Yeah, I think Texas holds that dubious crown.

No, ma'am. Texas has multiple online charter schools, but these are all classified as public, meaning attendance is required and students sit for the same EOY testing. (A side note: in Texas, you cannot even enroll in the online charter programs unless you have attended a B&M public school for the previous year at least.) If a child drops out of a public online charter, it is accounted for by the same school officials. What I refer to is the somewhat widespread practice of TX school officials formally reporting drop outs as "home schooled," when no such thing is occurring, not even ostensibly. Some of these students drop out and then pay $300 for a degree from an online mill. These "schools" can do this because they call themselves online homeschooling, and are classified as private. In both cases, the "private school" loophole helps TX mask a 30% overall drop out rate. Sources: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/how-private-schools-help-lower-texas-dropout-numbers/ https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/06/07/411779238/thousands-of-high-school-students-getting-lost-in-texas https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/article/Dropout-statistics-under-fire-780684.php

Too true. Does California also use its lack of home school oversight as a way to shield its actual H.S. drop out rate?

I find the lack of oversight actually a little disturbing. In Texas, the lack of any regulation at all means that home schools are, de facto, persona non grata- legally treated as though they are in a separate, parallel, and unrecognized educational universe. School administrators didn't even see my kid on the educational map. It can make it difficult for formerly home schooled students to matriculate into public schools, especially high school. It's common policy among many ISDs not to recognize unaccredited high school credits. They are also frequently diffucult to work with when it comes to partial enrollment, and participation in school athletics and clubs. So, a 16 year old gets enrolled as a 9th grader, regardless of his home school academic transcript, because most ISDs simply won't recognize those credits. Basically, the state's attitude seems to be, yeah, we don't monitor you, but neither do we have to pretend that your "school" is real. It's that dismissive attitude that causes me to rank Texas, overall, as unfriendly to home schoolers, regardless of how "friendly" the law appears on paper.

What Texas home school laws? There are none. All TX home schooling is defined by one court case, Leeper vs. Arlington. That case, which has been upheld in multiple rulings since 1987, classifies home schools as private schools, and therefore not subject to oversight by state education officials. Home schools are expected to cover only five areas: good citizenship, math, reading, spelling, and grammar. If certain subjects like history, arts, economics, foreign languages, and science seem to be entirely missing from that list...well, yeehaw lol. There are no testing requirements, no minimal attendance set, no record-keeping, paperwork or reporting required. No oversight, period. Zip, nada, nothing. If California matches Texas' "standards" I'll eat my cowboy hat. Here are two sources, one pro and one critical of Texas home school law: Pro: https://www.thsc.org/homeschooling-in-texas/the-history-of-home-education-in-texas/leeper-case-decisions/ Con: https://www.responsiblehomeschooling.org/statement-on-texas-supreme-court-homeschool-decision/

Yeah, there is the other creature though, the conservative Californian that moves to Texas to avoid taxes, only to find they hate the seasons, the allergies, the lack of ocean breezes, the scenery, the extremely high property taxes and piss poor health care system and non-existent senior care services... I have an aunt and uncle who made that move a few years ago. My sisters and I have a running bet on when they'll move back to CA.

LOL. I understand, as a 5th generation Texan, who lived and home schooled in Texas most recently for almost a decade. We moved to MN in 2015 and love it here. All the wild boars in Texas could not drag me back, lol.

"Should I take home this super cute adorable puppy I found/ rescued/ saved from a burning building on my way back from the farmer's market???? Pics attached!!" - The answer to that is YES, 100% all the time, in fact we've already dispatched the closest WTMers to your GPS location. They come with blankets, doggy treats, and squeaky toys. Expect them in 10 minutes.

Understood, and thanks for clarifying that. There are so many confounding factors, it's hard to judge the real effects of predjudice on this case right now. The first thing that pops in my head is the Unabomber and how much attention did his initial victim garner in the press? What was the intensity of the response from law enforcement and the public? It's been decades and of course now social media has everything in real time. I think it's definitely something that should be studied once we have a clearer picture. Hindsight is 20/20.

