‘Home-school charters’ let families use state dollars for Disneyland, horseback riding lessons and more
In California, there’s a way parents can use money from the government to buy multi-day Disneyland Park Hopper passes, San Diego Zoo family memberships, tickets to Medieval Times and dolphin encounters at SeaWorld.
There are a handful of charter schools that give students’ families as much as $2,800 to $3,200 — tax dollars sent to the charter schools — every year to spend on anything they want from a list of thousands of home-school vendors approved by the charters, according to the schools’ websites.
Some home-school vendors offer tutoring, curricula,
books and other traditional educational services. Other vendors sell tickets to theme parks that are billed as field trips, or extracurricular activities that are billed as P.E., including parkour classes, acting classes, ice skating lessons, horseback riding lessons and more.
It’s such a popular deal that some home-school bloggers have written articles explaining how California parents can take advantage of the schools’ money.
“If you live in California and you’re not taking advantage of this, I don’t know what to say,” said Karen Akpan, a home-school charter parent of four who lives in Beaumont. She wrote a recent blog article describing how she used the educational funds to pay for a family trip to Disneyland, Chicago CityPASSes and Legoland tickets, as well as computer coding kits, educational toys, books and subscription cooking kits for her kids.
The idea behind these charters, which some call “home-school charters,” is that families can customize their children’s education — just like regular home school — but with state education money.
These charters differ from other, more typical independent study schools or hybrid schools or virtual charter schools, which often assign a structured curriculum of courses for students to complete or offer in-person classes at resource centers.
With home-school charters, there doesn’t have to be a set curriculum. Students only have to meet virtually with a teacher once a month and turn in one work sample for each meeting — a sample that the teacher doesn’t grade, according to parents.
It is difficult to know how many charter schools operate this way. The state doesn’t track them. The California School Boards Assn.,
which has been critical of charter schools, says it has not researched these kinds of charters because relatively few students enroll in them.
These home-school charters are an uncommon marriage between public charter schools and home schooling, which California considers to be private schooling.
They are an extreme but little-known form of school choice that home-school advocates say is unique to California.
“I don’t know of any states where they’re paying for the kinds of things they’re paying for in California,” said Mike Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Assn.
a national group that advocates for home-schooling families.
Two of the most popular home-school charters that work this way are Valiant Prep and Inspire Charter School South, both of which were authorized to operate by the CONTINUE READING: ‘Home-school charters’ let families use state dollars for Disneyland, horseback riding lessons and more - Los Angeles Times