Shouldn't we get funding for Home Education?!! Anyone up for a campaign?

[mummybiz]

What's everyones opinion on the fact that we don't send our children to school or we take out children out of school so the LEA saves a minimum of £3000 per year and far more at secondary level but we get no help at all with funding ? If money was available would the fact that getting funding from an LEA or direct from government mean contact with the "authorities" or providing proof that the money had been spent on the childs education put you off applying if it was available?
There was talk of giving parents a voucher which they could take to any school which represented the LEA spending for that pupil and parents would be free to top up if they wanted private ed etc. This has been put to oneside due to cuts but we are still saving the government thousands and yet paying taxes etc which fund education.
I think we should campaign for some of the money which would have been spent on our children if they were in school to be given either direct to parents or to a central elective home education body formed by home ed parents to distribute to families - I'll start a campaign if anyone is interested?

[exoticfruits]

I would stay happy, unfunded,unfettered and autonomous-I bet schools wish they were the same! If the government pay the money they most definitely play the tune.Apart from the visits do you really want the amount of paperwork that schools drown under?!

[Jamillalliamilli]

Hi, I went to tribunal for the right to direct our AWPU, to help provide an agreed home education to an SEN child, and self represented, so definitely not afraid of the LEA, inspection, criticism, negotiation, or assisting them to turn a negative situation into a positive one.
(I choose not to go after the SEN budget as it affects other SEN children?s provision)

I?m sure the majority of h/edders would flee the level of daily paperwork, requirements of meta speak, meetings, and stress and vulnerability that?s part and parcel of our life. Then there?s the speed and complexity of the process for changing any part of what we?re doing that?s covered by AWPU finance. (It?s just as well not all of it?s covered.)
You need to be imaginative, very pro active, patient, ego free and on the ball to keep it all working in the child?s best interests.

So, I?d say careful what you wish for, as the drawbacks are fine with me as I?ve no way to put right what?s been done to my son without the AWPU, (but it should never have happened in the first place) and accept that regardless of why, if you take the King?s shilling, then the music you play for others must at all times please the King; not always easy.

Live through hell long enough, then all forms of purgatory are happy places, but I wouldn?t recommend loosing freedom to anyone with choices in life.

PS, the next generation of our family having are happy, unfunded, unfettered, autonomous h/edders. :)

[JazminKennedy]

Wow, such a heated debate! I'm sure we've all been there, when we started homeschooling, i know i was desp to get some kinda funding, for tutors, for clubs that my kids go to but as time passed i knew it was impossible without stings attached!

mummybiz I have high hopes of my children homeschooling theirs, they best! And if not, i hope to be alive to take over!

[FionaJNicholson]

edyourself.org/articles/jobseekers.php#welfreformbill2ndreadinglords

Sorry better link!

Fiona

[FionaJNicholson]

edyourself.org/articles/jobseekers.php#welfreformbill2ndreadinglords

Welfare Reform Bill 2nd Reading delayed till September. Announcement earlier today from Disability Alliance

[MammaSez]

I am obviously coming across the fundamentalist side of Home Education I was warned about - removes tongue form cheek and continues

I think perhaps purist is a better description than fundamentalist. People can be just as fundamental and dogmatic on any side of the debate. Keeps tongue in cheek.... in case she needs it later.

I was brought up to believe that everyone has the right to their opinion but that others should be allowed to have a different opinion

As was I.

I was also brought up to take the greater good into account, rather than just taking care of my own back yard.

You are absolutely free to set up whatever system works for you, just don't meddle in my freedom on your way to doing it.

don't be so scared that if a group or an individual wearing the label of Home educator does something different the whole Home Education community will be "threatened".

Again fear (or being scared) has nothing to do with it. You asked if people wanted to campaign for something, I am saying, you don't have the right to do so on my behalf. That is not fear, that is fact.

Again, difference of approach or opinion isn't threatening to me on any level. Where my eyebrows begin to be raised is when opinion moves to action, and that action then puts restraints on my freedom.

Even without direct government funding the government is contributing towards your childs education in some way whether through claiming tax credits- income support- using the local library- the swimming pool - the museums etc etc - should home educators who object to government funding so strongly not be allowed to use these services and be allowed to withhold a proportion of their taxes !?

Seems like a messy way of doing things. Tax payer = access to services regardless of education philosophy.

As for educational philosophy affecting what is taxed, that is an interesting debate.

[FionaJNicholson]

A couple of people have mentioned imminent changes to the state benefit system. There are 36 peers down to speak already at the 2nd Reading of the Welfare Reform Bill next Tuesday www.lordswhips.org.uk/display/templatedisplay3.asp?sectionid=5
edyourself.org/articles/jobseekers.php#welfreformbill2ndreadinglords
www.disabilityalliance.org/dbcbrief3.htm

[exoticfruits]

I can'tbelieve they would want it. If I was paying, as tax payer, I would want every home educating parent registered and I would want at least a yearly visit by the LEA. I don't believe you can expect money without accountability.State education is provided-those who want different should pay for it-as in private education. I would have thought most HE would run to the hills with this idea!

