Where do you stand on homeschooling?

[wickerwoman]

8. Yes, but it needs to be held to the same standards as other kinds of schooling

and if kids are falling massively behind, they should be mainstreamed again.

Kids have a right to a real education that will enable them to do something with their lives besides minimum wage unskilled work or getting married and having a gazillion babies. The problem with homeschooling in some cases is that it becomes a front for using your daughters to raise their younger siblings or your sons for unpaid farm work. Or the parents may be well intentioned but poorly equipped and school becomes an endless series of "field trips" that happen to fit around mom and dad's work schedule rather than what is best for the kids.

The one place I think standardised testing is appropriate is in ensuring that kids in non-traditional school environments are still getting the basics they need for later success.