From Facebook, South Dakota homeschool group FAIR-SD has come out and reiterated that they are firmly against any government funding of homeschooling:
As per the statement contained on their their website:
FAIRSD Stands Firmly Opposed to Government Funding of Alternative Instruction in South Dakota
At first glance, “school choice” legislation can sound appealing. Promises of “funding students instead of systems” and “empowering parents” are easy to like. But behind the catchy slogans, these bills often contain a catch that should alarm every homeschooling family: government money always comes with government strings.
When lawmakers offer taxpayer funds to homeschoolers, whether through Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), vouchers, or other programs, they also gain the power to decide how that money is spent. Once a family accepts those funds, the government has a justification to set rules, create oversight mechanisms, and mandate curriculum, testing, teacher qualifications, or reporting requirements. This is not hypothetical. It’s a well-established pattern in education policy: funding and regulation go hand in hand.
For homeschoolers, this means that programs sold as “optional” today can become the justification for regulating all homeschoolers tomorrow. Once homeschoolers are defined in law as recipients of public education funds, even indirectly, it becomes much easier for legislators to argue that all homeschoolers should be held to the same standards as government-funded students.
We’ve seen this progression in other states. At first, participation in a funding program is voluntary. Over time, eligibility rules change, requirements expand, and oversight increases. Families who never took a dime can still end up subject to new laws written in the name of “accountability.” The distinction between publicly funded and privately funded homeschooling becomes blurred, and eventually, erased altogether.
Homeschooling thrives precisely because parents, not the government, are in charge. Accepting public money compromises that independence. No matter how small the initial “strings” appear, they open the door for more regulation later.
FAIRSD’s position is simple: we oppose all forms of “school choice” legislation that include homeschoolers as eligible recipients of taxpayer funds. The safest way to protect homeschooling freedom is to keep education funding and homeschooling completely separate. Homeschoolers have fought for decades to maintain the right to direct our children’s education without government interference. We cannot afford to trade that hard-won freedom for short-term financial incentives.
True educational freedom means saying “no” to funding that comes at the cost of control. For the sake of our children’s future and the independence of home education, we must keep homeschoolers entirely outside the scope of government funding.
John Dales will be very happy with the news!
Beving has set this issue back years for AFP and SD. Homeschool families were pushed out.
Yep.
Good for them!
The voucher program is a BAD idea for South Dakota.
Our constitution obliges us to educate our children. If a private school or home school receives funding, are private anymore? NO
What would stop someone from starting a “private” school for the money? Would that school have to accept all students?
What happens when private schools strip away enough enrollment to close public schools? Every county is mandated to have at least one. When enrollment drops below sustainable levels the state will have to kick in more money to keep them open.
Very bad policy.
Lawsuits abound with these voucher scams. Wyoming has an injunction on their new program and has halted voucher payments. Ohio is in the same boats. It’s a mess and the way these state’s constitutions are written regarding public ed is way less stringent than South Dakota’s. Their states will end up spending millions more dollars of taxpayer money trying to implement these programs through court actions. It’s wild.
Kinda puts a damper on the Hansen/Lemmings campaign.
A damper on the traveling Dumpster Fire Doeden campaign too.
I would agree. If I was running their campaign, the school choice option would not be the hill I would choose to fight on. Not much broad public support, especially with the poor revenue projection coming in and high property taxes already. Maybe this will be the hill they choose as it didn’t take long for their endorser, Tom Pischke, to insert himself into the FAIRSD Facebook page discussion and begin lecturing Homeschool parents on what is best for them. Not sure how many legislators have kids in Private Schools, but they way they are interpreting school choice would land 10s of thousands of dollars in their pockets? Funny thing is, all the home school parents that I personally know and all the Private School parents I associate with aren’t even asking for this. It seems to be a select few legislators and Administrators at the large Private Schools in the state.
Exactly. It’s not a priority for people in SD. Just because other states are doing it, doesn’t mean SD has to do it too.
Let’s shed the strings that are attached to it, use the funding to transition to a better, distributed family-first model, and I’m on board.
A family-first model is a dream to some kids. How glorious it must be to see the world of education through your lense. In many areas of the state, families are absent in children’s lives, kids are living on couches with friends, aunts, uncles, etc. For some, school is the safest and best 8-10 hours of their day. Everything is not Mayberry as it appears it is in your world.
“Give me lots of taxpayer money but don’t pay any attention to what I do with it!”
How about no?
John did you post in the past that you believe you are entitled to be paid a salary by taxpayers to teach the kids you have? $60,000 to $80.000 with no strings attached?
a year?
Doesn’t the South Dakota Partners in education tax funding program already provide funding for those who need and apply for it for their school choice options? Doesn’t the big beautiful bill include language provide $1700 in tax credit for each filer if they choose to support a school choice option? Seems like there are options in place. I don’t get why this school choice 4k or 7k or whatever amount the sponsors of the bill choose, is continuing to be rammed down our throats?
I think home schoolers need more regulation in general but whatever helps torpedo the “school choice” scam is fine with me.
Homeschooling is not a scam. Bringing legislation to transfer money from public to non-public education is the scam.
Homeschooling is completely unregulated which increases the risk of abuse, neglect. It needs to be regulated.
When you fix the public schools you can focus on homeschooling.
FAIRSD won’t stop zealots like Dylan from bringing back his bill to allow homeschoolers to receive government funds, even if they don’t want it. Educators in his district have all but pleaded with him to knock off the attacks against public education; the requests from FAIRSD won’t stop him.
That is because he just doesn’t get it.. Takes his direction from people who also do not get it.
All he does is spout catchy phrases and has no substance. Can’t wait to watch him lose the next election.
The Homeschoolers are right, with government funding there should be accountability. Just like any other government funded program. Public schools are held accountable so….. Most homeschool parents do an outstanding job of educating their kids. The problem lies with those parents who take the easy way out when times get tough and then “opt” to take their kids out of school. Unfortunately, many of these “students” get little to no education. Rather, they play video games all day or worse yet, get involved in the seedier side of life. Several years ago SD made it too easy for parents to bail out of the public system with no assurance that students would get what they needed to be a contributing member of society once they are done. Again, a large majority of homeschooler parents do a fantastic job.
What say you on the subject, Scott Odenbach?
No one with half a brain cares about his opinions on this subject. Might as well fish a walleye out of the Missouri and ask its opinion because at least then you’d have something of value after getting a non-answer.
Hansen built the committee and couldn’t get this to the floor. That’s a real head scratcher.
That settles that. Next
I can see where parents, already being paid to work from home, might decide to augment their incomes by homeschooling. This could turn into a racket way too easily.
Many of these newly-elected radicals need to be primaried OUT.
If we follow that FAIRSD statement to it’s logical conclusion, homeschoolers should not participate in South Dakota High School Activity Association regulated sports, nor should they be eligible for any of the government higher education scholarships.
what? if a student was homeschooled he can’t have a college scholarship?
That makes no sense.
What does make sense, if a college freshman requires remedial course work, (reports are it’s as much as 1/3 of freshmen) the bill for teaching him what he should have learned when he was still in high school should be sent to wherever he received his high school diploma.
As it is now, usually the parents are getting stuck with that cost whether they home-schooled or not.
Hey how will Hansen/Lemmings or the Doedenites feel if they get a voucher program passed and someone starts a “private” school for transgender students only?? I’ll bet they will won’t some oversight on those tax dollars then. 😆