Kernersville Homeschooler Wins $20K Scholarship From Duke Energy

Natalie Thomas, the daughter of Duke employee Scott Thomas of Kernersville, N.C., has been awarded a four-year renewable scholarship of $5000 annually from the Duke Energy Foundation. The scholarship was awarded to children of twenty employees this year, including seven in North Carolina. Duke Energy is headquartered in Charlotte.

Accept No Substitutes

Some 1500 public school teachers gathered in Raleigh this week to protest plans to cut teacher pay (by as much as $250 a year, said the Winston-Salem Journal) in the midst of the state's revenue reductions.

"It gets to the point where they're hurting our children," said Denise McCoy, Konnoak Elementary School's home-school adviser.

It should be noticed that in North Carolina the public school system has no authority or control over homeschooling. Under the non-public education statute, Article 39 Chapter 115C, a home school is defined as

a nonpublic school in which one or more children of not more than two families or households receive academic instruction from parents or legal guardians, or a member of either household. (G.S. 115C‑563(a))

and their contact with the state is through the Division of Non-Public Education, not the Department of Public Instruction.

The tendency of some public school systems to create a "home-school advisor" or similar position which does not refer to home education but the school systems' interaction with their own students' families and home life, just creates unnecessary confusion.

State Singling Out Large Families For Tax Audits

Official says homeschoolers not targeted, but many report receiving notice

Carolina Journal's David Bass reports that the N.C. Department of Revenue has opened a new offense against income tax fraud by demanding extensive documentation from families who claim eight or more exemptions on their state tax returns. Secretary of Revenue Kenneth Lay refused to answer questions on how many fraudulent returns they hope to catch, and how much the additional processing will cost the state.

N. C. Homeschool News has received reports that homeschooling families with as few as four children have received audit notices, and according to Census Bureau estimates, over 86,000 households could be affected if every family with four children was audited.

SPORTS: Cabarras-Rowan Beats Wake for State Homeschool Baseball Title

From the Salisbury Post:

Stallions win state title

Cabarrus-Rowan won the baseball state championship for homeschoolers with a 9-7 victory against Wake County in Kannapolis on Saturday.

Benji Jackson hit a three-run homer and earned a save. The winning pitcher was Stephen Shue.

Josh Tossas had three hits, while Jackson, Shue, Christian Hicks, Bobby Zimmerman and David Bancroft had two hits apiece.

TV Station Discovers African-American Homeschoolers

WITN TV-7 in Washington, N.C., has a story on "The New Face of Home Schooling", focusing on African-American families which have left the public school system in favor of home education.

While it may be news to WITN, this is not a new story. For the past ten years, the face of North Carolinians for Home Education at the General Assembly has been NCHE's legislative administrator, Mari Fitz-Wynn, an African-American homeschool mother and former lobbyist for conservative organizations in D.C. Likewise, the founders and leaders of the National Black Home Educators, Eric and Joyce Burges, served as president of the state homeschool organization in Louisiana many years ago and continued to serve at the state and national levels.

Neither NCHE nor the state's Division of Non-Public Education track the ethnic background of homeschoolers in North Carolina.

Should State Supply Books to Homeschoolers?

In their story on the recent Beaufort County Commission meeting, the Washington Daily Times mentions

Commissioner Hood Richardson argued that the state should provide textbooks to home-schooled students.

Richardson went on to criticize local education spending, saying that most of the money the schools receive "is just plain wasted ... mismanaged and ill-used.”

It may be mentioned that while some school systems have allowed homeschoolers to use public school textbooks which have been retired, states like Alaska which have provided funding to purchase books for home instruction -- which is not the same thing as independent homeschooling -- have seriously restricted which titles and content are available, cutting out authors and publishers in wide use by home educators.

16-Year-Old Race Driver Is Homeschooled in Kannapolis

Motorsport.com reports on Chris Buescher, a 16-year-old race driver from Texas who now lives with friends near the Charlotte Motor Speedway. He is currently in Ohio preparing for a race this weekend and commented on being a student driver as well as a high schooler:

"I'm just trying to learn what the car does in different situations," said Buescher, whose cousin James Buescher won the ARCA RE/MAX Series race at Kentucky Speedway Saturday night.

"Really just trying to learn the car and what adjustments it needs." Buescher is testing the same Roush Racing Ford that David Ragan drove in both events at Toledo in 2008. Buescher currently lives with David Ragan's parents' Ken and Beverly Ragan in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Originally from Texas, Buescher is home schooled while he pursues his racing career. A sign of our changing world,
Buescher is utilizing virtual online courses to get there.

"It's tough - teaching myself chemistry and Algebra II. But I love Math, so it's coming along. David's mom (Beverly) helps me a lot too."

UPDATE: The Toledo Blade has a story.

More Allegations Raised In Lundeby Case

More information has come out on the case of Ashton Lundeby, a 16-year-old homeschooler from Oxford, N.C., who was arrested in March on federal suspicion of making bomb threats. Both the Raleigh News & Observer and the Internet magazine Wired.com report that Lundeby may be under investigation for multiple threats, some of which may have been recorded.

