“All 50 states currently protect homeschooling in some respect or another. However, several parent and interest groups in the homeschooling field express concern that the comfortable position they enjoy may be in jeopardy. For example, a 2006 European Court of Human Rights decision upheld Germany’s ban on homeschooling, troubling homeschooling advocates who fear the decision might pave the way for a homeschooling ban in the United States.”

Although these advocates do not seek to ban homeschooling altogether, they insist on strict regulation of homeschooling. Within the category of increased regulation, compulsory attendance statutes particularly concern homeschooling advocates

“In the years following the adoption of the Constitution, people viewed homeschooling as a parental right and responsibility.” (Kreager, 2010, p.228)

“By requiring children to attend public schools, compulsory attendance laws allowed public education advocates to flout the traditional parental right to determine the appropriate education for children.” (Kreager, 2010, p.229)

"States using these laws regulate homeschooling as an arm of the private school system." (Kreager, 2010, p. 234)

“This type of regulation explicitly addresses homeschooling, which is the primary difference between this category of regulation and the other two categories.” (Kreager, 2010, p. 240)

“The first option utilizes Pennsylvania’s homeschooling statute, which allows parents to homeschool their children so long as they meet numerous requirements.” (Kreager, 2010, p. 244)

"In Ohio, where the state's Supreme Court classified homeschooling as a fundamental right, children may receive home education "by a person qualified to teach the branches in which instruction is required." Additionally, parents wish to home school their children; assurance that parents will teach certain subjects; an outline of the intended curriculum and assurance of the parents qualifications to teach the children." (Kreager 2010 p.240)

“Michigan’s Parental Rights Act further bolsters a parent’s right to homeschool in Michigan. This Act classifies a parent’s right to control the education of his or her children as a “natural, fundamental right.”” (Kreager, 2010, p. 242)

“Michigan law leaves a parent’s right to homeschool largely unrestricted.171 Parents do not need to notify or seek approval from the school district.172 Further, standardized testing requirements do not apply.173 Finally, parents do not need teacher qualifications prior to homeschooling their children.174 In fact, the Michigan Supreme Court held in People v. DeJonge that teacher qualifications are unconstitutional when they interfere with a parent’s free exercise clause rights (Kreager 241)”.

“In Iowa, homeschooling is legal so long as the parent or legal guardian provides “competent private instruction.”185 Three aspects apply to the statutory definition of competent private instruction.186 First, parents must provide instruction on a daily basis.187 Second, children must receive at least 148 days of instruction per year, with at least 37 days of instruction provided each quarter.188 Third, the instruction’s design must result in the student making “adequate progress.” (Kreager 242)”.

“In addition to the requirement that parents provide competent private instruction, only a licensed instructor190 or the child’s parent or guardian may provide instruction under Iowa’s homeschool statute.191 Parents must meet three requirements if they wish to instruct the child.192 First, parents must provide a detailed report for the local school district that includes an outline of course study, the child’s immunization records and blood lead test results, and a list of textbooks that are used.193 Second, parents must evaluate the child annually to determine the child’s academic progress.194 Finally, the parents must report to the local school district the results of the child’s annual performance review no later than June 30 of each school year (Kreager 243)”.

“Teacher qualification requirements or standardized test requirements do not apply under Connecticut law. In addition, Connecticut law does not require parents to notify school officials of their intent to homeschool.”

“[E]ach parent or other person having control of a child five years of age and over and under eighteen years of age shall cause such child to attend a public school regularly during the hours and terms the public school in the district in which such child resides is in session, unless such child is a high school graduate or the parent or person having control of such child is able to show that the child is elsewhere receiving equivalent instruction in the studies taught in the public schools (Kreager 237)”.

“Like Connecticut, Massachusetts utilizes equivalency laws to regulate homeschooling.134 Parents wishing to homeschool their children in Massachusetts must obtain approval from the local school superintendent or school committee (Kreager 238)”.

“Every parent, guardian or other person having custody and control of a child between the ages of six and [sixteen] years shall cause such child regularly to attend the public schools of the district or a day school in which there is given instruction equivalent to that provided in the public schools for children of similar grades and attainments or to receive equivalent instruction elsewhere than at school (Kreager 239-240)”.

“The New Jersey courts have stated that “parents do have a constitutional right to choose the type and character of education they feel is best suited for their children, be it secular or sectarian.””

