AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Laura McIntyre began educating her nine children more than a decade ago inside a vacant office at an El Paso motorcycle dealership she ran with her husband and other relatives.
Now the family is embroiled in a legal battle the Texas Supreme Court hears next week that could have broad implications on the nation's booming home-school ranks. The McIntyres are accused of failing to teach their children educational basics because they were waiting to be transported to heaven with the second coming of Jesus Christ.
At issue: Where do religious liberty and parental rights to educate one's own children stop and obligations to ensure home-schooled students ever actually learn something begin?
"Parents should be allowed to decide how to educate their children, not whether to educate their children," said Rachel Coleman, executive director of the Massachusetts-based Coalition for Responsible Home Education.
Like other Texas home-school families, Laura and her husband Michael McIntyre weren't required to register with state or local educational officials. They also didn't have to teach state-approved curriculums or give standardized tests.
But problems began when the dealership's co-owner and Michael's twin brother, Tracy, reported never seeing the children reading, working on math, using computers or doing much of anything educational except singing and playing instruments. He said he heard one of them say learning was unnecessary since "they were going to be raptured."
Then, the family's eldest daughter, 17-year-old Tori, ran away from home saying she wanted to return to school. She was placed in ninth grade, since officials weren't sure she could handle higher-level work.
The El Paso school district eventually asked the McIntyres to provide proof that their children were being properly educated and even filed truancy charges that were later dropped. The family sued and had an appeals court rule against them, but now the case goes Monday to the all-Republican state Supreme Court.
In court filings, the McIntyres say the district is biased against Christians and accuse its officials of mounting a "startling assertion of sweeping governmental power."
Most of her children are now grown, but Laura McIntyre is still home-schooling her youngest.
"We are definitely looking for a little clarification," Laura McIntyre said briefly by phone. She, her husband and other relatives subsequently didn't return messages seeking further comment.
McIntyre said in court filings that she used a Christian curriculum to home school that was the same taught in the private El Paso religious schools her children attended before she began home schooling them in 2004. She and her husband also say that a separate legal dispute between them and Tracy McIntyre for control of the now-defunct motorcycle dealership made him a biased witness.
Between 2003 and 2012, the number of home-school students nationwide jumped by about a third to 1.7 million, now estimated at more than 3 percent of all students, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics.
The Texas Home School Coalition estimates 300,000 students are home schooled in the state — more than one-sixth of the national total.
No one knows for sure since Texas is one of 11 states that don't require home-school families to register. And 14 states have no subject requirements for what's taught, according to Coleman's Coalition for Responsible Home Education, which advocates for greater home-schooling accountability.
Texas mandates a written curriculum providing a bona fide education "designed to meet basic educational goals" in reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics and citizenship. But it doesn't require home-school students to take standardized tests or otherwise show progress, making the standard unenforceable.
In all, 24 states have rules that home-school children undergo some form of assessment, usually via standardized testing or portfolios of student work. But only nine mandate that home-school families turn in test scores or other assessments to state authorities to ensure student progress is made, the coalition says.
"Part of the problem is, on the political right they'll remove oversight to score points with their base and there isn't a strong enough opposition to that on the other side," said Coleman, who was home schooled in her native Indiana. "This happens especially in states where their legislatures are more conservative."
State lawmakers in Arkansas this year repealed a law mandating that home-school students take nationally recognized standardized tests, and Utah removed academic requirements from its home-school students in 2014. Pennsylvania, Iowa, New Hampshire and Minnesota have also recently moved to relax home-school standards.
Still, Stephen Howsley, a Texas Home School Association public policy analyst, calls his state the country's "most home-school friendly."
But, depending on the outcome, the McIntyre case could change that.
"No parents have ever prevailed in any reported case on a theory that they have an absolute constitutional right to educate their children in the home," 8th Court of Appeals Chief Justice Ann Crawford McClure wrote in ruling against the family last year.
"No one knows for sure since Texas is one of 11 states that don't require home-school families to register. And 14 states have no subject requirements for what's taught"
It makes no sense that we have such huge restrictions on what is taught in schools but nothing for families who are homeschooling. You are basically letting kids go into the wild doing that.
"No one knows for sure since Texas is one of 11 states that don't require home-school families to register. And 14 states have no subject requirements for what's taught"
What?
This is how children go missing and are never noticed.
This is tragic. I liked the quote at the beginning from the Mass. woman. Parents have a right to choose how to educate but not whether to educate. Just because Mom believes rapture is going to come what happens when Jr. turns 18 and there has been no rapture and he can't read?
It's criminal to leave kids without rudimentary skills necessary to support themselves as adults. Denying your children those skills is child abuse as it interferes with their ability to live independently later and creates a forced dependence into adulthood.
"No one knows for sure since Texas is one of 11 states that don't require home-school families to register. And 14 states have no subject requirements for what's taught"
What?
This is an utter logic fail. By not ensuring children are receiving an education, those states are, in fact, helping to set the children up for failure. These children will grow into adults without basic skills which means they wont be able to get a job. Then they're signing up for food stamps and other social programs becoming a drain on the gov't, "n'er do wells," etc. Republicans don't like that.
See, utter logic fail.
ETA: Public schools education with a BA from a private liberal arts four-year college. Ooooohhhh burn!
I cannot understand why state education departments ostensibly have standards that all public (and private schools that use state money) must meet, but they cannot dictate that home schooled students learn the same things. Even private schools have to abide by standards if they want accreditation, right?
I remember the home schooled students in my school district coming in to take the standardized tests that we took at the end of 3rd grade, 7th grade, etc. Maybe that was their parents' decision? Or maybe it's because I grew up in NY, which is a lot less crazy than Texas?
