If you need to contact us for an interview, just call 713.851.0743. We are available for radio and podcasts throughout Texas regarding education, homeschooling, and events.
Stockyard Rotary Scholarship Announce This Year’s Winners
June 4, 2019 – Fort Worth, Texas —
On a quiet Friday evening, five (5) homeschool students gathered in a north Fort Worth home to compete for the Stockyards Rotary Scholarship. Holding their transcripts and speech notes, they were both excited and nervous because this was their chance for a full ride scholarship to TCC courtesy of the Stockyard Rotary Club. The Stockyards Rotary, which was founded in 1913, has been giving out scholarships since 1915. Today they help kids across Tarrant County obtain scholarships to Tarrant County Community College. Don Klick, past president said: “We are impressed with the student and parents effort. The qualify of the students speeches, transcripts and community service were outstanding. The club is looking forward to their academic success as well as their becoming good citizens of our community.”
The panel to review the candidates were Veronica Merrill, incoming President, Don Klick, past president, Tim Matheus, community leader, and Jube Dankworth, COO of Texas Home Educators. Jube mentioned “we are so appreciative of the Stockyards Rotary for reaching out to the homeschool community. Our students come from one income families and work hard to qualify for college.”
There were 6 candidates competing and at the end there were 2 students who received a scholarship, Brisa Wattleworth and Asher Heckman. Brisa is studying to be a medical examiner, while Asher, an Eagle Scout, will be studying welding at TCC.
Texas Home Educators Announces
Free Membership for All
Military Homeschool Families in Texas
May 28, 2018 – Fort Worth, Texas: Texas Home Educators (THE) is privileged to announce their Free Military Silver membership for all active duty military homeschool families in Texas.
School Liaison Officer Elizabeth Davenport from Fort Hood, who created multiple Homeschool Resource Fairs at Fort Hood as she worked hard to help the new military homeschoolers in Texas notes some of the challenges for military homeschool families:
“Transitioning is hard for all military families, but when you homeschool these transitions can be even more difficult with the changing of state laws and standards. Parents are constantly forced to re-think their education plan. That is why the CYS school liaison office constantly collaborates with organizations of the community such as Texas Home Educators. These partnerships help parents continue their students homeschool education success.”
It was this invitation to attend the Homeschool Resource Fairs that introduced THE to the military homeschool families, offering a chance for in-depth talks of their many challenges as they transition in and out of Texas. From these conversations, our directors board approved the offering of a free Military Silver Membership for active duty military homeschool families.
Jube Dankworth, COO of THE stated: “We hope all the military homeschool families will sign up and connect with the homeschool community in Texas even if it’s only for a few months. We understand that these families are passing through Texas but we wanted to make it easy for them to connect with the many homeschool days and educational opportunities in Texas while they are here.”
“We reached out to our curriculum partners and they were very gracious to offer great discounts for our Texas military homeschool families. We have lots of bonuses available for our active duty military homeschool families. Once a family signs up, they will have access to the bonuses created just for them, along with a great newsletter that offers information about ongoing specials and homeschool days across Texas”; concluded Mrs. Dankworth.
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Texas Home Educators is a statewide homeschool service organization which has participated or originated over 70 events for homeschoolers across Texas. T. H. E. exists to enhance, strengthen, and cultivate the grass roots of home education. Texas Home Educators continues to help Texas parents – both those who are new to home education and those who are experienced, veteran home-schooling families. THE also maintains a network of information and communication between and among the leadership of regional home school organizations, local support groups, and individual home educating families.
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NOT BACK TO SCHOOL DAY SCHEDULED FOR August 22
While millions of Texas children return to school, almost half a million are Not going Back to School
July 19, 2016–Fort Worth, Texas — While many parents are preparing for the state mandated first day of school, homeschooling and unschooling parents are enjoying plenty of quality time with their kids. With almost half a million children being homeschooled in Texas alone, there is a growing trend to forego the traditional preparation for the first day of school in favor of celebrating our freedom to homeschool by gathering together to encourage each other in our home school journey.
Texas Home Educators, Texas Unschoolers and Catholic Family Educators are celebrating the freedom of homeschooling, by encouraging local homeschooling and unschooling groups across the state of Texas to plan fun local activities on August 22, 2016, the official “Back To School Day” for Texas public school students as an official “NOT Back to School Day”.
Speaking for Texas Unschoolers, Michelle Conaway stated: ” I am excited to partner with Texas Home Education Support Groups in celebrating an official “Not Back To School Day” each year. We hope to encourage our local homeschooling groups across the state to mark August 22 on their calendars as the official “Not Back To School Day” and celebrate by hosting various events for their local unschooling communities. We will be posting pictures on our Texas Unschoolers Facebook group of various “Not Back To School” events and welcome all photos and posts celebrating the joy of Homeschooling in Texas.”
