In NJ - not exactly a basket of Deplorables - there is very minimal state intervention in homeschooling. About 15 years ago, a few Dem politicians tried to weaponize a child abuse tragedy into heavy regulation of homeschooling. The families of homeschoolers launched a virtual Shock & Awe on the legislature and they backed off. Then State Sen. Loretta Weinberg tried it again and got destroyed: “a small group of homeschooling parents began following Weinberg around the capitol. The barrage of phone calls from homeschooling advocates so jammed her office phone lines that staffers had to use their private cell phones to conduct business. “You would have thought I’d recommended the end of the world as we know it,” Weinberg says. “Our office was besieged.”
The Homeschoolers may rival the NRA in stopping power.
Sounds like the HR 6 episode from 1994.
HR-6: A Dead Giant or a Living Lesson (1994)
https://homeschoolpioneers.com/2018/08/30/hr-6/
I am on vacation and do not have access to my homeschool ping lists but will ping it as soon as possible when I get home.
We also hit the phone lines of the other state legislators. Those were the days... Back then, HSers on the right and the left agreed on one thing: The state had no business telling us what to do.
Now and then, a GOP legislator would offer HSers benefits - like tax credits - but we didn't want those things, either - we didn't trust any kind of government intrusion.
Always laughed when people in other states claimed this state was a dictatorship. HSing thrived here because we were so free.
However, today's younger HS parents might see things differently now. But, 15-20 years ago, the HSers here were fighters.