Hi! I'm a fairly new blogger and homeschooling mom. I think I've found another homeschool blog to add to my favorites! I found yours through guiltfreehomeschooling. I've been reading through your archives and love them!
Please come by my little attempt at blogging www.homeschoolblogger.com/CleghornClanMom.
God Bless!
Spunky---
What do you think are the best higher education options for Christian Homeschoolers?
I remember looking at colleges for myself back when I was 17/18ish. The "Christian" universities were a turn off only because they didn't offer as many degrees (at the time that was SO important to me, even if I didn't know what I wanted to be!)
My husband and I are half-joking about homeschooling college! 
Aaarrgghh!! (as Charlie Brown would say).
This means that private colleges and universities are no longer private, if this goes through. Also, what would be the point of trying to go to an elite college, since all colleges would be teaching the same thing, by this standard.
Plus, how many of us would want these college grads to be specialists in our lives-we've seen what the standards of the federal ungergrad institutes turns out-now we want this for colleges?
S: Private colleges that disconnect themselves from the Federal funding system should be able to operate without oversight from the Federal government, even if some evil higher-ed version of NCLB gets passed. These are places like Hillsdale College, Grove City COllege, and (I think) George Mason University that do not accept federal financial aid. But of course the vast majority of private colleges *have* to accept federal financial aid if they want to continue to have students... so it may be a moot point.
I'm baffled by Spellings' allusion to federal research money, because getting a grant from NSF or NIH or some other agency doesn't make a private college beholden to the Feds... if they want to talk about return on their investment, why don't they just read the followup reports from prior federal grant recipients? I think this investment business is just a cover story.
I heard about this on NPR this morning...amazing.
I was out recruiting university students the other day, and I don't think you have to worry about the focus being job training. I met a number of really nice students, and many of them will have interesting careers. But their educational experience is very loosely coupled to the needs of industry. If the Canadian State is trying to create an educated workforce using the country's universities, it is getting a failing grade.
On the other hand, the courses they are taking don't really seem to be oriented towards education either (thinking skills, logic, communication, continuous learning, etc.)
I'm not so much worried about job training as expanding the powers of the federal government. It may seem difficult for those outside the US to understand but central planning of education is not something we're used to in the US.
The federal government must be in need of more $$$ and job security to come up with something like this.
I'd like to comment on the following quotes from the NY Times article:
"He said he would like the commission to agree on the skills college students ought to be learning — like writing, critical thinking and problem solving — and to express that view forcefully. 'What happens with reform, he said, 'is that it rarely happens overnight, and it rarely happens with a mandate.'"
and
"Kati Haycock, a commissioner who is director of the Education Trust in Washington, which has supported standardized testing, said in an e-mail message: 'Any honest look at the new adult literacy level data for recent college grads leaves you very queasy. And the racial gaps are unconscionable. So doing something on the assessment side is probably important. The question is what and when.'"
Am I missing the boat? Aren't things like reading, writing and problem solving skills that students should have BEFORE they enter college?? If you ask me they're looking at the wrong end of the pony. If educators could focus on actually teaching children how to read and write instead of having to spend time on topics like "tolerance" and "values" maybe our college graduates wouldn't be in the pitiable condition they're in.
Spunky, I disagreed with you about voting down the Onmibus Deficit Reduction Act (which was where this "rigorous" language first appeared on my own radar screen),but that's NOT because I want the feds redefining "rigor" or nationalizing math instruction.
I will join you in this fight!
Thanks Scott. Those terms have been on my radar screen for a while and when I saw that they were including that in the language of this bill my ears perked up. What they have done with this omnibus bill is redirect funding. They eliminated general student loans and redirected a smaller portion to tragetted loans. That is a cut in education but with the larger purpose of determining "added value" from high school to college. So a short term reduction in spending leads to a long term increase in federal regulation.
Central planning of education? In Canada Education is a provincial responsibility. So for example, in Quebec you are only allowed to attend an English school if your parents were educated in Canada in English (move to Quebec from the United States and your children will need to attend a French speaking school, unless you choose to homeschool). In Ontario there are Public and Roman Catholic school boards. Newfoundland just ended the church run Public schools.
A bigger problem in Canada is local school boards interpreting provincial regulations in a manner that is unfriendly to homeschoolers.
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