While his mother admits that a certain amount of prank calling went on, she maintains her son did not make the threatening calls but was the victim of someone using his online identity and IP address.

[Annette] Lundeby, who home schools both of her children, said Ashton did spend a lot of time on the computer, in chat rooms and playing games. In the months before his arrest, he had started to exchange messages with computer users who dared him to make crank phone calls. "But they were to places like Wal-Mart," Lundeby said. "They were harmless."

In February, however, someone asked Ashton to make a bomb threat and he refused, Lundeby said. She thinks someone hacked her son's computer and used his IP address to make the bomb threat, traceable to his computer. [N&O]

Lundeby's next court appearance is scheduled for May 22 in Indiana, where he is being held in juvenile detention.

N.C. Homeschooler Is Not A PATRIOT Case

WNDU-TV in South Bend, Indiana, has reported this evening that the Justice Department is not holding N.C. homeschooler Aston Lundeby under terms of the PATRIOT Act, as initially reported.

The teen is accused of making a bomb threat against Purdue University, and early reports renewed widespread debate over the controversial anti-terrorist law.

UPDATE: WRAL-TV in Raleigh has posted the press release from the Department of Justice.

COMMENTARY: The Homeschooler and the PATRIOT Act

EDITORIAL COMMENT:

N.C. Homeschool News is an independent clearing house for news of interest to homeschoolers. As much as possible, the focus is on positive, constructive stories, to reflect the largely positive experience of homeschoolers in our state.

This is not always possible. Occasionally homeschoolers are swept into stories which are anything but positive. Sometimes the media treats homeschoolers unfairly, although years of watching news coverage of home education in our state suggests that homeschooling is generally seen in a tolerant light here.

Sometimes homeschoolers demonstrate they also suffer from the effects of Original Sin, and find themselves in the news for their own crimes and misjudgments. This is regrettable but unavoidable in a fallen world.

Then occasionally, a story will appear without enough information for outsiders to form a rational or discerning opinion. The case of Ashton Lundeby, an Oxford teenager arrested and held for allegedly issuing a bomb threat against Purdue University, is the current example. The family has given a plausible and verifiable alibi for the time of the crime, but authorities are prevented from commenting. The few facts available suggest that Lundeby's homeschooling status is only incidental to the case.

Initial reports said Lundeby was being held under the PATRIOT Act, sparking a great deal of comment and debate which is beyond the scope of this journal; the latest update appears to rule out this flashpoint issue.

N.C. Homeschool News will continue to monitor this case, and as useful information is added, may report on it again. Anything beyond this would simply be another blog, conjecturing.

Woman In Iron Lung Was Homeschooled

The obituary of 71-year-old Martha Mason of Lattimore, N.C. notes that she was homeschooled. There was good reason she was allowed to do so 37 years before it was recognized in the N.C. Supreme Court decision in Delconte v. N.C. -- a bout with polio forced her to depend on an iron lung from the age of ten. The Associated Press story says she graduated from Wake Forest University at the top of her class.

Granville Co. homeschooler jailed on bomb threat charge

Mother accounts for the time, claims hackers are responsible

WRAL-TV reports that 16-year-old homeschooler Ashton Lundeby has been detained by federal agents on a criminal complaint that he made a bomb threat from his Oxford, NC home the evening of February 15. His mother, Annette Lundeby, says that the family was at a church function that evening and hackers had used her son's IP address to make crank calls that appeared to come from their home.

"Undoubtedly, [law enforcement agencies] were given false information, or they would not have had 12 agents in my house with a widow and two children and three cats," Lundeby said.

She told WRAL that since the charges were filed under the Patriot Act, she has had little access to her son since the March 5 arrest. Ashton is being held in a juvenile detention facility in South Bend, Indiana.

Advocates for disabled citizens report more contacts about homeschooling

The Vance County chapter of the Arc of North Carolina, an advocacy group for persons with physical and intellectual disabilities, recently hosted the state organization's director of advocacy for a presentation in Henderson.

Nancy Russell, the featured speaker, said their organization "has been getting increased numbers of calls in recent years, many having to do with inquiries about home schooling or private schooling of disabled students," according to the blog Home in Henderson:

Russell asked why parents are moving away from public education. ...

Stating that her purpose was not to “bash the school system”, Russell enumerated several issues, some of which she speculated might be changed through policy shifts.

Russell questioned why disabled students were not achieving outcomes from school like job skills, obtaining real-world jobs, having post-secondary education options, learning skills for living and participating in the community, and having self-advocacy skills.

Rowan County homeschoolers honor public library

The Rowan County Homeschool Association recently gave special thanks to the staff of the Rowan County Public Library, as reported in the Salisbury Post. The support group of over 200 families presented a banner recognizing National Library Week, books for the libraries' collections, gifts to the librarians, door prizes, and "pizza and baked goods -- home-baked, of course," said the paper.