[julienoshoes]

It has been pointed out to me that there is an article about just this subject on the UKHE website, an independant source of information about HE.
It is most suitabley called
\ He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune

[seeker]

mummybiz - it sounds as if what you want to do is set up a free school. There is funding for that already.

[LastSummer]

Exactly. Entering into any kind of financial contract to educate our children at home would invite the closing of the legislative loophole that allows home educators in the U.K. to school their children in an almost entirely unregulated and often unstructured way.

[exoticfruits]

Funding would have to come with checks-taxpayers would want to know how the money was spent.

[mummybiz]

Thanks for giving your views so freely everyone - quite proud that the thread hit 50 posts!!
Our children are all very lucky that we feel so passionately about giving them the type of education we feel will suit them best - I wonder if our children will go on to home educate their own children and perhaps the idea of state funded opt in opt out home education will be in all the forms we have talked about will become a reality - for now I'll carry on my home ed journey and see where it leads :)

[LauraIngallsWilder]

I agree with you mummybiz regarding EO - absolutely hopeless - and were hopeless the whole time I was a member. Joined in autumn 09, membership stuff took months to arrive. I sent in my change of address twice, then sent it in again for the new 'address book' thingy (I did that twice too)
All that happened was they still put my old address in the contact book - and sent EO newsletter to both my old and new address for 6 months after my membership expired.
It might be worthwhile if you live near places where the discounts apply but here in rural land it wasnt!

But with regard to the funding for HE issue Im with Julienoshoes all the way - all funding means is interferrance and strings attached! No thanks

[Blu]

I've only got one child so I should be refunded at least £6000 p.a in respect of the the other 2 children I might have had but didn't, thereby saving the state all that money....

And what about the taxpayers with NO children? Should they be givcen a voucher in repsect of the NHS money that you use when you take your kids to A&E but they don't need?

The whole point of a state provision is that it is provided by society as a whole, for the benefit of individuals within it, who in turn benefit society as a whole.

[mummybiz]

MammaSez - my priority is always going to be to give my children the best education I can and if that means setting up a learning environment then I will do it :) - love the image of an academy sponsored by L'oreal but I was thinking more Jamie Oliver myself :)
Describing my posts as laced with manipulative emotive language is a little bizarre - I am obviously coming across the fundamentalist side of Home Education I was warned about:) - removes tongue form cheek and continues ......
I was brought up to believe that everyone has the right to their opinion but that others should be allowed to have a different opinion - don't be so scared that if a group or an individual wearing the label of Home educator does something different the whole Home Education community will be "threatened".
Even without direct government funding the government is contributing towards your childs education in some way whether through claiming tax credits- income support- using the local library- the swimming pool - the museums etc etc - should home educators who object to government funding so strongly not be allowed to use these services and be allowed to withhold a proportion of their taxes !?

[Hufflepuzzpig]

Also I may be immensely cynical but I would also be concerned that less scrupulous parents would think "oh goody I can 'homeschool' and do nothing, and get money!"...

[Hufflepuzzpig]

No, I wouldn't want that. As it is, we are sending DD to state school, but we are very pro home ed, especially autonomous or 'unschooling'. But if having govt funding meant they had ANY influence over how we chose to live, I would really resent that.

[MammaSez]

Not every child who fails to complete school at secondary age has been "kicked out" because they can't behave - the family I was referring to had medical issues which meant a lot of school had been missed - so again the almost blind panic of a home ed parent daring to suggest that they personally would like to approach home ed in a different way causes a misinterpretation of a post !

Ah, I didn't say that every child at college was there because they were kicked out, I said that those children should apply and be judged on merit, alongside every other child of that age who wants a place. Only the naive would think, that didn't include children who had been excluded for health reasons.

Please get a grip, there is no blind panic. You however seem to lace your posts with manipulative emotive language.

Saying "I don't want you campaigning on my behalf for funding" once again shows that some home edders seem to view all home ed parents as one collective and insular group - this fails to take into account that some newcomers to home education may see the future in a different light and may be interested in taking a new approach negotiated with LEAs government and or private businesses to enable funding for the set up of a learning environment which is not a school !!

Actually after 12 + years of HE, I am fully aware of the diversity in the HE community. It does not come as a surprise to me that people think differently.

What you fail to grasp, is that unfortunately the government sees us as one big group, and has largely failed to grasp that diversity. I have NO problem's whatsoever with free thinking and different approaches.

However I do think that there is nothing new under the sun, and often times people dash head long into their great ideas, and haven't really stopped to consider how their actions affect others. Or if those ideas have actually been tossed about before eons ago.

