Sheridan School Board Member Thinks Homeschooling is Worse Than Vaping

Sheridan Public School District Board of Education held a work session on March 11, 2024 and a recent Special Called Public School Board meeting on June 7, 2025 discussing finances, homeschooling and vaping. Audio of the work session is posted on South Arkansas Reckoning’s YouTube account (Link to the audio) and the live video was just reported by Suzi Parker of South Arkansas Reckoning on their website (Link here). Citizens can’t find the recordings of previous board meetings on the Sheridan School District website and must request it from the school. More concerning is that it is just an audio recording, so the listener has no idea who is talking (FOIA violation?).

If you listen to the audio and video, you will hear what the board worries about most, and it isn’t a child’s education. 

On the audio of the work session held in 2024, board members worried that even though the community is growing, the number of students enrolled is steadily decreasing, ultimately decreasing their budget. Homeschooling, along with virtual schooling at home, seemed to be the main concern. Someone on the audio stated that letters were sent to the homeschooling families to find out why the parents chose that educational route, so the school could possibly change policies or other issues to get them to return. But after reviewing the Arkansas Education Data Center (find data on your own district here), during the 2023-2024 school year only 35 students were enrolled in homeschooling, up from 34 in 2008. On the other hand, 167 students left after enrolling in another school district, with a total withdrawal/dropout total of 261. Homeschooling doesn’t seem to be the issue at Sheridan School District.

As the discussion went on, another member thought that adding a virtual option to their Alternate Learning Education (ALE) program would work, even though those students wouldn’t be fully funded with the additional ALE funding of $5086 (which is added to the foundational funding of $7771, 2025 amounts). The additional funding schools receive for placing students in a jail-like setting commonly referred to as ALE, is a whole other subject for a whole other article. 

As the discussion continued, the board member stated something quietly that dictators yell loudly and should have every parent on alert. He stated that getting the additional $5086 funding isn’t really the point, “the point is to keep them enrolled with us, so that we can oversee their education and we can take some responsibility for their education, as opposed to HOMESCHOOL.” So, originally they wanted homeschoolers to return because of financial concerns, but his statement sounds more like he just wants to control their education.

That same kind of ideology flooded into the Special Called Sheridan Public School Board meeting held on June 7th with community members and parents. While discussing the problems they face with vaping and drug use, board member Mr. Crosswhite boldly stated, “I can tell you from my perspective, we’ve got a huge, huge problem and it’s called homeschool, which is way bigger than this.” He continues, “The financial impact… these kids are losing out on education… and these kids are not going to college, they are not going to trade schools, and it’s life impacting.”

As a parent who has sent my own children to private, public and even homeschooled, I can tell you that Mr. Crosswhite has zero facts to back up his ignorant statement and seems to only be worried about money being lost and not the students’ education. Two of my children were homeschooled for 9 years and went to college with one being awarded numerous academic scholarships. Sadly, another one of my children, who has disabilities, regressed in reading and math as a result of going to public school, which is why many parents in Arkansas homeschool their children with special needs. In fact, data shows that homeschooled kids score higher on college entrance tests and are actively recruited by colleges. (See citations and links here)

Mr. Crosswhite is an elected school board member with the responsibility of overseeing and approving the budget of his district. If the budget forces them to have to combine classes, find wasteful spending or do fundraisers to make the school function, then so be it. But to blatantly say homeschooling is worse (or a bigger issue) than drug use, coupled with the statements during the work session audio, is careless and offensive. Plus, Sheridan’s numbers do not correlate with his statement in the least.

But is Mr. Crosswhite’s bigoted opinion of homeschoolers an isolated personal belief or is it what every public school official thinks?

Ironically, Tony Thurman, the superintendent of Cabot Public School District, wrote his entire doctorate dissertation on homeschooling in Arkansas (held at University of Arkansas Little Rock Library). The data he collected was to figure out what public schools needed to do to keep students from leaving to homeschool. I found his work to be full of information and statistics that he (and other administrators) could have been using to reduce the amount of students withdrawing and/or homeschooling. His dissertation stated many parents homeschool because of curriculum, school environment (including bullying), and wanting a more rigorous education. The data he collected is similar to the research done by the National Home Education Research Institute (link here). Statistically, even though the population in Cabot, Austin and Ward has grown 35% since Tony Thurman assumed the position of superintended in 2007, school enrollment has only grown 12%. Coincidentally, the amount of homeschoolers has increased over 50% since the ADE first started tracking homeschooling in 2008. Yet, the total amount of students withdrawing annually has remained steady between 450-650 students, with the majority enrolling in other Arkansas school districts.

Sheridan School District statistics show only a slight increase in total citizen population, but their enrollment has actually decreased. As far as homeschoolers within the district, the number has remained almost identical, with 34 students in 2008 and only 35 in 2024. Sadly, the amount of students who withdraw annually is on average 250, with the majority leaving to attend other school districts. So if Mr. Crosswhite had done his research before asking, “What do we need to do to get homeschoolers to come back to school?”… he should have asked why so many students are enrolling in other districts.

It’s time to “get back to basics”

Now that the Department of Education is relinquishing control of academics back to the states, I hope that public school leaders at the state and local levels, start thinking outside of the box and revamp how public schools educate American students. States need to start researching the methods schools used in the past when the US was the world leader in education. Maybe they should hold town halls, create committees with academically successful children and parents (public, private and homeschool), and realize that the way schools operate now is not working. Making children start traditional school earlier, adding more time to the school day and mandating more laws has not and will not change the course of education.

As Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon recently stated, it’s time to “get back to basics”. Many homeschool parents will tell you, if the basics of reading, writing and math aren’t mastered, along with critical thinking and independent learning, nothing else is worth teaching.

Missy Bosch

Missy is the author of “Crushed, but Not Broken”, a story detailing her daughter’s diagnosis and her family’s fight with CNS HLH. She has a passion to improve education and help children with disabilities receive the education and respect they deserve. Missy and her husband are AF veterans and have 4 children.