I agree that I don't think Conditt was primarily motivated by racism. When I stated that I suspect he'd been radicalized, I meant on several fronts. Those that ascribe to the extreme right (I'm talking anti-religious, neo-fascist types) don't hate just one aspect of society; they despise all of it. They hate all groups, liberal and conservative, religious and secular, that espouse humanist ideals. That means they hate the single black preganant teenager, but they also hate the pro-life volunteer trying to find housing and health care for her and her baby. In other words, if my suspicion is true (and I fully acknowledge that's all it is now), and Conditt was taken in by one of these groups, his hatred, therefore, his violence, had multiple targets. Whether it's the black teenager, the Hispanic (representing immigrants ), or people just walking and riding bicycles ("Those libtards in Austin are part of what's infecting America"), they all represent something the neo-fascists want to dismantle. Society, itself, and the rest of us.

My bad, I did not realize that. The (3 or 4) articles I've read so far had not mentioned anything but the fact of his attendance there. But I'll take your word for it.

I do get that, as someone who moved from Texas to Minnesota just a few years ago. I've chosen to leave or forego joining groups that exclusively used FB or just requested email communication on the side. It is frustrating to not always be in the know. But honestly, I resent social media's intrusion so much that I just can't bring myself to give FB/ Twitter/ Snap Chat the time of day. Heck, even WTM's "exposure" concerns me, but I know SWB offers this place as a service to her fans and readers and not to exploit people. That makes the difference for me.

Quit? I never joined because I thought FB to be stupid and insipid. Now, I think it's harmful and divisive, like much of social media. My 15 yo ds does not have an account either, and he only got Snap Chat because his hockey team uses it to post practice times (much to our mutual annoyance). I work in the tech industry, I'm very aware of how little privacy we have these days. I'll be damned if I help them out by virtually stripping for FB's investors though. Pun intended.

Timing is everything. If I was Catholic, I could offer up my suffering during Holy Week. As an agnostic, I'll just raise a glass to my fellow sufferers. Hehe. :)

Despite the fact it's been several years since Conditt graduated high school, the novelty of home schooling is definitely being targeted by the press as a factor. Look at this USA Today article. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/03/21/who-mark-anthony-conditt-austin-serial-bomber/444738002/ They actually got a statement from the President of the Texas Home School Coalition. Now, I have yet to see any press ask the administration at Austin Community College for a statement, regardless of the fact that that was the most recent educational institution Conditt attended. You'll also note that Tim Lambert, THSC president, claimed that Conditt "reportedly walked away from his faith" years ago. Clearly, he and the others in his community wish to distance their religious and educational philosophies from Conditt's actions in the public mind. I actually am inclined to believe Lambert's statement. There has been distinct rejection of establishment religious conservatives by distilled, secularized "alt-right" groups that hate women, gays, and are virulent racists. They are just fine with abortion for minority races. They use phrases that hearken back to Nazi Germany, like "blood and soil" to reference white nationalistic ideals. I was raised in the South, in deeply conservative evangelical Christianity. Though I am an agnostic Episcopalian now, I still appreciate the strong emphasis on equality among God's children that was instilled in me from church. Yes, there was and is sexism, racism, and anti-gay messages in Christianity; but there are also messages of love and universalism built into it that can and are used to counter those that just want a divine blank check to hate. I would say the same of Islam and Judaism and other religions. Conditt's opinions, as expressed in the press, make me strongly suspect he got caught up in some dark corner of the internet that promotes a very hardened, and dangerous form of ultra-right nationalism. Without the moderating effects of his family, church, and home school community to combat the messages he was receiving, I do believe he was effectively isolated and radicalized. So, despite the police statement, I do suspect this was a form of terrorism, of the kind used by Nazi thugs in the 1930's to, well, terrorize, destabilize, and spread their noxious ideals. Of course, this is all said with the caveat that it is just my opinion and still mere speculation at this point.