[arkey]

I basically agree with everything you said.

I am not trying to downplay any risks here, and even less disregard very unfortunate situations and cases that for sure happen more often than they should.

However I can't see how this becomes as absolute as the parent comment is suggesting, in which by default it is assumed that parents are nefarious agents and public school is the saviour.

Which brings me to:

> Safety rules are not made with the 99% of good people in mind, but to catch the 1% of bad actors.

The risk in accepting this, as it happens so often in society, is ending up having to downgrade everyone to the worst case scenario, and working from that.

[ryan_lane]

The parent comment wasn't suggesting an absolute.

> The risk in accepting this, as it happens so often in society, is ending up having to downgrade everyone to the worst case scenario, and working from that.

I think most folks would be fine with homeschooling if there were reasonable regulation for it, including sharing your curriculum and schedule with the state, and allowing surprise inspections during your schedule, so that abuses can be found.

The biggest problem with homeschooling right now is that the lobbying group for homeschooling is vehemently opposed to any form of regulation, which makes it the wild west, which allows abusers to flourish.

[ethbr1]

110% agreed.

If homeschooling wants to prevent the worst excesses, it has to standardize oversight and enforcement mechanisms.

"Zero regulation is the only acceptable amount of regulation," the talking point, enables abuse.

Not by the 99% who are doing it well!! But by the few bad apples out there.

By my thinking:

   - Requiring a child be registered with the state as homeschooled
   - Requiring a background check on parents who homeschool, and disqualifying those with child abuse priors
   - Taking annual standardized tests (grade level or better)
   - Surprise inspections (once a year? With parent-requested follow-up surprise inspections, if the first happened on a bad day)

Those don't seem overly onerous to prevent abuse from taking advantage of homeschooling options.

And the homeschooling community should want these things too, because they would provide a firm rebuttal to anyone attacking the practice from a perspective of abuse.

But now... when some abuse happens... but there are continued calls for zero oversight...

That's not a great look.