All things aren't equal: Homeschool moms speak out about education funding

Apr. 8—In the rush to pass a bill that would provide "school choice" for Oklahoma families, legislators say they are just looking out for all students — but some homeschooling families disagree.

The education package — House Bill 1935 and 2775 — has been the center of intense discussion and argument between the House and Senate, with both chambers debating how much money to invest in public school teachers, private schools and homeschooling families.

Early versions of "school choice" legislation would have created education savings accounts. The plan that got lawmakers to somewhat agree was a conversion to tax credits — but the amounts changed from the House to the Senate. The version of HB1935 the House sent to the Senate would have given a $5,000 credit per student for private school parents and $2,500 per student for home school parents. The Senate changed that to $7,500 and $1,000 before sending it back to the House. It also created a $250,000 household income cap for tax credits.

But many homeschooling families are frustrated that legislators seem to be out of touch with what they really need or want — and they say they don't want the tax credits.

Devin Steelman, a Perkins homeschool mom of four, said that most homeschool families would not ask the state to give them money to homeschool their children.

"Homeschool families say, 'Leave us alone, we don't want anything,'" Steelman said. "The money the state of Oklahoma is 'giving' is not their money. It is our money they have taken from us and are now attempting to give back with strings attached."

Steelman said it shouldn't be hard for legislators to draft bills that let Oklahomans keep their money and educate their children as they see fit — but said it seems like the legislators think they know best how to spend money and educate children.

"I implore any legislators to seek out homeschool families and find out just how much money it truly takes to educate a child so that they are a functioning member of society, and not only functioning but thriving and successful," Steelman said.

Facts and figures

Still, tax credits of any amount would help homeschool families across the board.

Steelman pays $1,000 on average per year, per student on academics alone. That doesn't account for music education or any other extracurricular activities, she said.

In their budget, the family allots for a total of about $8,000 to $9,000 for education, not counting utilities and food that public school kids get paid for.

"A thousand dollars a year would make a difference," Steelman said.

She also pointed out that homeschooling families typically live off one income because one parent is at home directing the homeschooling.

Most of the time, public school kids have parents that both work, so not only are they not paying out of pocket for their schooling, they are making at least 25 percent more than homeschooling families because there are two adults contributing to the overall income.

"This doesn't mean the state should be paying homeschooling families, but it's pointing out that public school families are not worse off than homeschooling families," Steelman said. "And if the state is offering public school families other alternatives, the state should also give tax exemptions to homeschooling families."

"No vouchers," she added. "Tax exemptions."

Kim Strecker, a Stillwater-based homeschool mom of five, said she and her husband approached their homeschooling pattern with an Individual Education Plan mindset.

They sent their children to Will Rogers Elementary School at different times for different needs, but supplemented the education with extracurricular activities and classes at Meridian Technology Center.

Strecker said she spent $1,800 in curriculum and extracurricular expenses this year for her last child still in school — but that didn't include incidentals.

"If a voucher or credit were to come with 'no strings,' other than documentation of expenses, I would certainly be interested in applying," Strecker said. "HB 1935 appears, so far, to allow for that. Often, however, government money comes with government requirements that include using only government-approved curricula or vendors. As a homeschooling parent, I want the freedom to decide on the curriculum that best serves my children's needs and that has a very solid academic, as opposed to social, emphasis."

Steelman agreed that vouchers or tax credits will come with strings attached.

"How could they not?" she said. "It would seem irresponsible to hand out money to people and then have zero accountability to make sure it's used for its intended purpose."

She doesn't mind if public schools use their own funds — but wondered, if the state has all this extra money why homeschooling families can't get their own money that they're already paying in.

"Yet homeschool families not only pay for their own children's education but also the public school system students," Steelman said.

Accounting for the funds

Steelman also had concerns about where all of the education funds are going and how they're being allocated.

"Show me what it has done," Steelman said. "Where is that money? Why do they always need more money from all these different entities?"

Rep. Trish Ranson, D-Stillwater, said it's surprising that homeschool families were included in the education package.

"Have we talked to homeschool parents? Because all the homeschool parents that are talking to me are saying, 'No, we don't want this,'" Ranson said. "(They say), we don't want anything because they know that if they get state money, then there's going to be state regulation, and they don't want regulation — which I don't blame them."

She said that legislators argue that homeschool families just don't want the Education Savings Accounts, but her concerns go deeper than that.

There's the issue of keeping track of receipts for qualified expenses, and this would give tax commissioners more work tracking all of that.

"Homeschool is very fluid," Ranson said. "What qualifies as an educational expense could be a (trip to) Gettysburg to learn about the Civil War, it could be curriculum, it could be private lessons."

Rural representatives have also been told that they could get additional funding if they vote for the tax credits, Ranson said. And teachers are promised pay raises, but only if tax credits are endorsed.

"That could be dangerous because teachers are already to the breaking point right now," Ranson said.

