Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is probably “the most prominent home-schooler in America.” Indeed, the fact that Santorum’s seven kids have largely been educated at home (two of them are now adults) is a key aspect of Santorum’s appeal to his right-wing base...The rest of the story is in the Salon column (which, btw, contains numerous well-thought-out and well-expressed ideas about home-schooling). I have to admit that even though I have extended family members who home-school, I never realized that public funds were available to help cover the cost of doing so. You learn something every day.
In a recent Ohio speech, for instance, Santorum described the predominant model of public education as an artifact of the Industrial Revolution that has become ill-suited to a post-industrial age: “People came off the farms where they did home-school or had a little neighborhood school, and into these big factories … called public schools.”..
As various media outlets from Mother Jones to the Washington Post have reminded us in recent weeks, Santorum’s record as a home-schooler is ambiguous at the very least, and arguably hypocritical. From 2001 through at least 2004, when Santorum was serving in the Senate and living full-time in Loudoun County, Va., five of his children were enrolled in an online charter school based in Pennsylvania — a public school, albeit an unusual one — with computers, curricula and other educational services provided at taxpayer expense. According to the Penn Hills Progress, a newspaper in Santorum’s suburban Pittsburgh hometown that broke the story at the time, the local school district had spent approximately $100,000 educating the senator’s so-called home-schooled children, although they lived neither in the district nor in the state...
Appearing to live in Pennsylvania was distinctly advantageous for the Santorums, because state law required school districts to pay 80 percent of the online charter-school tuition for local families who chose it... In other words, the Santorums presented themselves to the world as home-schoolers for at least three years, while Pennsylvania taxpayers picked up the bill for their kids’ education — and they actually lived in a different state. For a private citizen, this would have been an embarrassing ethical lapse, but somewhat short of criminal misconduct. For a politician whose reputation rests upon issues of character and integrity, it’s considerably more damning.
28 February 2012
How Rick Santorum home-schooled his children
From Andrew O'Hehir's Home Schooling blog at Salon:
A hypocritical conservative??? Well don't that beat all...
ReplyDeleteBeing home-schooled by Rick Santorum... Imagine that, the immense knowledge you'd acquire through years of listening to an imbecile's ideas about how the world works. Tide goes in, tide goes out, you know, who could possibly explain that?
ReplyDeleteI hate him, but his children don't have anything to do with it, so I'm glad they had the chance to have some proper education.
I'd say Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are more prominent than Rick Santorum and his wife.
ReplyDeleteThe Penn Hills School district is where I received my elementary education, decades ago.
ReplyDeleteIt is not a wealthy district and most of my classmates were from the working class. Many fathers worked in the steel mills and when those jobs went overseas, the line for free school lunch was quite long.
I went to what was known as an "egg carton" school- row of classrooms, with an office and gym in the middle. There was no art room, no music room, no library and no kindergarten.
I thought it was wrong for Santorum to bill such a cash strapped district for the online education of his children who lived in a comfortable home in a well to do school district in another state.
As a homeschooling mom of 3 AND a virtual school teacher for a public school district - I think the definition of homeschool is somewhat loose. Yes, his kids stayed home and did school public school from there. Not necessarily homeschooling. I have many students in my own virtual classes who do school from home - however, I'm a paid public school teacher serving as their instructor.
ReplyDeleteReally, I think he'll use it as a political crutch and play it both ways. What a shame.
I homeschooled both of my kids all the way from K to grade 12. I don't care if his kids are homeschooled or not; the man is an idiot either way.
ReplyDeletePA is where Santorum had his official residence at the time and where he paid income taxex, etc. Therefore, like anyone else in residence there, he was entitled to the same educational programs as any other resident there regardless of where his children lived most of the time.
ReplyDeleteTruthfully, my mother worked with him back in the 90s and could not stand him. She said she would seriously consider moving out of this country if he ever became president but doesn't believe he will actually make it anyways. She knows A TON of corrupt things about him and I remember when I was younger she would come home and talk about him. Now that he's running for president it not only is a huge joke to her but it also makes her want to vomit. My mom usually really gets along with everyone. For my mother to have such strong feeling about someone WAAAAAYYYYY before he wanted to run for presidency....well you would understand what a big deal that is if you knew my mother. Take care all!
ReplyDeleteDon't understand why it would be "something short of criminal" if advantages obtained were obtained by deception rather than honesty. Isn't that the standard used for most contractual disputes in government, in corporations, and among individuals? Isn't that what the crime of fraud based upon?
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