Op-Ed: Subway Joins the Hit Parade on Home-Schooled Children

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Here is the link to the entry form for the Subway 'Every Sandwich Tells a Story' contest.

Notice this key qualifier at the bottom of the page:

Contest is open only to legal US residents, over the age of 18 with children in either elementary, private or parochial schools that serve grades PreK-6. No home schools will be accepted.

Ironically, that is the 'corrected' version. The original entry form initially read as follows:

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Contest is open only to legal residents of the Untied (sic) States who are currently over the age of 18 and have children who attend elementary, private or parochial schools that serve grades PreK-6. No home schools will be accepted.

Perhaps a home-schooler might have caught that typo before they released it publicly.

Not a good PR move for Subway. A lot of home-schooled families no doubt eat there too.

Or I should say, used to eat there.

While it may be true that home schools don't technically qualify as 'schools' and the top prize of athletic equipment worth $5,000.00 is designated particularly for an 'elementary, private or parochial school', Subway's choice of wording and qualifying children leaves a lot to be desired, and may well cost Subway a significant chunk of business.

It could have been handled a lot better.

Like, say, reserving the top prize of athletic equipment for the physical education departments of the designated schools only, but opening all other prizes to ALL qualifying children.

This isn't the first time a major corporation has expressed contempt for the home-schooled.

Take a look at the J.C. Penney tee shirt pulled from their children's' wear racks in 2001 on this page.

Notice the spelling 'Home Skooled' and the trailer home to top off the Jerry Springer trailer trash allusion?

Ask yourself a question: what would the reaction have been if JC Penney had promoted a 'Public Skooled' tee shirt featuring an urban housing project in the background?

Cries of prejudice, racism and bias?

Al Sharpton picketing JC Penney stores?

Then why is okay to demean home-schooled kids, who are in many ways ahead of the curve in ACT, SAT and other K-12 testing with respect to public- and private-schooled kids?

Home schooling seems to be under fire from all sides these days.

A ruling from an appeals court in California that a homeschooling family must enroll their children in a public school or "legally qualified" private school has every home-schooling family in California on edge.

Also, this excerpt from a Newsbusters article on the subject of home-schooled Spelling Bee champ Evan O'Dorney should tell you everything you need to know:

When California home-schooler Evan O’Dorney, 13, won the National Spelling Bee on Thursday night, the nation’s press reacted with a yawn.

Instead of focusing on the winner, The New York Times ran a story about an immigrant from India who lost in the second round of the competition.

That boy, Kunal Sah, 12, who is living in Utah, had hoped a victory would secure his family’s legal status in the United States. Thus, the Times managed to use the National Spelling Bee as one more forum for pushing the plight of immigrants.

Not until the middle of the story did The Times get around to announcing the winner, noting only his name and hometown and the fact that the AP reported his victory.

Here are some other home school success stories you won't be reading about in the New York Times, either.

I'll leave it to you all to determine why the bias and contempt vis-a-vis home-schoolers is so rampant, especially with achievement numbers like this.

Or the phenomenal success stories of National Spelling Bee Champs Evan O'Dorney (2006), Sean Conley (2001), Georgie Thampy (2000), and Rebecca Sealfon (1997).

All four were home-schooled.

Oh, and when Georgie Thampie won it in 2000, the second- and third-place finalists were home-schooled as well.

Chew on that, Subway.