Dear Editor,
In his continuing erroneous effort to proclaim legal authority over private home schools, Gilroy Unified School District attendance officer Frank Valadez let slip a revealing confession. He wrote, “Unlike other districts, we are not experiencing declining enrollment and in fact have more students than we can handle.”
By “handling” students, we must assume Valadez means fulfilling the district’s obligation to educate them.
Is it any wonder then, that, in his words, “As we do a better job of abating truancy, we are seeing an increase in the number of parents who are wanting to homeschool”? Can you blame parents for withdrawing their children from a district that is admittedly overwhelmed?
Certainly those parents who have entrusted their children to GUSD would prefer to see the district’s resources directed toward finding ways to “handle” their children, rather than wasted in the futile pursuit of children who are no longer under the legal authority of the district.
Jackie Orsi, California Homeschool Network, Hayward
