41. Maintaining the Distinction Between Public Schools and Homeschools (and Other Private Schools) (5/03)

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Whereas public school administrators and officials are contacting homeschoolers through surveys, invitations to public meetings, and other announcements in an effort to bring homeschoolers into the public schools; and

Whereas private companies in conjunction with public schools are marketing public e-schools to homeschoolers; and

Whereas although homeschoolers come from all walks of life, homeschool for a number of different reasons, and use a variety of curriculums and approaches to education, they all have one thing in common, namely, their determination to preserve the right to choose for their children an education consistent with their beliefs and principles; and

Whereas homeschoolers have organized themselves as Wisconsin Parents Association (WPA) to watch and protect their parental rights in education, especially homeschooling rights and responsibilities; and

Whereas WPA has steadfastly refused to take any position on approaches to education, curriculum, religion, moral values, and has fought for the rights of its members and others to make their own decisions in these matters; and

Whereas homeschoolers are a small minority and are opposed by powerful political interest groups and organizations; and

Whereas the distinction between public and private schools, including homeschools, is essential to the preservation of homeschoolers’ freedom to choose an education consistent with their principles and beliefs since public schools require state standards and testing that determine the curriculum and values and beliefs of students attending public schools even if they are located in students’ homes; and

Whereas the distinction between public schools and homeschools is being blurred through the initiatives of public schools to bring homeschoolers into the public schools, especially into public e-schools; and

Whereas persons who choose public e-schools or similar public school programs that are considered to be homeschools by the general public often see their choice to enroll in such a public school program as equivalent to the freedom to choose homeschooling as a private school; and

Whereas the freedom to choose an education consistent with one’s principles and beliefs can easily be lost unless homeschoolers explicitly and publicly make clear that choosing public school programs such as public e-schools is not just a decision to place one’s children under the values and beliefs of the state but threatens the more basic freedom to choose homeschooling as a private school;

Be it resolved by members of Wisconsin Parents Association (WPA) that WPA will work to insure that the basic right to choose an education consistent with one’s principles and beliefs is maintained for homeschoolers by informing homeschoolers and the general public that public school programs including public e-schools that are marketed to homeschoolers threaten the freedom to choose an education consistent with one’s principles and beliefs; and

Be it further resolved that WPA will encourage homeschoolers to make known explicitly and publicly how such public school programs marketed to homeschoolers threatens our basic homeschooling freedoms. 5/03