The Homeschooling School Board Member.

The fact that I homeschool my daughter full-time and my son for one subject might make my presence on the RSU 3 School Board dicey for some. I don’t feel it presents a difficulty: do we require our school board members to have children? Do homeschoolers have nothing to offer a school board? Should nobody be able to make decisions about district direction if they don’t have kids who will be directly affected?

Of course not. We are all taxpayers. The quality of our district affects us all.  A business owner wants a good pool of workers, and the first thing a business or family looks at before moving into an area is: how good is the school district? Grandparents want the best for their progeny. And we all want our property taxes to be spent efficiently and productively.

But besides that, a homeschooling parent instinctively understands the problems of public education. Their contribution to a school board is a no-brainer. They have a vital outsider’s view. How much of the life of an institution do we take for granted without really thinking about it, because we’ve grown used to it?

And homeschooling school-board members want to make a contribution to their community even though their own children aren’t in school; they care about those who favor public education or whose families are unable to homeschool. I only wish more would do it -- but, of course, they are a little busy.

The Homeschooling School Board Member