Jeff Taylor addresses one of many elephants in the room with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools — the so-called “home-school guarantee”.
With months of quiet concern about the direction of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools finally erupting in the past few days into public discussion of CMS’ performance woes, there is a chance for meaningful reform. But there is still a great deal of denial about the fundamental relationship between neighborhoods and schools.
As part of its effort to catch up to a story it largely missed, The Charlotte Observer delved into home sale data to confirm the gut feeling of most local real estate agents. Namely, that the end of busing for racial desegregation in CMS placed a premium on neighborhoods with high-performing home schools.
Well, my homeschool is performing quite nicely, thank you, but I don’t think it impacts my property values per se. Why is that? Because the term utilized by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg officials is different than the statutory definition, to wit:
NCGS 115-563(a):“Home school” means 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.
It’s not Jeff’s fault, and the term is used in districts other than CMS, but this confusion of nomenclature makes true home educators tear their hair and cry, “How long, O Lord?” — especially when our organization gets calls from parents, worried because their application for their kids to attend public schools out of district has been denied, who were told by school officials, “Your only option is ‘home school’.”
It happens, and it seems particularly ironic in a district which is spending $200,000 to try to attract students to enroll in their system.? Other than that,?of course, I believe the closer a school is to the student’s home, the better.?I just wish they’d call neighborhood schools by some name other than the one reserved for another use since 1988.
