Any comparison of U.S. education with school systems in other countries is incomplete if it leaves out American parents’ freedom to homeschool. This family fled Germany, where their homeschooled children had been forcibly removed from their home and taken to a state school. They now live in Tennessee, and are seeking political asylum.
Tennessee has fairly flexible homeschooling laws. Homeschooling families have to report on curriculum and attendance every year to their local superintendent. Missouri’s law is even better — it requires some record keeping, but those records aren’t looked at unless there’s a problem. This leaves parents free to focus on teaching rather than notifying the public schools about their “attendance,” a term that’s meaningless for homeschoolers anyway. (How could homeschoolers be absent? If they walk outside?)
I hope the Romeike family is enjoying the freedom to homeschool in Tennessee. If they ever find Tennessee’s regulations too burdensome, they should consider Missouri.