Ellie Andrew, chairman of Family Catholic Educators, said, “Our children learn all the time. They don’t need to go to a place called `a school,’ to be taught by someone called `a teacher,’ in order to learn. Not Back to School Day reminds us of why we are homeschooling.”
Our hope is that each year homeschoolers across the state will celebrate “NOT Back To School Day” by hosting fun activities for homeschoolers in their areas as a celebration of home education in Texas.
Texas Home Educators Debuts with a Bold Agenda of Support
for Grass-Roots Home Schooling Families in Texas
January 19, 2015 – Fort Worth, Texas: Texas Home Educators, a new grass-roots statewide homeschool organization has just begun serving the needs of the tens of thousands of Texas families who choose to home educate their children. “Our new organization is a non-profit, created to nurture and cultivate the families who constitute the grass roots of home education in the Lone Star State,” according to Jim Dankworth, President of Texas Home Educators. “Our mission is to promote, partner and provide assistance, information and events with the home educators of Texas.
Dankworth, a long-time and well-known advocate for home education in Texas, and across the nation, explained that, “our goal is to serve the tens of thousands of home educating families in Texas. We will provide them with events and information, as well as public promotion of – and advocacy for – home education. We intend to make these families’ school experiences well rounded and complete.”
In recent years, the need for grass-roots support has needed to be stepped up for those families who take the bold step to return the control of their children’s education to where it belongs – the parents. “The need for a grass-roots support organization has never been stronger,” Dankworth said. “State and federal intrusions into local education, from Common Core to federally-mandated school lunches, make it clear that a strong alternative to public education is needed here in Texas.
“Being a 21st century statewide organization,” Dankworth explained, “our goal is to truly serve Texas Home Educators with events, assistance, advice, information, and promotion. Home educating parents often feel isolated and un-supported – but we mean to change that by providing a platform for information exchange, mutual self-support and a means of encouraging “best practices” to become the standard of excellence for Texas home educating families.
“Having already worked to create “Homeschool Days” in Texas, we can now – as a non-profit – do more to help home educating families across Texas. We will provide an organizational umbrella to support small groups that want to – for instance – stage a geography bee or a spelling bee.
“For instance,” Dankworth explained, “if a local or special-focus group of Texas home educating families is already doing something great, we will help promote their event to the entire Texas Home Educators’ community. In addition, if any such group asks for help with an event, we will gladly partner with them to make it a great event. Finally, if a Texas home-educators’ group calls for help in creating an event they cannot handle on their own, we are willing to work with other home educating families to provide that event.”
Texas Home Educators has developed a high-quality Directors Board, which will help lead this organization. The board’s prominent and well-respected members consist of experienced home educators, industry supporters and others who have committed time and resource to the group’s success. With this leadership support, Texas Home Educators is poised to be a force for good in the homeschool community. Along with their strong Board of Directors, the Texas Home Educators group has created a dynamic Advisory Board, made up of young home educating leaders from all across Texas.
“Our support for home educating families goes beyond education and information exchange,” Dankworth noted. “For instance, Texas is no stranger to the destructive forces of nature, so we are working to create a “Rainy Day Fund.” This fund will be used to help those member families who are hit by natural disaster catastrophes such as flood, tornadoes or hurricanes. Texas home educators have learned the hard way that flood insurance does not recompense families for their books at retail value. As a non-profit organization, we will be there to help replace destroyed education materials when catastrophe hits our member families.
“Finally,” Dankworth said, “in recognition of the sports and “academic sports” parents who have worked so hard to create homeschooling teams across Texas, we are working to set up an Achievement Fund. If a team with 5 member families – or a member homeschooler’s teen – wins a statewide tournament, and by doing so obtains a place in a national tournament, we want to bless that team or teen with funds to help make it possible for them to attend that national event. While primarily focused on athletic sports, these funds will also be available for winners of debate and forensic – or other academic – team and individual competitions.”
About the Texas Home Educators
Texas Home Educators is a not-for-profit organization chartered in Texas and based in Fort Worth. As a non-profit, the organization can receive tax-deductible gifts from individuals and corporations which support home schooling in Texas. Using those funds, Texas Home Educators is committed to providing a platform for the free exchange of information, as well as a support structure that will remind those home educating parents and families that they are not alone. Because of its not-for-profit status, Texas Home Educators does not participate in lobbying at the state or federal level; however, it does sponsor research that may prove useful to individuals and groups which do advocate for home schooling in Austin and Washington.
For more information, or to schedule an interview with Texas Home Educators’ President, Jim Dankworth, please call 713-851-0743 or contact Jim at jim@texashomeeducators.org. Visit Texas Home Educators on the web at http://TexasHomeEducators.org, or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TexasHomeEducators. You can follow Texas Home Educators on twitter @texashomeedu and Pinterest at https://www.pinterest.com/texashomeedu/