I know that state's rights are a big deal, but I'm starting to have a harder and harder time with people living in different states abiding by completely different laws and standards. It is really making me think about what "American" means. I don't mean in just this instance with homeschooling but with so many things. It's such a big country and with it's history....it's just crazy how one person can have such a different experience than another growing up in the same country.
I would rather recite spelling lists with one kid while simultaneously sounding out words with another, as the toddlers chase each other around the house naked and screaming, for hours and hours and hours, than do this today. Have fun!!
I can understand not mandating standardized testing but shouldn't there be other checks and balances. Some proof that these kids aren't just cheap labor, watching tv all day etc. etc.
I cannot understand why state education departments ostensibly have standards that all public (and private schools that use state money) must meet, but they cannot dictate that home schooled students learn the same things. Even private schools have to abide by standards if they want accreditation, right?
I remember the home schooled students in my school district coming in to take the standardized tests that we took at the end of 3rd grade, 7th grade, etc. Maybe that was their parents' decision? Or maybe it's because I grew up in NY, which is a lot less crazy than Texas?
Last time we talked about this, someone mentioned that there is a very powerful homeschooling group that rolls in to try to stop any sort of regulation. So, legislators try to pass some sort of regulation and this group goes crazy and shuts it down.
The plural of "curriculum" is "curricula." Geez! Are online articles not proofread before publication? There are so many little grammar mistakes in that article that I think the author must have been home-schooled in Texas.
However, I think that parents should be able to home school their children. I also think that if they are going to home school, they must be registered and use an approved curriculum. Of course, this is Texas we're talking about so it's likely that personal freedom will trump any sensible change in how home schooling is regulated, i.e. it won't be regulated.
The plural of "curriculum" is "curricula." Geez! Are online articles not proofread before publication? There are so many little grammar mistakes in that article that I think the author must have been home-schooled in Texas. .
Actually, both curriculums and curricula are correct in American English. But what do I know? I'm just an ignorant homeschool mom.
The plural of "curriculum" is "curricula." Geez! Are online articles not proofread before publication? There are so many little grammar mistakes in that article that I think the author must have been home-schooled in Texas. .
Actually, both curriculums and curricula are correct in American English. But what do I know? I'm just an ignorant homeschool mom.
Yes, however the Latin plural of "curricula" is more widely accepted and of common usage. I would expect someone writing for publication to use the more accepted plural form.
You probably are very ignorant of many things. I don't think that has to do with being a home school mom, though. I'm ignorant of many things as well, but please don't kid yourself that home schooling is a superior form of education.
Actually, both curriculums and curricula are correct in American English. But what do I know? I'm just an ignorant homeschool mom.
Yes, however the Latin plural of "curricula" is more widely accepted and of common usage. I would expect someone writing for publication to use the more accepted plural form.
You probably are very ignorant of many things. I don't think that has to do with being a home school mom, though. I'm ignorant of many things as well, but please don't kid yourself that home schooling is a superior form of education.
Writing for academic publication - sure, Latin plural is what is more commonly accepted. Writing for Yahoo News? Not sure it matters, as both are acceptable and it isn't an academic journal. Journalists are told to write at an eighth grade reading level, you know.
And the proof that homeschooling, when done well, is a superior form of education lives in my home.
Your comment that someone who thinks curriculums is the correct word must have been homeschooled reeks of condescension and (incorrect) judgment.
I would rather recite spelling lists with one kid while simultaneously sounding out words with another, as the toddlers chase each other around the house naked and screaming, for hours and hours and hours, than do this today. Have fun!!
Stop it. You cannot defend what this family did under the guise of homeschooling. The children don't have the basic academic skills to function in society. That's the standard we're holding people to?
I don't have a problem with homeschooling. I know a few kids who do well with it and follow a curriculum online, do online & skype-like classes with other kids, etc. They are actually following a curriculum that fits with them so may not take a foreign language but they are studying at least some major subjects (such as English or maths, etc). I think that having to show that your child is doing something that is educational and won't set your child up for failure as an adult is the minimum that should be done in the US.
And I've long thought that the US should really just break up into small countries. It just makes more sense in a lot of ways.
I would rather recite spelling lists with one kid while simultaneously sounding out words with another, as the toddlers chase each other around the house naked and screaming, for hours and hours and hours, than do this today. Have fun!!
So you don't think what this particular parent did is abuse?
I would rather recite spelling lists with one kid while simultaneously sounding out words with another, as the toddlers chase each other around the house naked and screaming, for hours and hours and hours, than do this today. Have fun!!
Stop it. You cannot defend what this family did under the guise of homeschooling. The children don't have the basic academic skills to function in society. That's the standard we're holding people to?
Who said I am going to defend the parents? What I defend is the right to homeschool, which posters had already said they think should not be a right, and the fact that I do not think homeschoolers should be bound to government standards. We've already been through this at length and there is no need to do it again here.
I think this family is being silly - why can't they teach their kids to read while waiting for the rapture? After all, shouldn't they be able to read their Bibles while they wait?
I cannot understand why state education departments ostensibly have standards that all public (and private schools that use state money) must meet, but they cannot dictate that home schooled students learn the same things. Even private schools have to abide by standards if they want accreditation, right?
I remember the home schooled students in my school district coming in to take the standardized tests that we took at the end of 3rd grade, 7th grade, etc. Maybe that was their parents' decision? Or maybe it's because I grew up in NY, which is a lot less crazy than Texas?
Last time we talked about this, someone mentioned that there is a very powerful homeschooling group that rolls in to try to stop any sort of regulation. So, legislators try to pass some sort of regulation and this group goes crazy and shuts it down.