Paid Vacation - Students Pay Schools

Crystal has a post on a proposal made in a California school district to charge parents about $35 a day to withdraw their kids from school for a vacation. Yes. Your kids are not in school, because they're your kids doing things with you, and because the school didn't have to spend any money teaching them that day, the purse-holders won't pay the school for your child that day, so they want to get their fair share of money from you instead.

The article has some interesting comments by Crystal's blog readers. What does a policy like this mean for homeschoolers? Should parents be more responsible and let school district schedules govern their vacations and lives instead of withdrawing students from oh-so abundant class time? Where is the money from the taxes going? Why can't public schools make do with the money they already have? Is public school a welfare program?

I also wanted to link to an article written by Douglas Gresham, the stepson of C.S. Lewis, which I found to make a lot of uncommon sense. This article, which points out some logical flaws in traditional schooling, comes to me from Scott Brown via Matt Chancey.

My thoughts are summarized as follows: there should be no public schools. There should be very few private schools (for orphans or very poor children - as charities run by churches, etc.). Parents have primary responsibility for and control over their children. They are liable for their children's educations. The everyone-pays-taxes-which-are-distributed-to-provide-an-inefficient-education-for-anyone public school system is welfare and socialism. Socialism has been proven to drain itself. Children can be educated for much less money than public schools receive per child every year. Family vacations are good for families. Children should never do homework over vacations. Families are not dictated to by public school schedules. A school has no right to charge parents for not using their services. Teachers in public schools are sometimes very kind, dedicated, talented people. They are there for the service of the students, and cannot complain about the bit of extra work helping a child make up work if necessary that they missed while sick or on vacation.

To God be all glory.