Tabulating the number of homeschoolers in the United States has always been nebulous. It's estimated that about seven percent of families in Oklahoma were homeschooling before the pandemic, according to a 2020 United States Census Bureau Survey. After the pandemic, the percentage rose to 20.1. But how much of that has fluctuated in the past few years is hard to gauge.

Rep. John Talley, R-Stillwater, said the House wanted more for homeschooling families.

"I think the Senate wants to do the right thing, but their bill isn't going to do that," Talley said. "We're looking at ways to combine them and quit arguing."

Is control the goal?

Jenni White, a homeschool mom of four and the Director of Reclaim Oklahoma Parent Empowerment, said she started homeschooling when her son came home crying every day.

He was in second grade.

"Every day the teacher was bullying him. The kids at school were bullying him. He was just miserable," White said. "I had to do something with him, and I had three other kids in public school at the time."

She had been a teacher previously, but didn't think she could teach her own kids. Out of necessity, she learned quickly. Now she seeks to empower other homeschooling families to do the same.

She said the crux of the whole issue is control.

"What the government pays for, the government owns," White said. "They know that homeschoolers are the biggest problem that they have for selling this stuff."

She said the legislature was "disingenuous" and changed the nomenclature from "voucher" to "tax credit," putting it back on homeschool parents — telling them they asked for tax credits — and now parents can't fight it.

"For these conservatives in our Senate to say, 'Oh, no, it's great for us to give other people's money to people to privately school their children' — that's Socialism 101," White said. "Taking somebody else's money to give it to somebody else — that's exactly what all of this nonsense is about."

White said she's heard legislators argue that the state has the money now, but she has questions about that.

"Number one, why do you have so much money? Are you overtaxing me and that's why you have so much money?" White asked. "Number two, what happens when you run out of that money? Are you going to take money away from people when you don't have it anymore? No, you're going to overtax everybody to make up for the money that you gave away to the families that you now can't afford."

White said the legislature is in control of public schools, but the Senate keeps giving away money and stating how terrible the schools are.

"They have the opportunity to fix these schools. They make laws about public school every day of the week down there," White said. "What the legislature is doing is shirking its responsibility for fixing the problems that they create by just giving money out and not paying attention — and by empowering the parents to take money from their neighbors to put their kids in private schools."

White said it's in the Constitution that citizens have to pay for public schools.

"I don't like it, but the legislature is bound to it," White said. "If they're bound to it, they're also bound to make it function. They just don't want to. Good governments don't give away other people's money."

'We already have school choice'

Joshalyn Ocker's husband comes a family of educators.

The Ockers have a large family and have been homeschooling their children since the children were old enough to go to school.

Active at public school board meetings, Ocker and her family also run "The Right Path," a therapeutic horse center, where they work with eight public schools through the national HorseTales Literacy Program.

"I am not in a political action group," Ocker said. "I'm just a homeschooler. I've been homeschooling for 25 years. (But) as a taxpayer, I'm against it. As a homeschooler, I'm against it."

She said she thinks everyone should have the choice of teaching whatever they want — no matter what religion they are.

"I'm a Christian and I teach my kids from the Bible," Ocker said. "I would assume that Muslims are going to teach (what they believe), and I support them in that choice. But I don't want to pay for it."

Ocker has been talking with legislators for a long time and said when she asks why they vote for vouchers or tax credits, it's not for any great intention — although they said it's "school choice."

"It's very misleading," Okcer said. "We already have school choice. We've had school choice in Oklahoma for a very, very long time."

She said when Senate Bill 783 passed in 2021, open school transfers widened the door for families whose children were stuck in a school district that they didn't want to be in.

"So why all of a sudden is this a big deal about school choice," Ocker said. "It's because several legislators have this idea that the public schools are failing and they want to get kids out of there to shut them down."

Ocker said she has a problem with that idea, because constitutionally, Oklahoma has a responsibility to provide a good public school system.

"If the public schools are failing, legislators need to be focusing their attention on fixing that problem, not giving kids money to go to private school, or giving kids money to be homeschooled," Ocker said. "Those are choices that parents make and when we make private choices, we need to fund our private choices, not expect the taxpayers to fit that bill."

Ocker had questions about which families the bill would actually help.

"It's definitely not going to help rural communities," Ocker said. "There are no private schools in our area."

She said even if parents want to spend their $7,500 on a private school — which wouldn't cover all expenses — it would be difficult for parents to drive two hours every day to take their child back and forth to school.

"You and I both know that's not going to happen," Ocker said.

Ocker said citizens are bound by the Oklahoma Constitution to pay for public school, and by choosing to live in Oklahoma, they choose to help pay for that.

"That's something that we do for our neighbors and our community and to make better communities," Ocker said. "It works when we come together as a community. This is the community I live in, these are the kids that my kids are growing up with, these are the kids that they're going to be working with when they're adults and that are going to be running our town."

And, she added, "If we've learned anything, surely it's that throwing money at things doesn't fix the problem."