Homeschool advocates work to protect hard-won freedoms as U.S. educational landscape shifts

With new legislative years come fresh responsibilities to advance educational freedoms – especially in fostering public-school alternatives, homeschool advocates say.

“The homeschool community has fought for these exceptions to compulsory attendance for decades now,” says Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) attorney Kevin Boden, who covers legal cases in South Dakota and other states.

“They’ve won those, and so you already have a bit of a healthy soil from which these other emerging models can grow and flourish.”

Boden encourages all parents – including those who have chosen learning options other than homeschool – to help preserve the nation’s educational freedoms.

“I think it’s good to have the right to homeschool even if you don’t necessarily exercise it, and it’s my job to continue to fight for that for my kids and grandkids, not to say it’s someone else’s job. 

“The warning is simply staying on the sidelines and doing nothing. You’re not engaged, you don’t tell your kids about the history. You take it for granted, and it seems to me that as soon as we start to take things for granted, we’re at risk of losing what we fought hard to achieve.” 

‘Threat to the establishment’ 

Previous generations fought many court and legislative battles to achieve the homeschool freedoms now fostering alternative educational options such as learning pods, hybrid learning centers and microschools, Boden argued.

“We’re believers in the power of democracy in America,” he says, noting how Europeans in the 1800s such as Alexis de Tocqueville “were just amazed at the voluntary association of Americans and their willingness to voluntarily come together to do something that was beneficial for their community.” 

This community participation empowers parents to choose whatever education they believe works best for their children – unlike public-school classrooms where all children are “marched to the same thing,” according to Boden.

“Even from an American history perspective, it has proven generally to be very good. So why not let it flourish in the educational sphere, on behalf of the education of our children? To me, it seems fairly common-sense. But it is a bit of a threat to the establishment, to what has become a pretty large educational bureaucracy.”

Like other bureaucracies, public schools tend to focus more on protecting themselves than the people they were intended to serve – especially in the face of declining enrollment, Boden notes. 

“I don’t think it’s a secret from anybody’s perspective that as people withdraw to homeschool, the funding for (public) schools goes way down. … I think if I were in public school, I would probably be doing everything I could to try to get kids back in public school, too.” 

‘We are in partnership with the parents’ 

Sarah VanDerVliet, a former public-school teacher in South Dakota, offers a different vision from the establishment: partnering with, instead of fighting, parents to provide hybrid options. 

Her program, Buffalo Christian Homeschool Academy, serves 32 students with a strong focus on agricultural education, including hands-on projects such as meat processing, cheese-making and beekeeping. 

“If there’s moms or dads that want to work, it allows them two days a week where they know they can drop their child off, and they can be educated by people they trust,” she says. “They’re in a good setting. They’re in a faith-based setting. And they’re still getting some structure in their week.” 

Michelle Stephens, a registered nurse, has enrolled her three children in VanDerVliet’s program and calls it “the best move we could ever have done.”

“We’re kind of bringing back those old-time skills that a lot of these kids have never really been into. All of these extra little things that you can do when you’re a smaller group allows them to work together and do things as a group, and it’s been really fun to see how they’ve grown and created something pretty amazing.”

Because of South Dakota’s homeschool law, every parent enrolled in Buffalo Christian must register as a homeschooler.

“We are in partnership with the parents, and we are helping them,” VanDerVliet explains. “I tell the parents you’re still the principal of your child. We’re more of the teachers and the ones to help you and give them group learning and being able to interact with people that have common beliefs.” 

Since launching Buffalo Christian, VanDerVliet has noticed the way her academy helps bring local families and their community together. 

“I feel like we’re truly that one-room schoolhouse back in ‘Little House on the Prairie’ days where you have people within your township all going to the school, and it’s all family,” she says. “So we have that feel, which was my ultimate goal – to go back to the one-room schoolhouse, back to the basics.” 

All parents ‘equipped’ for education 

VanDerVliet encourages parents to reject any doubts about their qualifications for teaching their children. 

“Every parent is equipped to educate their child, and I even said this when I was in public school. You know your child the best. They are your babies, your kids, your flesh and blood. … They’re going to thrive because that’s all every kid wants, is their parents to do what’s best for them, to fight for them, to love them, to teach them. I think as a society, as a culture, we’ve gotten away from that.” 

At the same time, VanDerVliet is realistic about the challenges faced by her program in countering the current culture in education. 

“We’re the unknown; it’s a new thing. People don’t understand it. That’s why I’m a big believer in educating people.

“I’m sure the public sector gets a little nervous when kids are leaving and going other ways, because I’m sure it affects their funding and all that too, but I just feel like parents should have the choice to do what they feel is right for their child.”

Boden agrees, outlining three steps for homeschool parents to safeguard their existing freedoms while extending those liberties to others. 

“Get engaged in whatever level you can,” he says, “but don’t sit on the sidelines. Don’t be apathetic to the fight, because we think it’s very real.”