October 14, 2003 (NCHE's stand on CBS Story)
Homeschoolers: Send CBS News Back to the Books
(RALEIGH) -- An "Eye on America" segment in the October 13 edition of The CBS Evening News suggested that a tragic murder-suicide in a rural county two years ago was somehow evidence of the "dark side" of home-schooling. Correspondent Vince Gonzales portrayed home education as a haven for potential abusers and worse. In fact, the Warren family -- whose 14-year-old son killed two teen-aged siblings and then himself in July 2001 -- had chosen to duck North Carolina's homeschool law. CBS News could show no evidence that the Warrens were typical of homeschoolers, or that this senseless tragedy would have been averted by more educational regulations.
What CBS Overlooked
In North Carolina, homeschooling has grown from a few dozen families in 1984 to nearly 29,000 this year. Considering there are well over 100,000 N.C. parents and children in home education today, a two-year-old tragedy involving a single family -- already in trouble -- is so rare and remarkable that it defies logical connection.
There are other facts which CBS failed to mention; for example, there were already numerous child protection laws and regulations on the books that state agencies could have used to safeguard the Warren children. Social Services had not only contacted the family on numerous occasions -- they had already removed the children from the home for a time. In spite of all the laws and agencies in place and involved, the system was still not able to prevent the deaths of these children. And besides that, long before the tragedy occurred, the family had consciously dropped out of compliance with the homeschool statute, and from that point on they were simply truant from the public school system.
Given then a truant family, with a criminal record in another state, already reported to Social Services by their neighbors and receiving regular contact from them -- how many rules, how many systems, how much intervention does it take to prevent an unpredictable and senseless tragedy?
If a family chooses to disregard the law entirely, how could more rules help?
And how can such a singular case guide policy toward 100,000 other citizens who comply with the existing law?
The Real Story
The real story is that homeschooling is a proven path to educational achievement and preparation for adulthood and citizenship -- without government funding, assistance, or direction. Our organization, North Carolinians for Home Education, has a twenty-year history of service to the homeschool community. Tens of thousands of parents and students have attended our conferences, seminars, and other events, and we are privileged to know large numbers of these families personally. And we know that first-hand observation confirms the reports of numerous scholars and researchers -- these are strong, active, and law-abiding families, producing a generation of bright and sociable graduates -- well-equipped for college, career, or families of their own... (Story continued and follow up contacts)
