 1: 23:18

And you're right, it's tricky and it's called cognitive dissonance, when we know something to be true but we don't want to believe that. I went through it when I thought Obama and Hillary were amazing. Then I went through it when I felt like, oh my God, I was lied to, trump's amazing. And then I went through it again when I was like, oh my God, they're all trying to kill us, they're all on the same team and we're, but there's, you know, they're opposite wings of the same bird and we're not on that flight. We're like on the branch that that bird sits on. I've never sworn on this podcast before. I might have, but it's so true.

Speaker 1: 24:03

But people have to understand that. You know like, yes, it's uncomfortable to to hear the truth when you are benefiting from from the carrot that they're dangling, but down the road, just like people who send their kids to public school they don't like to hear the truth about. Well, public school was created by Horace Mann and the Rockefellers to create worker bees, to kind of stifle the individuality of a child. You know people don't want to hear that either. So I get it. I've probably been there too, but it's a necessary conversation. So I think that your role as the person that speaks out is more important than ruffling a few feathers, so congratulations for what you're doing. Keep up the good work.

Speaker 2: 24:55

It's a hard spot to be in, but it's good Someone has to do it.

Speaker 1: 24:59

Yeah, what made you open your eyes to this? Because if your mother was accepting that funding, obviously it's been around a while. What made you open your eyes to like maybe this is too good to be true.

Speaker 2: 25:11

I remember I don't know if I ever like thought this is bad, like as we were enrolled, but when I. So Homeschool Idaho is the state organization in Idaho that helps, you know, protect homeschool freedoms, and they published some articles specifically about ESAs and the dangers that they pose, because ESAs they've been around for a long time and they've started, you know, keeping track and keeping the data on. Is it actually helping kids? And it's not. It's not actually helping, and so I always encourage people that that's a good place to start. I trust Homeschool Idaho. They've done a good job with their research. They give you all of the links you can go verify all the stuff, and so that's where I started.

Speaker 2: 25:47

I started reading that and then you just I don't know. You just realize that if we don't do something about this, homeschooling could disappear, and when you actually follow the money, you always have to follow the money and Homeschool Idaho just links it right back up. So it's an arm of UNESCO and they want to take away every form of private education. They don't want private money to be funding education at all. Not private schools, not homeschools, nothing. They want it all controlled by the state. So it's actually a pretty big. It's a it's a big attack.

Speaker 1: 26:23

So that break that down for me. So who's UNESCO?

Speaker 2: 26:26

So UNESCO is so hard it's complicated for me to explain. So UNESCO is a they're one of the they want a world order type of thing, like they're one of those arms, and I think that sometimes they do a lot of good things. They help provide like food for people who need food or like training for people. But this arm of what they're doing to take away all private forms of education, I strongly disagree with, and they might even have good intentions. But Is that private school too? Yes, or just homeschool? They want to take away all forms of private education, and how they want to do that is to offer state money. Because once you offer state money, guess what? The state is in control. That's just how it goes, and it always starts small, but then they can start, and we've already seen this happen.

Speaker 2: 27:14

So and this is just stories people have told me. People have told me they started accepting funding for their private school and then they were told by the state hey, you can't enforce your rules about same gender couples in your school because you accept state funding. You can't have those rules anymore, you can't discriminate against those couples anymore. Or there was other examples oh for co-ops. So this was a homeschool co-op. They're like, oh well, if your co-op accepts any form of state funding, you can't pray at your homeschool co-ops anymore. Like these are big, this is a big deal and this is, you know, it happens small and they might like fight back against this, but when you think about it, if you start accepting money that was from your neighbors essentially right, you go back to that. They have every right to want to know what's happening, and so the tagline I always use is we need to separate state and home, and the way to do that is to not let that state money into your home. So you've got the state doing that. Then you've got UNESCO with their big plan, and this is how they plan to accomplish that is by getting the money in. And they say because they want to equalize it, they want everyone to have the same opportunities.

Speaker 2: 28:28

And let's just acknowledge, too, that there are homeschool families that don't do a good job taking care of their children, like. I think that that's important to acknowledge, and so sometimes they'll use that as an excuse. We want to make sure that that never happens, but let us also acknowledge that the government can never guarantee that nothing bad ever happens. That's impossible, right, and I think people kind of get like stuck in their head Well, if they just had more funding, they would fix it. No, never in the history of ever has the state been able to guarantee that everyone is happy and healthy and taken care of.

Speaker 2: 29:03

That's just not the way it works. It doesn't work that way in any system. We live in a flawed world, right, and I think it just happens to be that my side of things says it's going to be even worse if the state has more control because people are so different. There's no way that a couple people up here that there's probably really good people that really think that if they can regulate homeschooling, it will guarantee that no abuse ever happens. But that's just not true and that's just not how. It's impossible. It doesn't work that way.

