Home School Rule for TOPS

Jun 21, 05:55 PM

Current Headlines: Advocates for home-schooled students have, almost by their nature, a grievance against the educational establishment.

Home study is regulated because the state grants diplomas and administers accountability tests, so the hand of the state is on even those who, by choosing home-schooling, obviously want something quite different from what state or even private schools have to offer. Over time, though, the home-school student population has settled in as a small part of the student mix.

One grievance rankles still, and that is the slightly stiffer requirements for home-schoolers to win TOPS tuition waivers.

A bill in the Legislature would, in the view of home-school advocates, put their students on more of a level playing field for TOPS awards. But House Bill 634 was approved in the House Education Committee. Then the full House over the objections of college leaders, who have a legitimate worry about students going on to a college or university ill-equipped with the skills to succeed.

HB634 by Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, lessens but does not entirely eliminate a higher ACT admission test score required for home-schoolers to get the TOPS scholarship. If the bill is approved, a home-schooler would have to score at least one point higher on ACT than a regular high school's graduate. Qualifying students in the regular high-school curriculum currently need a 20 on the ACT, which means a home-schooler would need a 21.

Scalise's bill originally called for leveling the ACT requirement for both classes of students. He accepted a compromise to have a better chance of passing the bill.

The problem with this bill is not discrimination against home- schoolers. They've become a part of the educational landscape in Louisiana, and many are quite successful in college. But the main educational reason for TOPS is that the grants are a reward for taking the core curriculum preparing students for college.

Home-schoolers are not required to take several parts of the core curriculum, including a foreign language and some computer classes.

Not everyone qualifying for TOPS succeeds in college, for a myriad of reasons. But the fact is that the core curriculum is a reasonable requirement for college-bound students, and makes it less likely that the student - and the taxpayer subsidizing state universities - will be ill-served by students dropping out along the way.

The goal of TOPS is to encourage students to take the curriculum that gives them a much better chance to succeed in college. "The No. 1 indicator of college success is completing the core, not the ACT," said Higher Education Commissioner Joseph Savoie.

His concern is legitimate and ought to be taken into account by legislators. But there is one place where perhaps home-schooled students could be accommodated in TOPS, and that is the higher cash awards for doing better on the ACT.

The Rev. Gene Mills, director of the Louisiana Family Forum, noted that his son scored a 28 on the ACT but was not eligible for the additional cash award that regular students get - because home- schoolers have the higher requirement on the test score.

Perhaps a compromise is in order. Scalise's bill is probably not necessary: A home-schooled student, because he or she has not taken the core curriculum, arguably should have to post a slightly higher score on the ACT to win the award.

But if a home-schooler does qualify for TOPS, the additional cash awards - based on the ACT score - should probably be awarded on the same basis as other students.

Young Mr. Mills didn't have to take the core curriculum for TOPS that his peers did. But he obviously did well enough to qualify for TOPS, and - that hurdle accomplished - a solid ACT score should be rewarded with the same cash awards others get.

That would definitely strike a blow for fairness for home- schoolers, without eroding the important emphasis on the core curriculum that is the educational rationale for funding TOPS in the first place.

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