Here and There

Some homeschoolers wanting to sample a class or two are being told they have to take the whole meal.

By Kristine Hughes

Cheri and Carl Isett’s son Alex showed an interest in broadcasting even before he was old enough to go to school, which posed a dilemma for the Texas parents: They wanted to nurture his curiosity, but as homeschoolers, they were dubious about setting up a television studio in their living room.

Their local school district in Lubbock, however, has its own state-of-the-art TV station, where the 16-year-old now works as part of the two Monterey High School broadcast classes he takes at the studio. “That was just perfect for him, and it was not something we could offer in a complete homeschool setting,” Cheri Isett says.

It’s an ideal arrangement for the Isetts, who still teach the rest of Alex’s classes at home, but it’s a rare one in Texas—the Lubbock district is one of only a handful in the state that welcome homeschool students on a part-time basis. Now a growing number of Texas homeschoolers also want to send their children off to class, if only for a few hours a day. But as in other states, not all educators in the Lone Star State think students should be able to select just a course or two. A bill that would have encouraged schools to offer classes on an a la carte basis failed for the third time in the just-concluded legislative session despite the $5 million schools would have received annually...