Speaker 1: 29:45

Yes, and to go back to what you were saying about, when you accept funding you have to do the regulations, and you were saying that that's just stories that you've heard, but I'll tell you right off the bat that that is true, because all during the COVID era of mask wearing, private schools had to wear masks, whether they believed in them or not. Why they accepted funding from the state and they even got more funding for implementing the mask wearing and the social distancing Wow, I didn't know that.

Speaker 2: 30:16

That's crazy.

Speaker 1: 30:17

Yeah, it was. That's why you know, even private schools had to.

Speaker 2: 30:20

I mean, you see, with the universities as well, whenever there's state funding involved, like they're only allowed to teach certain things, certain ways, like you have to follow. So if you don't want to follow it, stay separate, completely separate.

Speaker 1: 30:34

Right. So if you don't want to follow it, stay separate, completely separate, right. So even, yes, private universities they all masked because they all accepted some form of funding from our government. Secondly, on that, you were talking about the regulations to for the children that there might be abuse in the household, and I thought of that as well. And I was talking to another guest back in the beginning of my show and they said, listen, if there's abuse going on in the household, chances are the authorities are already alerted to that.

Speaker 1: 31:11

Few and far between. Is no one ever going to see that a child is neglected, whether it be a neighbor, a family member, just going to the grocery, all those avenues like it, the regular. It doesn't outweigh, you know, to have these regulations in place to help the you know amount of children that might be abused in a homeschool household, because if those kids were enrolled in public school they would still be abused and, yes, they might have more access to food and somebody to say, hey, help, I need help. But because all of the agencies that take care of abused children are all government agencies, there is nothing we can do about it, because you basically have to see a child getting, you know, attacked for them to be removed from their household. Everything that the state agencies do is to keep the child with the parents. So, uh, and I've seen it myself, I have, I you know firsthand again, um, different programs. I've worked with they. They will always try to keep the child with with the parents.

Speaker 1: 32:28

So, yeah, what are they going to do with this extra funding? You know they're not taking these kids out of the house. And, yeah, what are they going to do with this extra funding? You know they're not taking these kids out of the house. And if they do take them out of the house, where are they putting them? Foster care is overloaded. So it's. You know, what do you? What's the answer? Like you said, it's a cruel world, unfortunately, you know. But we got to look at the pros and cons. You can't let a tagline lure you into accepting something that sounds too good to be true.

Speaker 2: 32:56

Right, yeah, got to be aware of it and I think, along with what you were saying as well, when you start regulating homeschools, it overloads the system even more. So who does it end up hurting? It ends up hurting the kids that actually do need help, that are actually experiencing abuse and neglect because they can't keep track of everyone. So that's, that's just another. It's another way to look at it. But when we don't need the state involved, let's not have the state involved. They're just human too. Like there's so much that people are trying to keep track of I don't think we need to keep track of. Is every third grade or reading at third grade level right? Like the parents are responsible for that. Let them teach their kids and let them be responsible. I truly believe that most parents are doing a good job. They will get the help that their kids need when they need it, right. Unfortunately, there are other parents who don't, but in the majority of cases, the parents are going to be taking care of their kids. That's why they're homeschooling them. That really is why.

Speaker 1: 33:56

Yes, and so three things there. Because when children graduate now, after all the hours like now, they're in preschool full day. All the hours that a child is in school, they're actually graduating with a lower reading level than they have in a long time. So what are you going to do about it If my homeschooled third grader isn't reading? You know you can't. You have kids for 14, 15 years for 40 hours a week and they're not reading when they're 18 years old.

Speaker 2: 34:24

So there's that, exactly, exactly.

Speaker 1: 34:27

And then you talked about the services. I have reached out to my school district and I'm in like a podunk town. I grew up going to like a high school with 2000 kids. I'm not in that anymore, I'm in a country town and I called the school and asked for speech services for my son and they gave me the run around no call back. I kept calling. They had a conversation with me. They first they said if I had contacted them in his preschool year they could do something about it. But now that he's homeschooled in his kindergarten year, they can't because they can't determine whether it's a, whether his speech is affecting his ability to learn. They don't know that because he's a homeschooler. Um, even though that's what an evaluation is for.

Speaker 2: 35:14

So, and then those regulations, man? They just end up hurting everybody.

