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USA Today
28-05-2025
- General
- USA Today
These parents are 'unschooling' their kids. What does that mean?
These parents are 'unschooling' their kids. What does that mean? Show Caption Hide Caption Smartphones Aren't Making Your Children Smarter With schools beginning to ban phones and legislation being passed prohibiting them, many parents are wondering if smartphones are good for their children. unbranded - Lifestyle The days are about to look very different for most parents in a few weeks as schools let out for the summer. But for Christina Franco, 39, summer days in her upstate New York home are no different than any other day during the school year because her five kids are 'unschooled.' Instead of going to traditional school or following a homeschool curriculum, Franco's children decide what they want to learn every day. For her three younger children, who are 5, 6 and 9, that typically means playing outside for most of the day. For her 13-year-old, it means drawing or practicing the drums for hours a day. Her 17-year-old is preparing for graduation while working as a lifeguard. Whenever her kids are ready to learn, Franco plans a lesson or a field trip to museums, historical sites or mountains nearby. But there are no grades, no tests and no curriculum. 'My goal for them is for them to love learning,' Franco said. 'It's realizing you can educate your child beyond the school model.' Unschooling videos have amassed millions of views on social media as fascination with the educational movement grows. Even Kourtney Kardashian said sending kids to school felt "so dated" while speaking with her sister during a recent episode of the "Khloe in Wonder" Land podcast. Some parents say their children are thriving in the unschooling environment, fueling their confidence and desire to learn. But not all students find success in unschooling. Some former students say the lack of structure and accountability can lead to educational neglect if parents don't have the resources to make it work. Some kids who were unschooled feel they were left unprepared for adulthood and had fewer career opportunities. 'It takes an incredible amount of time, resources and energy to do it well and there is an equity problem to that,' said Jonah Stewart, interim executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, who was homeschooled. 'While we see many important and very beneficial uses for (home education), there are situations where it can be used for neglect and abuse.' What is unschooling? Self-directed education, commonly known as unschooling, is a form of homeschooling that is based on activities and life experiences chosen by the child, according to the Alliance for Self-Directed Learning (ASDE), a non-profit dedicated to increasing awareness and accessibility to unschooling. Education experts say parents and caregivers unschool differently. Some take a few pages from the homeschooling curriculum and carve out lessons for their children. Others attend micro-schools or 'free schools,' where unschooled children are grouped together in a "nature school" or "outside school" under the guide of parents or teachers, said Daniel Hamlin, associate professor of education policy at the University of Oklahoma. Some parents dive into unschooling with no structure and don't initiate any semblance of traditional education unless explicitly asked by their children. 'The thing we all have in common in unschooling is that the young person is in charge and has the autonomy of what it looks like and the parent is the support and guide,' said Bria Bloom, staff member and organizer at ASDE. She was unschooled growing up and is now unschooling her two children, who are 14 and 2. There are various reasons why parents and caregivers decide to unschool their children. Many say it's to shield them from the bullying and violence that sometimes play out in a traditional educational setting. Some don't want their children to be forced into learning things they don't find interesting. Others say they don't trust educators to focus on their children if they have special learning needs. While some parents claim unschooling produces happier students, Hamline said more research is needed. 'People come into this topic with their own biases in mind. People have these presuppositions about whether it's good or bad and the reality is that it's a very dynamic and diverse sector of American education,' Hamline said. 'There's all this change happening and there isn't a lot of good data to lean heavily into one perspective or the other.' 'Absolutely' educational neglect Unschooling may work for some families but some argue it's also vulnerable to unintended consequences such as abuse and educational neglect. Erin Lauraine, 42, was unschooled throughout her childhood and adolescence in Las Vegas, Nevada. Although her parents called it 'homeschooling," she said there was no curriculum, benchmarks, tests or progress reports. Instead of schoolwork, Lauraine filled her day with doing household chores, watching cartoons and working at her parents' manufacturing plant. It was 'absolutely' educational neglect, she said. 'It took me a long time to admit that,' said Lauraine, who now lives in Dallas, Texas. 'I was denied access to an education and denied access at an age when my brain was primed to learn.' Laws to prevent abuse and neglect when a child is educated at home, whether it's unschooling or homeschooling, vary widely from state to state, said Stewart, from the Coalition for Responsible Home Education. In New York, Franco is required to notify the superintendent of the intent to homeschool, compose and file instruction plans and turn in quarterly reports about her unschooled her children. But about a dozen states don't have any safety nets to ensure a child receives a proper education, Stewart said. Parents aren't required to notify the school, provide instruction plans or send in regular assessments. Families can also skirt around state laws by enrolling children in certain 'umbrella schools,' which offer a way for parents to meet compulsory attendance laws, Stewart said. While some umbrella schools can help with recordkeeping and submitting state paperwork, most don't provide academic oversight or accountability. The lack of check-ins with the student or family also makes it harder to provide social services, Stewart said. 