The Homeschool Boom by Lance Izumi

Author:Lance Izumi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pacific Research Institute
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

Charter Schools and Homeschooling

Many people have the mistaken impression that homeschooling is a very solitary activity. These people imagine a child sitting at the kitchen table with a parent by his or her side. The experience of the parents in the previous chapters demonstrates, however, that this image is a myth. There are various homeschooling options available to parents, from homeschool co-ops to private classes to, in states like California, homeschool charter schools.

According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, “Charter schools are independently-operated public schools that have the freedom to design classrooms that meet their students’ needs.” Further:

The reasons that parents choose charter schools for their children are just as unique as the students themselves. They choose charter schools because of the strong, dedicated teachers, because the school’s focus matches their child’s needs, or simply because their child was struggling in their assigned public school and needed to try something new. Charter schools provide families with options in public education, allowing parents to take a more active role in their child’s education.77

Homeschool charter schools are a subset of charter schools. There are two main types of homeschool charters. There are charter schools that have a brick-and-mortar facility where classes and services are offered to enrolled children who are being homeschooled. Also, there are non-classroom-based charter schools that have no facility, but offer classes and services through contracted vendors, such as Sarah Bailey’s Love of Learning homeschool learning center, which was profiled in Chapter Four.

One of the key advantages for homeschooling parents in enrolling their children in a homeschool charter is that they save money on education costs. One homeschool curriculum company notes that in California, “The state of California pays for the curriculum, supplies, and classes, which works as an advantage for many parents.”78

This chapter profiles the director of a brick-and-mortar homeschool charter school and a parent at a non-classroom-based homeschool charter.

ALICIA CARTER

One of the top brick-and-mortar homeschool charter schools in California is Natomas Charter School’s K-8 Pursuing Academic Choices Together (PACT) Academy. Natomas Charter, located in the Sacramento area, has a number of different academies, ranging from a performing and fine arts academy to a virtual learning academy to the homeschool PACT Academy.

PACT specializes in “assisting families in creating handcrafted, completely individualized education through a family, home, and school partnership.”79 Specifically:

NCS PACT Academy specializes in helping parents develop an individualized and fully differentiated education for their children. We have teachers specifically trained and experienced in working with gifted and talented students, students with special needs, twice- exceptional students and all kinds of kids who benefit from an experiential, hands-on or non-traditional approach to learning. Our unique model brings students and families to our school site for workshops, parent support, meetings and a huge variety of activities.80

When PACT was started in the mid-1990s, “homeschooling charters were in their infancy,” observes Academy Coordinator Alicia Carter, “so they were blazing a trail with no precedent since anyone who had homeschooled prior to the charter school movement had done so fully on their own with no guidance and no support.

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