Speaker 1: 35:19

So then I tried to find um outsourced services, like just through my health insurance and just pay a copay which my health insurance says, yes, we would cover that, his doctor signed off. Yes, I think he should have these services. Yes, we would cover that, his doctor signed off. Yes, I think he should have these services. I called everywhere. There is nobody willing to work with a child for speech services. They're all working with stroke victims on like kind of how to relearn to talk again. So so all of the it seems to be that all of the speech pathologists are working within the school system and again they're. They're all regulated now by the government, so they have different things that they can't just go be a speech therapist for people that want to pay out of pocket or pay through insurance.

Speaker 1: 36:03

And then, thirdly, my friend who is a teacher in the inner city here in New York. She said that it is hard to get any help for students that are in her class. She gets that. It is hard to get any help for students that are in her class. She gets kids that are just dropped in throughout the year, you know they're. They're not all there on the first day. They might come October, november, december, january, some even in May. Some of them have never spoken English in their life. Some of them have never even been in a classroom before. So there are all the and they're just thrown in her class.

Speaker 1: 36:33

She cannot say, hey, I think this child needs this service or that service. Nothing happens. She said that if the parent urges for the service to take place, it will happen a little faster, meaning maybe six to 12 months from when the request goes in. But as the teacher, it does not happen, or it doesn't happen very quickly if she's the one to put forth the request. So she'll talk to the parents and say listen, I think your kid needs this, but I need you to be the advocate for them. And a lot of times they don't speak English either. They don't even know what she's asking. So yeah, that's going on too.

Speaker 2: 37:08

That's crazy. I think that's a great example, too, of why we don't want the state regulating us, because those regulations are really, really hurting a lot of people, and I think people really have good intentions when they try to regulate, but it just doesn't work out the way that they want it to. There's no way for everyone to know how it will actually play out in the real world. You called it ESA. What did that stand for? So that's an educational savings account. So the old word was called a voucher and the new phrase is tax credit, but they're essentially all the same thing. It's just money from the state that comes. Yeah, it's offered to homeschoolers and private school kids.

Speaker 1: 37:54

So right now, do they put any restrictions on what you can use it for? I know you said it's different from state to state, but in your state they were using it for gymnastics. Are there some states already where you think maybe it's it's like only for curriculums or um, that sort of thing, or is it? I mean it is kind of funny that they oh hey, we can just use this for gymnastics. It's like it is tax dollars. Yeah, I get what you were saying before, like how some people are like no, I pay taxes. Put your kid in the school that I pay the taxes for. You want my tax money now to keep your kid at home and go to gymnastics, like I do. I understand that side as well.

Speaker 2: 38:33

Yeah, and it's. It's kind of pretty. I hate to use the word unfair, but with the kids that are going to the public school, then you've got their family is like hey, wait, like I, I'm not getting money from the state to go to gymnastics. Like I'm, I'm only using the money to go to school. So why are these other kids getting all of different opportunities? So there's that side of it. So what I don't specifically know. I mean we're in the middle of our legislative session right now, so I don't know the current standards. I think that they were trying to expand it to be able to offer in Idaho so that you could use it for co-ops, which sounds like, oh, that's less regulation. Actually, that's bad, because then guess what they get to regulate what happens at your co-op.

Speaker 1: 39:18

Are you trying to pick a curriculum but feel a little overwhelmed at the variety of options? Me too. I mean, how do you pick a curriculum when you don't know what each one has to offer? That's been my biggest problem. Well, I am here to help. I just launched a premium content series. That means it's $3 a month, which will just help cover the cost of running the podcast.

Speaker 1: 39:38

In my curriculum series, I interview homeschooling students and parents and curriculum creators about specific curriculum each week so that you can take the guesswork out of your curriculum choices. I'll be asking questions like what does the day-to-day look like with this curriculum? What does it cover from a bird's eye view? How long does one lesson take to complete? How many lessons does the curriculum contain and what does it cost? Did you have to order the book or could you download them and print them somewhere like your library?

Speaker 1: 40:05

Does this curriculum have a lot of games, writing or crafts, and did your child enjoy this curriculum? Can you do it with more than one child at a time? And if I did this curriculum with my child, would I need to add any sort of supplements to it? These are all questions that I've had while I search for the perfect curriculum to suit my son's personality and my expectations. Let's face it there is no one curriculum out there that will work best for every child and adult, so I invite you to join me in my search to find out what every curriculum has to offer, so that you can feel confident in your curriculum choices and enjoy your homeschooling journey that much more. Right where you find all of the Homeschool how To podcast episodes, you'll see my curriculum series and you can subscribe today.