'A lot of social services work is predicated on continued engagement,' she said. 'When the opportunity for contact is foreclosed, the odds of that family receiving the intervention it needs are lower.' 'My entire life is being a late bloomer' While Franco's oldest son flourished academically, she said the social pressures of middle school weighed him down and eroded his confidence. That weight lifted once her son left traditional schooling in seventh grade and began unschooling. After graduating, Franco's son plans on taking a gap year to figure out his next chapter. He's considering an apprenticeship as a mechanic or college for a mechanical engineering degree. 'I encouraged him that he doesn't need to make the decision, right now,' Franco said. 'He realized he can learn anything he wants to learn.' While her son's future appears full of possibilities, Lauraine and other former unschooling students felt lost entering adulthood. Lauraine knew how to operate a blowtorch and balance her parents' checkbook, but she didn't know who she was and what she wanted to do with her life. Adulthood 'was pretty terrifying,' she said. 'It was really trial and error trying to figure something out,' she said. '(My parents) prioritized the practical experience but didn't understand the psychological consequences of adulthood-type exposures on kids and the meaning put into those experiences.' Lauraine eventually got her GED when she was 35, which she said was an emotional experience, and graduated this year with her bachelor's degree in behavioral science. She commends parents who want to take a proactive role in their child's education, but advocates for stronger state regulations to prevent educational neglect. 'My entire life is being a late bloomer,' Lauraine said. 'I don't believe my parents are bad people. I believe that their intentions, while they were good, were really shortsighted." Adrianna Rodriguez can be reached at adrodriguez@
Politico
12-02-2025
- Health
- Politico
Ozempic boom weighs on state budgets
Presented by the Coalition for Medicare Choices Driving The Day DIET DRUGS DRIVE UP COSTS — Soaring costs of weight-loss drugs are leading some states to scrap the benefit for state employees, your host reports. After Colorado's spending on the highly effective but costly drugs classified as GLP-1s, which include Ozempic and Wegovy, more than quadrupled from 2023 to 2024 — with usage doubling every six months — the state health plan is proposing ending coverage, arguing it's financially unsustainable. The potential removal of coverage is sparking blowback among state workers. The state employees' union argues that ending coverage will cost the health plan in other ways: an increase in spending on obesity-related diseases and a less healthy workforce. '[State employees] are very upset about this,' Hilary Glasgow, executive director of the union, Colorado WINS, said. 'Long-term obesity drives a lot of the major fatal diseases in America, and the employees I've talked to feel like they're losing a lifeline that got thrown to them.' Why it matters: Colorado's case illustrates the broader struggles states that choose to cover the drugs for employees face as many states deal with budget shortfalls: Keep covering the drugs and risk depleting their budgets — and potentially increase premiums for everyone on their plans — or eliminate a benefit many employees rely on. At least two others — North Carolina and West Virginia — have already eliminated coverage due to cost concerns. That means those states' employees seeking the drugs for weight loss will have to pay up to $1,500 a month for the treatments. The dilemma also comes as states face their toughest budgetary pressures in years, largely because the federal cash they received during the pandemic has been spent. 'The problem is the near-term cost is so high, and the benefits that you would gain are over a longer-term period,' said Charles Sallee, director of the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee, which is exploring options to reduce the costs of covering the drugs for state employees. 'But is that person still going to be in your health plan five years from now?' Key context: GLP-1s are growing increasingly popular: The number of Americans taking the drugs for weight loss rose more than 700 percent between 2019 and 2023, according to a recent study. Michigan, which covers about 49,000 state employees, spent $5.2 million on weight-loss drugs in 2022. That number skyrocketed to $17.5 million in 2023 and $36 million in 2024. The state's Civil Service Commission said one struggle in designing coverage is that the drugs are new, so data on the effects of long-term use is limited. 'If weight loss isn't sustained with or without GLP-1s, we aren't going to have good health outcomes, and plan costs are going to go up,' said Bethany Beauchine, director of the Bureau of Benefits Administration at the Michigan Civil Service Commission. 'What we're trying to figure out is whether the plan costs will stay manageable with the use of the GLP-1s.' WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY PULSE. We hope our D.C. readers are staying warm amid the snowy weather. Send tips, scoops and feedback to khooper@ and ccirruzzo@ and follow along @Kelhoops and @ChelseaCirruzzo. AROUND THE AGENCIES CMMI TO SCRAP DEMOGRAPHIC DATA — The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation will stop collecting data from its payment model participants on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity and preferred language, your host reports. The new policy is aimed at implementing executive orders from President Donald Trump that instruct federal agencies to remove policies and activities that promote diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, the organization said Tuesday in an email to CMMI managers and obtained by POLITICO. CMMI was created as part of the Affordable Care Act to test alternative payments and care delivery under Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. The organization will also 'consider' continuing to collect self-reported disability status 'pending further review,' the email said. 