I don't want my child's education sponsored by KFC or Coca Cola. If I wanted to put my children in learning environment that wasn't school, I would set up a co-op with other interested parents, and allow those who are responsible for the children, to be so. So therefore, I don't want strings attached to my freedom, because YOU want your learning center sponsored by Loreal (or any other private business). Until the government and the LEA's can even begin to grasp the difference between autonomous, unschooling, natural, or a structured home educator then we are starting way behind the 8 ball.


You said I never said anything about determining what is right for you... I am looking to find more parents who have the same outlook (and I have people already interested) But by default you do. By campaigning the government for funding for home educators and changing the way things are done, then you place strings on my freedom. You have way too much faith in your government.


why the insistence that home education has to be with minimal outside contact Fairly large assumption wouldn't you say?

By becoming less insular you will attract greater numbers to your cause and your ability to resist any measures you don't want will be all the greater.

I don't need to attract anyone to my cause. I don't have a cause. I have a family, whom I am happy to home educate as long as they want to be. I think Fiona offers some great alternatives above for those who want to set up such learning environments. Perhaps that would be a good place for you and your interested others to start? On your own, with your own thing, doing it your own way, for your own family.

[NotJustKangaskhan]

Local home educating groups can apply for grants and funding just like any other non-profit organization. My local HE group has gotten funding for years from government and other sources and use it for joint activities and lessons. Using outside organizations and funding is not anything new. Not everyone takes it up because getting that funding can be a PITA (and not everyone is part of their local group to get said funding).

The issue taken with your original post is that you said to the individual or to a central home educating body - there is no central elective home educating body and there isn't likely to be one. That type of funding would likely be taken as a bribe to register to get that funding and that would cause an explosive fight before it left the presses.

[mummybiz]

Healthy debate (as Mumsnet is known for !!) helps to refine ideas and that's why I started the thread - I have been looking at setting up a flexi type centre for home edders in Kirklees as you can see from my previous threads on this forum and also some online learning for people further afield. I think there is more chance with the move towards free schools and academies to get funding for a "flexible opt in and out education service" - the other side of the coin is if people would hate government funding what about private funding - would private finance cause the same issues?

[AMumInScotland]

mummybiz - you seem to have changed tack there - now you're talking about "to enable funding for the set up of a learning environment which is not a school" - that's a world away from what you talked about in your OP - giving money to parents, directly or via an HE organisation.

I'm sure most HErs would have no problem with an LEA choosing to set up and fund a more flexible educational service which parents could opt into if they chose, either from an HE background or to leave school and move to. So long as that was not compulsory, and parents could utilise it in a flexible way to suit their needs, I'm sure there would be plenty of takers.

But would a government that insists on a National Curriculum be prepared to set up and fund a school which did not comply with that?

[mummybiz]

I agree that others have gone before me and done the hard work in enlightening LEA's and I am lucky in that my area is trying to build "non-intrusive" bridges with home educators but I guess I am trying to say I don't see why a particular small sector of home ed parents can't interpret home education in a way which involves closer partnerships with outside agencies without being seen as trying to destroy the work that others have done before.

[mummybiz]

My original post seems have got interpreted as a call for funding to individual parents but actually if you read all I have said I am more interested in the possibilities for collective funding - I have raised the idea of a flexi learning environment either online or actual and have had a lot of positive responses and will be actively looking at the possibilities of establishing this for my local area Kirklees. The EHO officer here has been really helpful - and I have links with businesses who can help via sponsorship free resources etc. I hope that the purist home educators won't see this as a betrayal of the Home Education agenda but simply a group of parents making a different choice in how they interpret home education.

[hugglymugly]

Disclaimer: I never HEd, but did consider it when my DC1 was in infant school. But at that time Education Otherwise was just beginning, so there would have been little support and a lot of bureaucracy to cope with.

Although your suggestions might have some merit, mummybiz, I also think you are proposing them way too soon. Home Edders have fought a long battle (for around 40 years) to get to where they are now and, from some posts I've read in this section, there is still some way to go in respect of some local authorities/members of the public/even police officers patrolling shopping centres on schooldays.

If LEAs back in the 1970s and for some decades since, hadn't taken the attitude that they did, financial resources could have been diverted to providing facilities to support home educators. And LEAs could have learned a lot from that ? most especially cascading ideas down to schools about how to engage children in learning when those children don't fit the "norm". (When my DC1 was in state school, the only significant criterion was age.)

But they dropped the ball, and it's taken a couple of generations of successfully home-educated children for them to see the light. And a lot of effort/pain on the part of their parent educators. It's a long history, and doesn't reflect well on LEAs.

From what I can tell, you're new to HE, and presumably you're in an area of an enlightened LEA ? but you might want to think about who enlightened your LEA and the battles they fought.