My Home School News!

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What will our schools be like in 25 years, in 50 years? One provocative answer comes in the form of a question: “Will there be a tangible school for future generations ?” Today, we can see two main alternatives to the physical school. Both of them are growing and are expected to expand their influence .

Homeschooling
In 2007, 1.5 million students, or 2.9% of the K-12 population was homeschooled, up from 1.1 million homeschooled students in 2003. Parental motivations for homeschooling are broader than religious education. Parents see both the school environment and academics as inadequate.  

Homeschooling is not regulated like the traditional school system . Current regulation of homeschooling tends to be lax , as with most developing industries.  

• 40 states require parents to notify set up of a home school
• 10 states do not even require notification
• 13 states require nothing further than notification
• 17 states require tests and evaluation; 6 regulate curriculum & teaching quality

Curriculum and testing are significant areas of debate regarding homeschooling, granted that the majority of states do not test homeschooled children or regulate their curriculum. Besides concerns about academic standards, is there a role for further regulation of homeschooling? What is the optimum learning environment of a homeschool? How are socialization opportunities such extracurricular activities, physical education, and sports integrated within the education of a homeschooled child?

One can imagine a future in which homeschooled children access services from a traditional school that a homeschool does not have the resources to supply.  

Online Education
While homeschooling has greater numbers of students participating at this point in time, the Internet is seen as the greater force behind the decline of the public school in the long term. The numbers, though, are still small. Nationwide, 44 states have online learning with 45,000 participating students and 50% offering full or part-time K-8; most of which is rural distance learning over the Web.  

The reasons parents accept online learning are similiar to the motivations of parents of homeschoolers: a low opinion of the traditional school . Online learning is about to get a big boost from the state of Florida, where, starting in the 2009-2010 school year, every school district in the state must set up an online school for K-8, with the state paying $6,000 per student.  

But are these at-home, Internet-based students still in the Florida school system? – Not quite. Students are tested, get report cards, and take the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Poorly performing students must return to the school environment . However, students taking the online option do not have access to extracurricular activities and intramural sports.  

It seems logical that homeschooling and especially online learning will decrease the population of full time students in the physical school over time. Yet one can also see homeschoolers and online learners as simply new constituents of the physical school, requiring a new range of educational services and social opportunities. This reinforces the vision of some: those who see the future of the physical school lying in their transformation into community centers, providing services and facilities to the diverse student and non-student communities alike within each district.

You’ve decided to continue your education. Congratulations! With jobs becoming more and more competitive, advancing one’s education is a great way to enhance your prospects.

Yet there’s the matter of paying for it all. The news is loaded with stories about escalating tuition and the cost of living increases while going to school. Don’t let the media fool you, where there’s a will, there’s a way to finance your personal advancement. Some diligent spade work can unearth an incredible wealth of financial assistance. Here are five tips to help you achieve a better education.

First, there are the Pell Grants. This is money provided by the Federal government. You must fill out a Free Application for Free Student Aid (FAFSA Grant) to determine one’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC). If qualified, and the Pell is based primarily on need, the applicant can get just short of $5,000. Not enough to pay all the costs, but a good start.

Second comes University Grants. A lot of schools have very generous trust funds. They are set up specifically to provide financial aid. Harvard is so cash rich it bases its tuition as much on need as merit. The best thing to do in this situation is to consult your university and just plain ask. You’d be surprised how quickly they’ll point you to the money. After all, they don’t get paid from the student tuition, not the grant that enabled the tuition.

Corporate Grants – There are a number of companies out there who have also set up their own trust funds. They figure taking the financial burden off a higher education is a good way to recruit a higher quality work force. A good place to start sourcing these grants is Scholarship America. It’s best known for two particular programs, Dollars for Scholars and the Scholarship Management Services. You’d also be surprised who coughs up the money. For instance, Disney finances the California Institute of the Arts, which in turn has become a great source for their animators.

Then there are always the Armed Forces. How effective is this program? The U.S Department of Defense reports 56% of all soldiers/officers in the Army, Navy and Air Force graduate from their respective Reserve Office Training Corps (ROTC). After graduation, applicants are obligated to military service, but that also looks quite good on a resume.

The Private Sector – Simply go to Google and type in “scholarship programs.” The engine will spit out nearly 2.5 million different entries. That’s a virtual ton of educational programs, and will no doubt involve some sort of advance searching to refine that 2.5 million to your specific needs. Still, with a clear objective in mind and some time, one can no doubt come up with more than a few private organizations that will be glad to help.

The important point is no one needs to go deep into debt in order to improve one’s position in life. People obtaining even a two-year degree via online programs have better shots of earning more than those who just barely got out of high school. A little homework and a bit of time, and one can be well on their way to a better standard of living, with the extra help of financial aid and online education.