Georgia students appear to have other things on their mind besides doing their school work.

In 2008, SAT test scores for Georgia public school students ranked 48th out of 50 states. Georgia test scores have been among the worst in the nation for more than a decade with no evidence of any improvement. Even worse, only 55.6% of Georgia high school students graduate, compared to 70.2% for the national average. There is plenty of room for improvement for K-12 public education in Georgia.

With the poor quality of Georgia public schools, homeschooling has become a popular alternative. Hopefully, the same legislators responsible for public school failures will allow homeschoolers to continue teaching their kids the way they see fit.

Like most other states, Georgia requires all children ages 6-16 to attend school and all homeschool parents are required to file a notice of intent to their local school superintendent. However, while other states require not much more than that, Georgia laws intrude into many areas that other states leave alone. Georgia statute 20-2-690 adds the following stipulations:

• children must have 180 days of instruction each year

• the average school day must be 4.5 hours

• attendance records must be submitted each month to the school superintendent

• parents must write an annual progress report for each child and retain it for 3 years

• all children must study reading, language arts, math, social studies, and science

• all parent teachers must possess at least a high school diploma or GED

• parents may only teach their own children but they may employ a tutor to teach their children as long as the tutor has at least a high school diploma or GED

• all homeschool students are required to take national standardized tests every three years beginning in the 3rd grade and test results must be kept

24 states currently allow homeschool students to have equal access to public school extra-curricular activities and athletics. However, Georgia does not allow equal access. Georgia equal access legislation has been proposed but has not yet been approved.

While homeschool laws in Georgia are more demanding than many other states, Georgia parents still enjoy the benefits that motivated them to homeschool in the first place, such as giving their children a better education and the freedom to choose their own curriculum materials.