Home schooling proves to be a good option for families

By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula

Although most parents choose to send their children to public, private or parochial schools, an increasing number of families in the region are choosing to home-school their kids. Texas has a lobbying organization, the Texas Home School Coalition Association, to defend the rights of these parents.

At a book club for home school families at the Herman Brown Free Library in Burnet last week, parents gave several reasons it’s a good choice for their families.

“My daughter is a leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone kind of person,” said Zuly Zambrano. “She likes to read and study and not bother anyone else.”

Yet her easygoing daughter was bullied in school.

Zambrano felt she has the most vested interests in her daughter’s education and future success. “It’s challenging to be a teacher with a classroom of 30 kids,” she said, adding that sometimes, even unintentionally, teachers might hold faster learners back to let others keep up.

Since the Leeper v. Arlington Independent School District class action suit that began in 1985 and was decided in a unanimous decision by the Texas Supreme Court in 1994, home schools are treated like private schools.

For Jennifer Bramlett of Kingsland, who home-schools four out of five of her children, going to the library’s home school book club is just another activity, along with family field trip Fridays and park day on Wednesdays. “There’s an incredible network of home-schooling parents in the area,” she said. Her kids go to museums and do community service activities.

For the full story, see Friday's Highlander.