Homeschoolers dominate Burlington Teens & 20s stories

Stories by and including homeschooled students dominated the "Top Ten" of 2008 in the Burlington Times-News "Teens & 20s" feature in 2008. Sarah Osburne, a homeschooled student, wrote the number one story, "Trading Spaces: Exchange students travel overseas for a unique learning experience"; she also wrote stories on pets for cancer patients, urban farming, and caring for an abused horse.

Sarah Troxler, another homeschooler, wrote stories on summer exercise programs for teenagers and playing on travelling softball teams. Kristian Whitesell wrote about her family's visit to the Pearl Harbor Memorial.

In all, seven of the top ten youth stories this year were written by homeschoolers, and an eighth story involved several of the authors as subjects.

SPORTS: Private school star to be homeschooled

The Asheville Citizen-Times reports that Allen Ebert, a senior forward for Veritas Christian Academy's basketball squad, will be homeschooled next semester. Ebert, a 6'7" guard, has averaged ten points and four rebounds per game, according to the C-T.

Saving citizens a billion a year

Budget and Tax News, a publication of The Heartland Institute in Chicago, reports that homeschooling and other forms of private education are saving North Carolina taxpayers over a billion dollars per year in education costs:

By some estimates, nearly 40 cents of every revenue dollar in North Carolina goes to K-12 education, making it the largest category in the state’s $21.4 billion budget. According to statistics released by the North Carolina Division of Non-Public Education (DNPE), which monitors homeschoolers and traditional private and religious schools, some 10.4 percent of school-aged children in North Carolina were educated outside public school classrooms in the 2007-08 school year. About 98,000 students attend conventional nonpublic schools, while more than 70,000 are homeschooled.

DNPE’s director, Rod Helder, told Carolina Journal last year the savings to the state in fiscal year 2006-07 were $1.3 billion, reflecting higher per-pupil expenses in the public schools and continuous growth in the number of nonpublic school students. Since the 2004-05 school year, the number of students being homeschooled has increased almost 22 percent, while public school enrollments increased by 6.6 percent.

“You see how much money the public schools did not have to spend,” Helder told Carolina Journal.

The article by NCHSN editor Hal Young appears in the January 2009 print edition of B&TN but is available online as well.

SPORTS: Homeschoolers make a bigger splash in WNC

The Asheville Citizen-Times headline says "Tuscola swimmers dominate new WNC swim honor roll", but there are two names that help keep the Haywood County high school from a near-sweep. In fact, one of them, homeschooler Nathan Hart, has the same number of top rankings as the public school student highlighted in the article.

Nathan was the highest-ranked swimmer in 200- and 500-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke events. He is ranked number two in 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard butterfly, and 200-yard individual medley, and number three in 100-yard breaststroke. His seven top-three rankings beat out four for Tuscola student Jake Stringfield.

In the girls' rankings, homeschooler Emily Marett is number one in 100-yard breaststroke and 100-yard butterfly, number two in 200-yard individual medley, and number three in 500-yard freestyle.

SPORTS: Homeschool Football League featured on WGHP-TV

The Greensboro Panthers, a team in the Raleigh-based Homeschool Football League, are featured in this video report on Greensboro's FOX affiliate, WGHP. Footage includes semi-final action against the Raleigh Warriors and mentioned the Panthers' final, title-clinching victory over the Raleigh Crusaders the following week. An excellent report and positive reaction from the media.

Homeschoolers prompt change in doctor's office?

Apparently so -- their responses to a new Blue Cross/Zagat online patient survey suggested better facilities to one large pediatric practice in Raleigh:

At one point, a group of parents of home-schooled children gave [Dr. Jerry] Bernstein's practice generally good marks online. But the group pointed out that "if you can get past the look of the building, the doctors are great," Bernstein said. "It certainly hastened our move" to new offices.

(Raleigh News & Observer, 12/22/08)

SPORTS: Lighthouse falls to Cary Christian

Lighthouse Homeschool boys' basketball (Wake Forest) was defeated by Cary Christian this week, as briefly reported in the Southwest Wake news blog (Raleigh News & Observer) -- final score 84-43.

SPORTS: Cabarrus-Rowan scores against private schools

The Salisbury Post reports that the Cabarrus-Rowan Homeschool Stallions scored three decisive basketball wins this week. The varsity boys team defeated Grace Academy 86-76; varsity girls beat Grace girls 35-23; and the middle school boys won against St. Ann's Catholic 40-16.

See the article for stats on individual players.

Homeschooling N.C. pastor moves to Virginia

Rev. Baker Rigg, formerly of Roanoke Rapids, is now the pastor of the Free Methodist Church in Culpeper, Virginia. The Riggs have seven children; the five at home are homeschooled. The Culpeper Star-Exponent interviewed Rev. Rigg for their church news section this week.

Clemmons homeschooler named Explorer of the Year

The Winston-Salem Journal reports that homeschooler David Simpson shared the 2008 Explorer of the Year Award for Explorer Post 14 with fellow Explorer Michael King. The two were tied for the most points for "training, meeting, responses, community service and education". The Explorer post is sponsored by the Clemmons Fire Department.

Young homeschool grad receives two degrees at 14

Julia Nepper was homeschooled for seven years. Although she spent a semester each in junior high and high school, the schools "wouldn't agree to promote her according to her abilities", so her parents enrolled her in community college at age 11.

Now 14, Julia is graduating with two associates degrees, a 4.0 GPA, and admission to UNC-Wilmington. She told Chelsea Keller of the Wilmington Star-News,

"I don't feel that this is a great achievement, because if you don't do pointless teenage things and care about doing well, you can go to college ... It's not that hard."

WNC homeschooler wins in essay contest

Homeschooler Kayla V. Jones came in second out of 120 entries in the Vince Colan Memorial Essay Contest.

This is the second year of the contest which remembers the attack on Pearl Harbor, according to the article in the Hendersonville Times-News.