by Jennifer Rae
If my house were on fire, I would be grateful to see Andrew Coates at the door. He is a volunteer firefighter and a state-certified EMT. Yet when the 22-year-old applied to become a paid firefighter in Fremont, Nebraska, the city rejected his application because his homeschool diploma did not come from an accredited high school.
The job posting Andrew applied under called for a high school graduation or GED. Fremont says accreditation was implied. After rejecting him, the city changed the posting to say, “accredited high school.”
Andrew was educated at home under Nebraska’s rules. He has since earned his EMT certification and served his community as a volunteer firefighter. Surely those accomplishments deserve consideration. If Fremont wants to assess whether applicants can do the job, it should assess them. It should not close the door because of a lawful choice their parents made about school.
And Fremont does not have to look far for another approach. In nearby Omaha, officials say they can accept a homeschool graduate’s report of completed instruction filed with the state. Admission to a Nebraska college can also serve as confirmation of the applicant’s education. Those are ways to check a person’s qualifications without pretending a lawful homeschool education never happened.
I keep thinking about the message Fremont is sending to young people like Andrew: volunteer, train, earn your certification and then discover that the diploma you earned at home closes the door. What a discouraging response to someone who wants to serve.
You can hear from Andrew directly, here:
Andrew says he wants every homeschooler to have an equal opportunity. I hope Fremont listens. A young man willing and trained to answer an emergency call deserves a fair chance to answer a job posting, too. The question still stands, qualified to serve, but not to apply?