MEPP Enrichment for "Homeschoolers" Sign

Have you seen this sign on Hwy 2?

Mead Educational Parent Partnership (East) Sign

The sign reads, "An Enrichment Option for Homeschoolers."

Obviously, a keyword here is,"enrichment."  Is there really something about this public education program that will enrich the life of a family that has chosen to home educate their own kids? What could they offer of value to homeschoolers, (that is those who are currently outside of the public school system,.who either have children under the requirements of compulsory education ages or who currently practice home-based educating under the Washing State homeschooling law.  It is, after all, these families that this sign with it's public school programs is intentionally being targeted.  What is this enrichment?

Maybe it is a diploma?  Will the enrichment be that your homeschooling will kids be able to get a high school diploma and go to college?  Will your enrollment make Running Start an option?  No. Can't be.   "Homeschoolers" already award diplomas and sign up for running start.  They are accepted into colleges too..  In fact, organizations like Home School Legal Defense, (HSLDA) or Washington Homeschool Organization, (WHO) and Christian Homeschool Network, (CHNOW)  make themselves available to help direct home educating parents in understand how this all works.  It's not a diploma, (unless you think that the stamp of approval for the education of your child, comes only from the employees who work for the government at your local local public school.)    

Maybe "homeschoolers" will think it's enrichment their child's education to go to a school building once a week and submit learning plans for each child as well as report test scores and grades monthly to school personnel?  Could this be it?   Is it enriching to your child's home education to have people that are paid with your own hard earned tax dollars, oversee and access what you do and what your "homeschool" children are and are not  learning when compared to the requirements created for governmental institutions?  Hardly.

Parent Partnerships will require stringent hoops for you as a parent to fulfill in what you do at home and present to school officials. There will be more tests required too, like the Washington Assessment of Student Learning. (WAS,)  created specifically to test public institutions, including your kitchen table learning, run with public funds.(The WASL claims to give our schools a grade on how well they are teaching our youth, ) Is it an enrichment for your homeschool to teach to the (mandatory) WASL, so your school can get a good grade?  Do you know that the WASL does not apply to private or home-based schools? 

Is this enrichment? Any of it?   Hardly.

Okay, perhaps the enriching aspect of this program will be "socialization."  After all, this is a major concern for more people against home schooling.  in the Parent Partnership, you will be able to gather regularly with like-minded families for learning experiences at the local public school campus.  Children can interact and learn things the homeschool parent cannot offer their own children.... Right?  This must be it!

 Of course,local homeschooling groups have always networked and organized group times and learning situations for kids.. There are often classes,  park days and backyard play days between like minded individuals.  They create opportunities go to the State Fair or Theater productions and various feild trips too...  and, believe it or not, this all happens without the oversight of, or being enrolled in the local public school.   But maybe, just maybe... it's the classes that will  enrich or enhance learning for the student...

Perhaps they offer French or Spanish?  Algebra? Trigonometry?  ....things that might be a challenge for some parents to teach their kids at home.  

No.  That is not the thrust of the program.  They offer stamp collecting, folklore and folksinging, making things with Lego, circus stunts, ballet and martial arts.  These are the offerings of "enrichment," (your tax dollars, hard at work,) at the Parent Partnership school.  But there is one more thing offered for people who join the program...  money.  Both the families and the school get an allotment of government funding. 

In MEAD, our schools get allotted about $ 6,000.00. per year per student.. This amount is the same for all full-time enrolled students, whether they are on a school campus one day per week, (as in an ALP) or five days in a regular classroom.  As you can imagine, that is a big chunk of money.  It id money gained when people sign up and money they never see if parents choose to homeschool or send kids to private school. Just as there are strong advocates of private schools or homeschooling, there are also strong advocated for public education.  One of those is the NEA.

The National Education Association, a labor union that claims to be committed to the advancement of public education, is very vocal about it's dislike for people who do not submit to the public education of all children.  Make no mistake, the NEA opposes every aspect of parent directed education.   The NEA's position on the concept of home based education in it's 2007-2008 Resolutions  read:  "The National Education Association believes that home schooling programs based on parental choice cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience. When home schooling occurs, students enrolled must meet all state curricular requirements, including the taking and passing of assessments to ensure adequate academic progress. Home schooling should be limited to the children of the immediate family, with all expenses being borne by the parents/guardians. Instruction should be by persons who are licensed by the appropriate state education licensure agency, and a curriculum approved by the state department of education should be used."   Parent Partnerships, (along with the NEA Common Core Curriculum, looming over all our public schools,)  are exactly the kind of learning that most people in the NEA would even allow and it must be clearly understood by all of us that these Parent Partnerships, are NOT home-based education. 

