Virginia teachers unions fight against Republican homeschooling proposal

For the children, or something:

E.W. Jackson, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, has drawn fire from public educators and Democrats for his announcement that, if elected, he would push for a constitutional amendment supporting equal resources for homeschoolers.

Meg Gruber, president of the Virginia Education Association, called Jackson’s proposal a “reckless agenda” that would be a “major blow” to public schools.

“Using our most recent data available on actual funding, we estimate that the diversion of state funding to homeschooling families would take about $100 million out of the aid currently going to public education,” Gruber said in an interview Tuesday.

Such slashing of funding for public schools would equate to about 1,700 teachers being lost or would mean families in Virginia take on an additional $100 million tax hike, Gruber said.

Jackson made his comments last week on WINA’s “The Schilling Show,” in Charlottesville, a conservative program, when asked about how to break down the barrier between public and home schools. [...]

“I think homeschooling still faces a lot of barriers, and I think we got to make sure that that homeschooling family, just like any other family that decides to send their child to a private school, Christian school or whatever it is, that that homeschooling family gets the resources that would otherwise be spent in a public school,” Jackson said.

Read more from The News & Advance here.