alt.education

"*Anarcissie*" wrote:
>> I actually prefer "mob rule". In practice though, it always
>> degenerates into central control by those who claim to represent the
>> will of the majority.
>
>"Degenerates?" Mobs have leaders. In any case, there is
>no indication in fact that education is a major, ongoing
>concern of the public,

It is probably the highest ranking single issue besides the equally
nebulous concerns over "the economy" and "national security" and
probably somewhat higher than "crime" and "transportation".

>other than to whine about the schools being unspecifically bad.

In the annual Kappan poll, the public generally gives their local
schools a grade of C or better. Only a tiny percentage give the
schools a flunking grade, indeed a smaller percentage than the
percentage using private schools for their kids.

>Except for the occasional protest
>about phonics or the New Math, it's a concern of elites.

I don't think so.

I think it is just that parents are the most active, and they have one
set of concerns, business has an entirely different set of concerns.
Many of the childless generally want less of their tax money to go for
someone else's kids (and some of the childless wish that the kids
would just go away completely).

>What I am wondering is why these people feel particularly
>anxious about home schooling in California and not elsewhere.

I'm sure that the anxiety is about the same everywhere. California
just happens to have worded its law regulating home schools a little
more effectively. This is possibly because as a larger state, the
special interest groups are more strongly organized (not so much for
this particular issue, but because they HAVE to be well organized in
order to have influence in a large state). Thus those special
interest groups that don't much like unregulated homeschooling have
kept the regulations tight.

>The number of people who engage in it are microscopic in
>comparison with the total school population.

The number who engage in bank robbery are microscopic in proportion to
the total population. But the state doesn't want more of it, so they
make it illegal and enforce the law.

lojbab