'In keeping with President Trump's Executive Orders, [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] is reviewing all of its programs and publications to make sure they align with the President's priorities,' said CMMI's parent agency in a statement. Key context: Trump has called DEI policies discriminatory and said they undermine 'the Constitution's promise of colorblind equality.' Why it matters: Health experts have argued that collecting demographic data, including on race and ethnicity, can help identify and correct health disparities. The Biden administration in 2021 launched a strategic redesign of CMMI with a major focus on improving health equity and encouraging rural and underserved medical providers to sign up for value-based care payment models. A key part of the strategy required payment model participants to collect data on the demographic characteristics of beneficiaries to help address health disparities. Eye on Insurers HUMANA DEFENDS MEDICARE ADVANTAGE — Humana CEO Jim Rechtin on Tuesday defended insurers and Medicare Advantage amid a 'volatile few months,' as the industry has come under intense public and congressional scrutiny over care denials and high costs. 'Americans understandably want high-quality, affordable care that is easy to navigate,' he said during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call. 'Too often, that is not what they are receiving today. There is no one company and there is no one sector that is responsible for this. It is a system challenge.' Rechtin touted what he called the benefits of Medicare Advantage — the privately run alternative to Medicare that enrolls more than half of the eligible population — over traditional Medicare, including more affordable care and better access to care. But he emphasized the need to improve the program, including simplifying navigation for patients and providing better customer service. Rechtin said the company will invest heavily over the next year in improving operations and quality of its MA plans. Why it matters: The comments come as insurers have come under fire for how often they deny care, especially after the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December, with the incident sparking outrage on social media pointed toward the industry. Lawmakers in Congress also have grown increasingly critical of insurers' prior authorization practices. Other major insurers, like Cigna, have since announced plans to focus on and improve customer satisfaction rates. Key context: A forecast profit for 2025 that fell below Wall Street's expectations accompanied Rechtin's comments. Humana and other MA insurers continue to deal with elevated medical costs and an uncertain regulatory environment. Rechtin said the company isn't yet providing an outlook for 2026 because of those uncertainties, including not knowing what CMS' final payment rate notice for 2026 will be and ongoing litigation against the agency over a downgrade in Humana's star ratings — a key metric assessing plan quality that the government uses to determine bonus payments. In Congress PRESSURE IS ON ARRINGTON — House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) has the opportunity to make the enormous cuts to federal spending he's always wanted, POLITICO's Rachael Bade and Meredith Lee Hill report. But the Texas Republican is at risk of being outmaneuvered by fellow chairs, senior leaders and the Senate as frustration mounts over his struggle to advance President Donald Trump's vast policy agenda. The House Republicans' budget blueprint, blessed by Speaker Mike Johnson, has long been stalled in the chamber. On Tuesday, Arrington called for a Thursday committee meeting to resolve vast differences on and advance the plan — and he now has less than 48 hours to figure out how to make it all work. 'We'll soon find out if Jodey is in over his head,' one GOP lawmaker, granted anonymity to speak candidly, texted shortly after Arrington announced the Thursday markup. Arrington will have to take on the difficult task of bridging the deficit-minded politics of the hard right with the more pragmatic concerns of swing-district Republicans wary of political blowback. He's also facing increasing pressure from top House leaders as they try to swiftly deliver Trump's legislative agenda. Key context: Arrington made clear that his heart lies with the panel's most conservative members, who want to seize the opportunity to get the nation's fiscal trajectory on track. He's long agitated for Republicans to get control of skyrocketing spending on the mandatory programs — including Medicare and Medicaid — that largely drive federal budget deficits. Names in the News Dr. Daniel Knecht is joining EmblemHealth as chief medical officer. Knecht most recently served as chief clinical innovation officer at CVS Caremark. Marvin Figueroa is joining BGR Group as a vice president in the health and life sciences practice. Figueroa was most recently chief of staff to former Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.). WHAT WE'RE READING POLITICO's Kyle Cheney reports on President Donald Trump's escalating clashes with federal courts. STAT's Sarah Owermohle and Rachel Cohrs Zhang report on how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could revive a dormant task force to scrutinize vaccine safety. KFF Health News' Daniel Chang reports on the big perks a small Florida town is offering to attract a new doctor.
