Va. Plan Would Ease Standards For Home School Parents

By Mary Ann Zehr

Gov. Mark R. Warner of Virginia has several weeks to decide if he will sign a bill that would make it easier for parents in the state with only a high school diploma to home school their children.

Advocates of home schooling say that Virginia has the most stringent qualifications of any state for parents to teach their children at home—and that the requirements should be eased to enable a broader range of parents to do so.

But Belle S. Wheelan, Virginia’s secretary of education, has asked Gov. Warner, a Democrat, not to sign the bill. She argues it would inappropriately remove input from local school districts in the home schooling of children whose parents...