Well, back to school for my youngest today. Now that he’s a high school junior I don’t get that glance back over the shoulder as I drop him off anymore…sigh. On the plus side, soon he’ll be driving himself and mom can sleep in.
 
For a variety of reasons we chose to homeschool our youngest through 7th grade and then send him to parochial school. It’s worked out well so far and I’m very grateful that these options were available to us.
 
So I was glad to see that K-12 choices are expanding across the country as this Heritage Foundry article reports: Back to School: More School Choice than Ever. In addition to homeschooling and private schools, many communities now offer open-district (or open-state) enrollment, charter schools and virtual (on-line) schools.

Step by step, educational options are expanding for students around the nation. Each new school year will hopefully bring with it even greater options for school choice, ensuring that all families can look forward to each academic year with the assurance that their child will be receiving the best education possible.

Education Action Group Foundation is an organization promoting further “sensible” educational reform. Their hard-to-argue-with philosophy is pretty simple:
 

• Put the needs of students first.
• Put the needs of adults second.
• Empower parents to choose the school option that best meets the needs of their children.
• State governments should enact reforms to give schools more control over their budgets and personnel decisions.

 
Some of EAG’s emphasis is national but the main focus is on Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin. A sub-site, Public School Spending, keeps tabs on out-of-control education costs; “exposing those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo,”and reports on positive changes such as this Aug. 29th article about Michigan reforms: School districts using new state laws to cut labor costs and save money.
 
Now that’s “change” we can celebrate!