A few weeks ago on Rate That Reform, I reported the story of a little girl in California who was not allowed to give a history presentation on Harvey Milk because his sexual orientation made the material too sensitive. And they used a loophole in the sex ed regulations (i.e. they classified her history presentation as sex ed) to do it. The girl’s parents, the ACLU, and others objected, of course, and the district did let her give the presentation finally, though during a lunch period and only to students whose parents had signed a waiver. You can read the update on the story (and see a copy of the presentation for yourself) here.

What I actually find interesting about this story is the issue of parental opting-out. A plethora of questions arise. In what subjects is this appropriate? And how far can a parent go? Could a parent, for example, opt their child out of history class because they don’t agree with the curriculum’s rendering of events? Or science class because they don’t believe in evolution? (These seem ridiculous...but they’re the logical end of the argument if opting out is taken to the extreme.) Futhermore, how large a burden lies on the school to “inform” parents about “sensitive” topics? (And, of course, how are we defining “sensitive”?) And what role does the “public” part of “public school” play, especially in terms of spending taxpayers’ dollars on objectionable materials? Will states, districts, or the federal government (or the courts?) decide? Would schools still be responsible for a child’s achievement if their parents opt them out of math class for disagreeing with the Pythagorean Theorem?

I don’t have any answers to these questions, though parents have solved the problem (or deferred it, at least) by homeschooling their children. But as we move towards national standards, we’re going to have to make some decisions about what should be taught in the basic subjects, even if they’re not that specific, and maybe this is ridiculously obvious, but letting parents “opt out” doesn’t seem like a viable long term solution.

The ranks of home-schooled children seem to be growing, according to a USA Today story that examines numbers from the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). About 1.5 million kids were taught at home in 2007, up 74% from 1999 (when NCES started keeping tabs), and up 36% since 2003, according to the story. Overall the percentage of the school-age population that was home-schooled increased slightly from 2.2% in 2003 to 2.9% in 2007.

According to the piece, moral or religious reasons remain a top motivation for home-schooling, but there are also “unschoolers”—those who regard standard curriculum methods and standardized testing as counterproductive to a quality education. And the category of “other reasons” rose 12% — from 20% in 2003 to 32% in 2007 — and included family time and finances.