Speaker 2: 40:51

What I do know that's happening with the bridge programs in Idaho is that first I believe it was you would check in once a month about what you were doing in your homeschool and now they've changed it to once a week. And what's really interesting, as you watch the parents, the attitude of entitlement is starting to come out a little bit. They're like wait, we are entitled to that money, that is our tax money. Why are they dictating what we do with that? So I think we need to be aware of that side of it as well. Like I think the regulations are going to increase. It is kind of creating a very unhealthy attitude amongst homeschool families taking funding. We're not entitled to the labor of someone else like this that this is not how it works.

Speaker 2: 41:34

But it'll be interesting to see if people start unenrolling from these because the regulations are increasing. So my only hope is that there are enough homeschool families that like stand our ground and say we will not ever accept state funding. Homeschooling should stay as unregulated as possible. We want to make it as unregulated as possible by refusing all forms of state funding, because eventually all of these schools, all of these ESAs, are going to be so regulated they won't look anything like homeschooling. We just need to have enough people holding the line saying come on, come on, we're ready, come homeschool with us. I will hope people will jump over sooner so that we can have a larger group for them to come join. But it's starting to fall apart already when for a call to action.

Speaker 1: 42:23

Where can we send people to, like, get more information on this or to get knowledge about how to? Like? You said they're in a legislative session right now. I mean, I went to public school. I know zero about legislative sessions and what, how a bill gets passed, and you know what that process looks like Like. Where do us homeschooling parents need to show up to put a stop to this? Or, you know, make sure that the regulations do not get put in place, or to make parents aware that we need to stop accepting the funding. I think there's two sides there. You know whether it's it's it's don't let the regulations get passed or just stop accepting the funding altogether, and we should probably do both. But, like, what is your suggestion to parents and do you have a place that they can go? I know you said that you do have a page, so tell us all that so.

Speaker 2: 43:16

So my page is homeschool freedom, mom, Andrea. But as far as what people can do now is, every state has a state organization that is pro homeschool freedom. I think there's one or two States that don't advocate against state funding. So I would first go to your state organization. Make sure that they are on board with not accepting state funding. That's a good place to start, and they would have information for you about how the legislation works in your state. And then there's also there's Homeschool Idaho. If you just go to homeschoolidahoorg, they have a ton of articles just about ESAs, and I always encourage people to go to there as well. There's also an article that I always give to people. If you're familiar. Have you heard of the Tuttle Twins?

Speaker 1: 43:59

Yes, I am an affiliate. Okay, get 40% off of your time with code Cheryl40.

Speaker 2: 44:06

Oh, there you go. Okay, perfect. So what's funny about that is Connor Boyack, the author. He's been on this show, has he? And he actually goes along with the school choice movement. Elijah the illustrator is against it and he has an article that he has published publicly that you can see elijahstanfieldcom. I think it's his most recent article. So it's kind of interesting because they both you know they own the company together but one's pro and one's against.

Speaker 1: 44:35

Yeah, from a like marketing standpoint, if he speaks out being against it he might lose business. And sometimes I mean their message is amazing with just. I mean I was reading. My son brought me the Tuttle Twins, but one of the books this morning, um the Atlas one, and so we're reading all about the strong man and this and that, and so the messages in those are so important for kids and parents alike. Like I learn every time I read those books with my kid. I learn like way more than I ever did in school.

Speaker 1: 45:08

But that message is so important to get to people that he might think like if I speak out, I'm going to lose a lot of fans and I'd rather them get the message that I am delivering. And maybe Elijah, because he's the illustrator, if he speaks out, that can kind of be like both of us supporting that. You know, because I agree with you, that you know because I agree with you. I don't see him being for anything that the government backs, but he might be just trying to preserve the books. You know, make sure that that's in front of a wide audience, as wide of an audience as they can be.

Speaker 2: 45:43

And so you mentioned.

Speaker 1: 45:47

You called it school choice and I know that was like a Trump thing. So where does school choice fit in? Because I didn't think about that being a homeschool thing. I thought that was like if my kid is in the Bronx, but I want to send him to I live way more north than that I was just trying to sound cool. But like I want to send them to a school in Manhattan, I can and nobody can say they can't or whatever. But or, if there's another public school that I like better, I can send them. That's what I, that's what I understood school choice to be. Is that incorrect?

Speaker 2: 46:23

Yeah, I'm glad. I'm glad that we're touching on it from this angle. So school choice obviously can mean lots of things. If you're talking about the school choice as a movement, I think it does unfortunately tie in this idea of being able to use the funds from the public school in order to go to a wide range of schooling options, including homeschool, including private school, which is the part I disagree with. Do I think that you should have a choice in which public school you choose? Absolutely, If you want to take your kid to whichever public school, go ahead, Like I. That sounds like a good idea. So I believe that all parents should have those choices available.