“Although regulated in various ways, homeschooling is currently legal in all 50 states”

“As Americans, we must examine these threats to homeschooling, especially since our nation embraces diversity. If we are to pride ourselves on diversity, we should fight for educational diversity.” (Kreager, 2010, p. 246)

• “In recent years, the concept of intersectionality has taken center stage and become a dominant model with which to engage in how differences such as “race,” gender, class, sexuality, age, disability, and religion interweave and intersect upon individual lives in a modern “risk” society. Intersectionality has become a model upon which to understand, analyse and engage with difference in which difference itself becomes a defining feature of “otherness.” Otherness is related to the notion that identity itself is fragmented, fragile even, yet constantly evolving through multiple engagements and relationships in society; and through this complexity, intersectionality helps us to engage with understanding outsiders and what it means to be a “stranger” in modern society. (2012, 1).” (Holowchk, 2010, p.79)

"Instead of turning towards a presumed neutral category in order to understand and analyze people’s experiences (usually the white heterosexual first-world male perspective), intersectionality recognizes a plurality of perspectives, which can be drawn upon to create a more nuanced and complex understanding of history and events” (Spoto, 2014/2015, 80).

"To move towards intersectional education is to understand that the Western canon is set up in support of this “neutral” category and acts as reinforcement for what bell hooks calls the “white supremacist capitalist patriarchy” (1997, 7) and what Omolade names as the “Western intellectual tradition of exclusivity and chauvinism” (1987, 32)” (Spoto, 2014/2015, 80-81).

"Instead of turning towards a presumed neutral category in order to understand and analyze people’s experiences (usually the white heterosexual first-world male perspective), intersectionality recognizes a plurality of perspectives, which can be drawn upon to create a more nuanced and complex understanding of history and events” (Spoto, 2014/2015, 80).

"When attempting to envision the possibilities for an education that lives up to the standards of an almost impossible ideal, most anarchist theorists advocate a questioning of the very nature and purpose of education to begin with” (Spoto, 2014/2015, 88).

"Like Rouhani and countless others who have been influenced by anarchist pedagogies, I work to not only bring anarchist theories into my classrooms but to apply the very method of my “teaching” to the aim of removing the authority of the instructor and creating a sense of empowerment as I encourage my students to take control and responsibility over their own learning” (Spoto, 2014/2015, 89).

• “Children of color, children who are immigrants, and children who are poor are more likely to be denied access to alternative resources 82 Journal of Feminist Scholarship 7/8 (Fall 2014/Spring 2015) and recommended for or forced into detention (Faruqee 2013, 1); once there, they lose educational and employment opportunities as well as the support of their family and community, a network which is then replaced by the trauma of child detention. A recent study has suggested that perhaps over 90 percent of children in detention experience trauma that could lead to PTSD (Abram et al. 2004, 403–10).” ( Holowchk, 2010, p.80,81)

"Children of color, children who are immigrants, and children who are poor are more likely to be denied access to alternative resources and recommended for or forced into detention (Faruqee 2013, 1); once there, they lose educational and employment opportunities as well as the support of their family and community, a network which is then replaced by the trauma of child detention” (Spoto, 2014/2015, 81-82).

"These institutionalized hierarchies within education facilitate the exploitation of poor migrant families, whose children are less likely to be given a high-quality education and more likely to be recommended for child detention, and then eventually sent to jail or prison. The education system has become perhaps the greatest site for the reinforcement of hierarchies and oppression, and so must become a primary site of our struggle” (Spoto, 2014/2015, 82-83).

we cannot be part of shifts towards equality and liberation without adopting a holistic approach to revolutionary social theory- it must inform our teaching materials, our teaching methods, our place in the classroom and our place in society (Spoto, 2015, p. 88).

"While noting that the classroom is only one of many sites for struggles—the educators must take their fight to the streets as well—it is our focus in the classroom that constructs our education practice as either emancipatory or simply a tool that reinforces the “white supremacist capitalist patriarchy” and becomes coopted, serving merely to strengthen hierarchies and state power” (Spoto, 2014/2015, 84).

• “I wonder if I am “doing something different in my classroom or just reinforcing and reproducing state and corporate interests” (Haworth 2012, 1). And as I move towards anarchist models of pedagogy, I wonder if my efforts to abolish hierarchies within a state institution are being coopted by those structural hierarchies themselves, reinforcing them by offering the illusion of intellectual and, therefore, personal freedom.” (Holowchk, 2010, p. 83)

• “When considering methodologies, it is a hindrance to the evolution of science and to revolutions to have anything but an open and nondogmatic approach to any potential theory; a determined fixation on any one theory or methodology as a universal truth or fixed set of rules, Feyerabend believed, was not only unrealistic but also detrimental to scientific development itself.” (Holowchk, 2010, p. 85)

"Removing the authority of the teacher from the classroom is an important part of radical education models for Rancière and Freire, and indeed the current system of hierarchy in the classroom is merely a result of the way that oppressive power relationships perpetuate themselves” (Spoto, 2014/2015, 86).

“In our classrooms, we must not only offer antiracist and feminist materials but also model our teaching according to those practices. Furthermore, once we leave the classroom, our dedication to radical social change should not remain amongst the desks and chalkboards—our struggles in the classrooms must also be paired with our struggles on the streets” (Spoto, 2014/2015, 79).