Dear Editor,

Your homeschooling editorial of November 15, 2003, in which you called for more supervision of homeschooling parents, was way off base. You cite two reasons for your call for more monitoring. The first is so that cases of abuse and neglect can be discovered and reported. While this is an admirable goal, curtailing the freedoms of responsible homeschoolers is not the way to achieve this goal. "Hard cases make bad law," I believe the saying goes. The job of the education establishment is to educate our children (and it's not even living up to that job); it is not to police families. The second reason you gave for the need for more supervision of homeschooling parents is so that the state can be assured that children are learning basic skills. This is also a valid concern but one that is already addressed in states' laws requiring that homeschooled children participate in yearly standardized testing or have annual portfolio reviews. Sending monitors into the homes of homeschooling parents would be a colossal waste of money and an unneeded duplication of efforts in many ways. It woul also impinge on parents' rights to privacy. The education system's job is not to monitor or supervise homeschooling families. Many court cases have shown that this country's Constitution guarantees parents the right to educate their children free from government interference, be this in 18th-century farm country or 21st-century urban America.

Sincerely,
Daneille Vrtar
Dayton, OH