Speaker 2: 47:03

Unfortunately, if all of the choices are funded by the state, they will all turn into one option, which is a state-run school, which is the part of school choice that I don't agree with. So you'll even see homeschool legal defense. I think they even did a post and they said we want to celebrate school choice and the homeschool people were like what are you talking about? Because school choice has been associated with funding homeschools. Choice has been associated with funding homeschools. So they had to clarify we are just talking about people having the choice to send their kids wherever they want. We're not advocating for funding going to homeschools from the state, but I think we have to be very clear about what we mean with the phrases that we're using.

Speaker 2: 47:47

So the choice in school is good, but the school choice movement, I don't think that's good if it includes funding. We have got to separate state and home and the way to do that is to refuse all forms of state funding for your homeschool and your private school if you want it to stay separate from the state.

Speaker 1: 48:04

Yeah, and just to kind of, you know, finish up like I had recently learned about omnibus bills and you know, again, going to public school, that was something I never heard of before. But what that is is, hey, we're going to say that this bill does this school choice. You can choose whatever public school you want to go to, even if you are not in that district. But then within that omnibus bill, there are, okay, we're going to send a billion dollars to Ukraine, and you know, and it's like that everywhere. That's not even just at the top level. It was like that because I just started voting, like for whatever that's worth, but I figure, at least in our, our, our local elections. I had always vote in the presidential ones, which I get, that I mean, that's like. That's like taking your poll on who you want to be the next American idol. I don't really care, they've had it, they've had it lined up for years. But anyway, I digress, um, but you know, I went to go vote locally recently and you know you, I had even said well, can I see? What are these candidates about? What do they stand for? There's nothing, there was like nothing anywhere that says anything about it.

Speaker 1: 49:14

And they give you when you go to vote. They give you these little blurbs. They don't tell you anything about the person, but on the back there are these bills that I didn't even know we were voting on, and it just says something like oh, do you want a greener? Whatever, oh, yeah, well, sure, of course you want a green, you want to be healthy. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 49:32

But then you go into it and it's like okay, well, we're going to raise your taxes, we're going to take down 85 million trees, put up solar panels that can't be recycled, and you know they're all made by China and they're all coming out of your taxes.

Speaker 1: 49:45

So, like you know what I mean, that's how government works. So they label it one thing and then totally flip the switch on you and it means something completely different, or it might mean that one thing, but then on the backend it's there's so much more to it that we really have to educate ourselves, and that's why I think books like the Tuttle Twins books are awesome and, um, you know, I I'm trying to keep a list of all these resources of people that I have interviewed over the years, so I'm working on that right now and I'm going to have that available to people soon as a free resource too, because there's just so much. But why don't you, as we roll up on the hour, tell us again where we can find you, and I will put all of that information in the show's description, so that people can use those resources to educate themselves as well.

Speaker 2: 50:33

Yeah, so my Instagram is homeschoolfreedommomandrea and I post on there regularly during the week about homeschool stuff and just stuff I've learned over the years as a homeschool mom and from being homeschooled. And then we talk about political things as well, and we have a lot of fun watching people argue in the comments. But I love talking with people and finding people that are actually interested and ready to start learning more about this and start talking about it. I understand it's a very awkward conversation to have. I've done it a lot. I've lost friends and connections over it, even with me trying to be as kind as possible, but I think we need to normalize that. This is a really important conversation to have. We need to separate the state and the home and we've got to do that by refusing state funding. So that's where you can find me Awesome.

Speaker 1: 51:23

Well, I think at the end of every conversation you should then just lead into vaccines. If you really want to put a nail in the coffin, just lead into vaccines If you really want to put a nail in the coffin.

Speaker 1: 51:37

Andrew, your work is so important and I just thank you so much Cause I've been hearing little tidbits here and there, um from guests over the past year and nobody has ever had like really good resources and information for me. So I think this is so important and what a great time to to be vocal about this because, since COVID, people are their eyes are opening up to you know what's going on in the world, and they are homeschooling more than ever now. So this is really you're getting in at the ground level to kind of like say halt what's going on, because you know if it seems too good to be true, it definitely is. So I thank you so much for your time today. I hope people find you.

Speaker 1: 52:11

I will link your Instagram in the show's description as well. Thank you so much. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you for tuning into this week's episode of the homeschool how to. If you've enjoyed what you heard and you'd like to contribute to the show, please consider leaving a small tip using the link in my show's description. Or, if you'd rather, please use the link in the description to share this podcast with a friend or on your favorite homeschool group Facebook page. Any effort to help us keep the podcast going is greatly appreciated, thank you.