 By law, Parent Partnership programs have had to be required to tell enrolling families that, but still many unsuspecting people are fooled by the ambiguity as they enroll.   Read, for example, the FAMILY HANDBOOK for the MEAD SCHOOLS's Program.  ( On page 8, it informs the reader that this program is NOT  home based instruction.)  You are duly informed, then you sign on the dotted line, and then you and your students are welcomed to their "homeschooling" program.

You and your brood will likely think you are "home schooling;" especially after you saw this sign on the highway,  {see the sign pictured above.)  and are bring told that you are simply participating in a "homeschool enrichment program." You might feel like you are in charge of your child's education as you select curriculum from a state approved list of textbooks; and you might even tell your friends and relatives that you love the "homeschool"program you are in; but in essence you are only being the kind of "homeschooling parent" designed by, allowed by and endorsed wholeheartedly by the NEA.

Think about this:   Unlike parents who question teachers in school about what their kids are learning....  the schools are no longer really working and answering to you as the parent; instead, teachers are now in authority over you and you will answer to them for the schoolwork your children do and what they learn.  This is an odd combination.   And, while you might not even realize it, you will have exchanged everything your homeschooling community worked to establish and already had to offer you...  that is except the funding....  the funding that, if you enroll in the program, pays for books and possibly pays you to teach classes on campus too.

 It's simple mathematics and logistics, coupled with a political agenda, really.  Schools get the credit, parents get a share of the funding and the teacher's union takes back the authority and control... not only of children and what they are learning, but of parents who now answer to the teachers while mistakenly thinking they are truly in control.... who believe they are homeschooling their own children.

The dishonesty of this sign put out by the local school district is appalling.  What's being offered as an "Enrichment Option for Homeschoolers,"  it merely a marketing ploy, one that preys non unsuspecting people who believe, for whatever reason,  this program will enrich them and their kids.  My hope is that by reading this, people will take time to consider both what Homeschool  and American freedom, really is.

Will you exchange freedom to homeschool under the home based education law (RCW) for the financial carrot that is being held out to you?

_____________________________________________________________

Educate yourself.  Here are some helps.

Learn more about this MEPP "enrichment program advertised on this sign at :
http://meppeastprogram.weebly.com/about-our-program.html

And, because of being under WAC, they have a new vocabulary for you:
http://meppeastprogram.weebly.com/important-terms.html


ConsiderL
A home educator, Voddie Baucham talks about the freedom to homeschool.. (3 min)

A home educator, Andrew Pudewa encourages parents in their homeschooling:  (15 min.)

Parents and teachers talk about about the joys of being in a parent partnership program. (4 min.)
This one in Everette WA

Listen carefully to what is being said.  You will hear a few comments that you should note as you do.

1.  It is not "homeschooling organizations" that run these programs.  The people hired work for the school system run by the state.

2.   One woman says she "started hearing about the Washington State Homeschool System...."  

Please note and understand that educating your own childten under Washington's home based Instruction Law, is not a tax burden to the public.  Our state does NOT FUND parents who file intent to homeschool forms with the OSPI in order to home educate.  They do not and never have been funders of any homeschooling organizations.

3.  One teacher says, "One of the ways that we best support parents is in  helping them know what the state requires." This is because you will have legal obligations to meet the requirements for the school because your are publically funded in these programs.  Families, if you are home educating your children at home (under the RCW) you can learn what  "the STATE requires" of you as a home based educator by simply reading this little pink book or the  RCW.  A teacher from the school does not have to help you understand the requirements you must meet.  Also, you can always find more answers you ,ight want from one of the many homeschooling organizations that have formed to legalize homeschooling in our state.  Requirements for home educators are listed plainly.  This is quite different from requirements for public school alternative learning programs, (options like Parent Partnerships.) 

Parent Partnerships are tax funded public school.  These are not only regulated by the WAC, but these are formed with NEA approval,and like all public institutions, are accountable to taxpayers and are regulated by the WAC

Enrichment?  Enrichment for "homeschoolers?"

You decide.