NCHSN Digest - 04/05/09

Items from N.C. Homeschool News this week:

Several bills of interest are moving through the N.C. General Assembly. Two bills would open public school sports to homeschooled students, although one would also open up the homeschool statute (4/2) ... the House Education Committee considered a move to lower the compulsory attendance age to six years old (4/2) ... and the fiscal analysis came out for a bill to give tax credits to new homeschoolers -- it doesn't include students already taught at home (3/29)

In other news, a homeschooling family won a $5000 contest for their local 4-H chapter (3/31) ... and a public school mom told a Wilmington TV station that homeschooling may be her daughter's last resort (4/4).

N.C. Homeschool News is updated throughout the week.

Homeschooling, A Last Resort

WWAY-TV3 in Wilmington reports that budget cutbacks may force the closure of Pender Success Academy, an "alternative school" in the Pender County school system. One parent said her daughter benefited from the change out of regular public schools, and if the alternative school shuts down, home education is the next viable option:

Kayla Murray's parents say in just two years, PSA has helped turn their daughter around. “Her grades have gotten a lot better since she has been there. She's doing extremely well. If they close the school she's either going have to go back to the high school, which she doesn't want to do. Or get home schooled in order to finish,” said parent Maxine Murray.

Murray said many people have misconceptions about the alternative school. Many students who attend PSA have behavioral issues, and may be at risk of dropping out. But, some students, like Kayla, chose the school for its smaller class setting, and one-on-one attention from teachers.

House Education Committee to Consider Lower Compulsory Attendance Age

The N.C. House Education Committee is scheduled to discuss House Bill 161, "Require Six-Year-Olds To Attend School", at its regular meeting today. The bill, which has four primary- and twelve co-sponsors, would lower the compulsory attendance age from seven- to six years old. It does not change the upper end of the range, which is 16.


Although the bill does not mention homeschoolers specifically, the homeschool statute is based on how home education complies with the compulsory attendance law. The new regulation would require homeschoolers to begin formal instruction, testing, and documentation a year earlier, and would also add to the paperwork load at the Division of Non-Public Education.


(NCHSN Exclusive)


Related Story:


2/25 - "N.C. Bill Would Require Earlier Homeschooling"

Sports Access Bill Would Open Homeschool Law

A measure to allow homeschoolers to play interscholastic sports on public school teams would modify the state's homeschool law. However, homeschoolers who want to play will have to demonstrate their academic progress to public school officials, a new development under North Carolina's nonpublic education law.

House Bill 1013, "Homeschoolers Participate In School Sports", was filed on Wednesday and will be introduced in the North Carolina House Thursday afternoon. The bill, sponsored by Reps. George Cleveland (R-Onslow) and Mark Hilton (R-Catawba) with seven co-sponsors, would give homeschoolers permission to take part in public schools' interscholastic sports programs in accord with existing regulations.

The bill amends the homeschooling statute, Article 39 Chapter 115C, adding five paragraphs to integrate homeschooled students into existing rules for residency, eligibility, behavior, performance, and fees and insurance.

The academic progress rule is an innovation in the relationship between homeschoolers and public school authorities:

A home schooled student shall demonstrate any required academic eligibility in all subjects taken in the home schooled program by a method of evaluation agreed upon by the parent and the school principal.

Currently, public school officials have almost no access to the academic records of current homeschoolers in North Carolina.

An earlier proposal, Senate Bill 259, would open public school sports to all students, including not only homeschoolers but students in private, charter, and other public schools which do not offer a sports program of interest. The senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Jim Jacumin (R-Burke, Caldwell) and nineteen co-sponsors, does not modify the homeschool law.

(NCHSN Exclusive)

Related Stories:

3/24 - "NCHE Capital Fest Draws Hundreds To Legislature"

2/26 - "N.C. Senate Proposes School Sports Access"

Homeschool Family Wins $5000 Magazine Contest

As reported by the Fayetteville Observer, Kelli and Randy Hill and their children Luke and Jeralyn of Elizabethtown have won the top prize in FamilyFun magazine's "Going Green" contest, with a design for a solar powered oven. Luke's presentation on the idea won the N.C. 4-H Gold Medal in 2007, said the article.

The proceeds from the contest are going to benefit Bladen County 4-H.

Tax Bill Could Result in 5800 New Homeschoolers

House Bill 335 provides tax credit to new homeschoolers (only)

The N.C. General Assembly's Fiscal Research Division, which studies potential costs and savings of specific bills, has released a ten page report on the possible effects of H335, the "Tax Fairness in Education Act", which would provide a refundable tax credit of $2500 a year to qualifying private- and homeschool families. By their estimate, the credit could encourage nearly 6000 students to leave public schools in favor of homeschooling.

However, those who are already taught at home are ineligible.

The measure is being promoted as a cost savings to state and local governments, which could avoid as much as $26 million a year in education expenditures if that many students leave public schools. To realize the savings, the tax credit would only be offered to students who were actually enrolled in public school for two semesters first. This means that students who are already homeschooled could not receive the credit, and neither could those who are homeschooled from the beginning or taken out of private schools.

The Fiscal Research Division does not believe many parents will "game the system" by sending their children to public school just to qualify for the tax credit.

The bill was introduced by Rep. Paul Stam (R-Wake), who distributed copies of the proposal at NCHE's Capital Fest this week.

(NCHSN Exclusive)