Home-schooling: Your opinion?

[mrstickball]

SvennoJ said:

mrstickball said:

 

Again, not the case in the US. Furthermore, you are not allowed to send your children to the school of your choice. We have districting which enforces that your child must attend a given local school, regardless of alternatives in the area. For example, in my county, we have 4 high schools that control all 4 corners of the county. If you live in the district of one, but another one preforms better, the only way to switch is to either move, or pay significant fines for tuition

That sounds like a really bad policy that you can't choose your school. I also read that school budget depends on property taxes which depends on the housing value in the area the school is in?

In the Netherlands schools compete for students, their budget depends on enrollment, with extra money allocated for students with a less privileged background. This way schools try to offer the best services to attract pupils. Also students as well as parents can influence school policy by means of a student and parent council.
For example this is a promo video for the highschool (college) I used to go to

I'm glad to read that open enrollment is making its way into the Canadian system. My kids are only 0 and 2, but it's never too early to start looking at your options. There is unfortunately also the curse of merging schools and closing smaller schools in Canada. Since I moved to my current location, 2 elementary schools close to my house have already been closed. Walking distance is no longer an option.

 

You are correct about the property values question. That is (also) why our system is so screwed up. Schools have a virtual monopoly in a given area, and no matter how good or how bad the school is, the kids are more or less forced to go there.

That is why a lot of us want a voucher system. Something that basically allows a child to go to any school - public, private, or homeschool - with it being fully paid for, up to a certain value (say $8,000 USD). That way, public and private schools would have to compete, and those who choose homeschool would at least have their books paid for (which would be about $500 USD/yr).