☆ “More strings attached”: Homeschool charter families in CA face mounting restrictions (1/2)
Educator–storyteller Karen Golden founded and has directed Creative Learning Place, a Los Angeles-based homeschool learning center, since 2009 — which has served over 800 K–12 students. She sits down with Opp Now for an exclusive analysis of CA’s homeschool charter (HSC) laws: why they’re growing constrictive, and how local homeschooling families are adversely affected.
Opportunity Now: Homeschooling has skyrocketed since the pandemic began but was booming in California even before then. Why do families gravitate towards this model?
Karen Golden: For those families who are fortunate enough to have the wherewithal and passion for the lifestyle, homeschooling allows for a parent-led experience with large doses of one-on-one instruction, as well as the opportunity to regularly learn in the world around them through frequent trips to museums, parks, and other public programming. Rather than a field trip once or twice a semester, many homeschoolers do activities in their community several times a week. These are memorable, hands-on opportunities to learn that are impactful on growing minds.
The first question a homeschool parent is asked is, “How do you socialize your children?” That is where my learning center comes in, as our classes allow for peer interaction during and between classes.
ON: You observe that California’s homeschool charter (HSC) schools have become more and more regulated over the years — to the detriment of homeschooling students, families, and vendors. Talk to us about why this is, in your opinion.
KG: I’m a grassroots, in-the-classroom teacher, so I can only comment on my program and our students’ experience. Creative Learning Place is a learning center in Los Angeles with in-person and online options for students. We’re currently a vendor for 11 local charter schools, which I regularly work with as CLP’s director.
Lately, California is requiring HSC families to do a lot more reporting on how they’re using their funds. If a family joins a HSC, the money allotted to them comes with more strings attached than in the past. I see a couple reasons for this:
First, brick-and-mortar public schools (such as in the LAUSD) have seen steadily declining enrollment, even pre-pandemic, so it makes sense to want to curb public charters’ funding.
Furthermore, there have been recent scandals of charters abusing state funds. A few were shut down because their CEOs were unscrupulous in using state money. So it’s understandable why they’d cramp down on that, but it’s terrible how a few bad actors have affected the bottom line of many other charters.
ON: Those potential reasons sound innocent enough. How do heightened restrictions for HSC schools actually, practically play out?
KG: Every charter has a different level of overseeing how funds are used. Prior to recent years, families of K–8 students were able to use their government-granted funds on material and service vendors — as long as they weren’t religious if involving a core subject (writing, math, science, and history) and they met the needs of families to educate their children.
Some charters are now saying that you must use (and report to them that you’re using) specific materials. So families in those HSC schools are not free to educate their kids how they wish in core subjects.
Furthermore, certain charters are now requiring parents to check in online every other day (or once a week, every couple of weeks, etc.) so they can ensure students are on track. This is a new policy for most of the charter schools. Note that this is in addition to parents meeting regularly with their assigned Education Specialist (ES) and providing them samples for the four core subjects.
A few charter schools have gotten a lot more stringent with the programs on which students can use allotted funds. Some programs that granted funds to our program in previous years no longer do so. Others put restrictions on students, including not allowing them to take classes more than two days a week at any given program. Overall, they’re only letting you use your money in certain ways that they dictate.
Interestingly, certain schools now require that parents spend a maximum of $400/month per child on any particular vendor. Consequently, families in some charters can’t attend our learning center three days or more a week because it’s over the allotted $400/month for that child. In these cases, the homeschooling families must differentiate their core instruction by outsourcing it to more than one vendor. For kids, making friends is a big deal and can be challenging as it is; if they’re only seeing their friends once a week, it’s a lot harder.
Currently, Creative Learning Place offers all the core classes in addition to other enrichment activities. We meet two days a week in-person and we also offer online classes two days a week, so we could accommodate these students if it were allowed.
ON: Does it look any different for high school HSC students?
KG: For grades 9–12, it’s a whole different ballgame. Many charter schools won’t fund any classes in my program for high schoolers; they’re that rigid. There are students who have taken classes at Creative Learning Place since kindergarten and can’t come into the center anymore but must learn online. I feel it’s a complete disservice for a charter school to not fund our classes, online or in person, because our curriculum follows all the guidelines. It crosses every t and dots every i as credible learning material. Unfortunately, these families of high school students can only spend their money how their charter deems.
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Image by Jeremy Hiebert