HappyMomma

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- One girl who had the grades and the ACT scores was recently denied a scholarship because she is home-schooled.



Shalynn Ford's full-time job for the past 13 years has been home schooling her daughter Nova.


Ford said she was thrilled when the work paid off and Nova was awarded a $4,000 a year Hope scholarship and a $1,000 a year Merit scholarship to go to MTSU.

But soon after qualifying, she got a letter saying that the Merit scholarship was being taken away.


"Because she's a home-school student, she had the additional burden of the statute stipulating that she had to earn 12 semester hours of college credit," said Ford.


While she did earn the credit, only eight hours were in a college classroom, so she was declared ineligible.

The requirements for the Merit scholarship are a 3.75 grade point average and a 29 on the ACT.


But the Legislature included an additional 12 hours of college credit for home-schooled children.


"They did not want to accept a GPA given by a parent to be a qualifier for the scholarship because they were afraid some parents would fudge on the grades in order for their children to qualify for the scholarship," said Rep. Mike Bell, R-Riceville.


The problem is that it's keeping qualified home-schooled students like Nova from getting the money that, on paper, she's earned.


MTSU officials heard about Nova's case and awarded her a scholarship comparable to the one she lost. But Ford said she is worried about the thousands of other home-schooled students in the state.


"It's morally wrong. It's ethically wrong. It's a stupid piece of legislation, and it really needs to be amended so that other home-school students aren't discriminated against in this fashion," she said.


Lawmakers plan on addressing the issue when they go back to session in January.


As for the Hope scholarship, there's a requirement that a home-school student be taught at home for the last two years of high school that's also caused people to lose out on some money.


Lawmakers were planning on fixing that this year, but the legislation died on the last night because the state didn't have enough money.

Home-Schooled Girl Denied Scholarship - Education News Story - WSMV Nashville

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Mindy

I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the crack downs for homeschooling parents. California has recently passed a bill saying that all parents who home school need actual teaching credentials (duh, I totally would have thought they would need that anyway) but I know a lot of parents up in arms about this, who feel they are fully qualified to teach their children...

It totally sucks, but I just find it weird, cuz we've never heard of this before, and many hundreds of thousands of kids are homeschooled all over the states and none that I know of have been denied scholarships/had them revoked.

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"Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well considered and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child’s spirit.”

Dr. Erik Erikson

fallon

I think it's pretty awful. That poor girl

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Sirk

There's a whole lot of people with teaching credentials who are still shitty teachers.

Also, I looked up CA's homeschooling laws and it said:
Also:
Which made me laugh considering all of the ESL programs public schools have.


This does happen all the time. HSLDA | Top Stories Archive keeps track of a lot of them. (You just have to wade through the whacky christian parts.)

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Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.
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HappyMomma

I've read a lot of the stories on HSLDA - pretty crazy stuff.

__________________
The quickest way for a parent to get a child's attention is to sit down and look comfortable.
~Lane Olinghouse

Mindy

Also, I looked up CA's homeschooling laws and it said:

Quote:
Teacher Qualifications: None, if home school registers as a private school, or enrolls in an independent study program with a private school. Certification is necessary only if the home school parent chooses to qualify as a private tutor.

Interesting, the info must not be updated, can you post the link for what you quoted?

From this article:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1720697,00.html

Parents of the approximately 200,000 home-schooled children in California are reeling from the possibility that they may have to shutter their classrooms — and go back to school themselves — if they want to continue teaching their own kids. On Feb. 28, Judge H. Walter Croskey of the Second District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles ruled that children ages six to 18 may be taught only by credentialed teachers in public or private schools — or at home by Mom and Dad, but only if they have a teaching degree. Citing state law that goes back to the early 1950s, Croskey declared that "California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children." Furthermore, the judge wrote, if instructors teach without credentials they will be subject to criminal action

__________________
"Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well considered and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child’s spirit.”

Dr. Erik Erikson

Sirk

These things are never upheld.

HSLDA | Home School Laws

__________________
Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.
- Mother Teresa

http://www.crowdgather.com

Mindy

Tons of people I know are seriously worried about it. Check this out too.

http://homeschooling.about.com/b/2008/03/08/does-court-ruling-mean-trouble-for-california-homeschoolers.htm

__________________
"Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well considered and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child’s spirit.”

Dr. Erik Erikson

Sirk

People freak out about stuff. If Lissa's unbanned, I'm moving to Canada yada yada. The right to homeschool has always been upheld. That judge was siteing (sighting?) some law from the 50's.

__________________
Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.
- Mother Teresa

http://www.crowdgather.com