Doing it themselves
If enemies of home schooling in Kentucky thought they could mount a PR assault on home schools, they got it all wrong
From Kentucky Citizen Digest, Jan, 1998

Some local school officials want state lawmakers to crack down on home schoolers and at least two lawmakers in Frankfort agree with them. Rep. Freed Curd, D-Murray, who is chairman of the House Education Committee, and Sen. Nick Kafoglis, D-Bowling Green, have said they will introduce legislation to regulate home schooling in the state.

When it comes to proposals for regulating things, the state’s major newspapers usually join in happy chorus. This time, however, the state’s media seem to be noticing something that more and more Kentuckians are finding out: home schooling is meeting a need.

Because of the concerns expressed by some local school officials and legislators, home schoolers have become the object of unprecedented media attention. The immediate cause is new legislation, however, there appears to be more than just legislative considerations driving the interest in home schooling.

In fact, if the enemies of home schooling were hoping for tough exposes of incompetent home schoolers, they were sorely disappointed. In a recent 3-part series of articles in the Lexington Herald-Leader, most of the attention was paid to parents who take their children out of public school for religious and academic reasons. In the series, each installment of which began on the paper’s front page and allotted between 2 to 4 full pages to the issue, much of the coverage was even flattering, suggesting that, in Kentucky, home schooling is beginning to be considered somewhat mainstream.

The complaints of local school officials were not ignored. In fact, the Herald-Leader reported that although some school districts complain that there are many truants who are calling themselves home schoolers, much of the media attention has focused on what home schoolers are doing right.

Many of the articles focused on the different reasons people choose to home school. One major part of the series focused on parents who home schooled for religious reasons. Many articles gave names and addresses of companies who sell home school resources.

All in all, the series gave a flattering portrayal of people who take the time to educate their own children, many of whom were featured in the articles.

The series gave a picture, also, of the increasing popularity of the practice. Figures quoted by the Herald-Leader, provided by the Office for Education Accountability show the number of home schoolers in the state to be about 7,313, although this number is undoubtedly low, since many home schoolers do not report to their local school district that they are home schooling.
 

Key Family Foundation Contacts: Kent Ostrander, Executive Director Martin Cothran, Senior Associate Policy Analyst