Posted on 07/29/2008 2:58:35 PM PDT by Sopater
For the first time in over 15 years, a United States jurisdiction has enacted laws that significantly increase restrictions on homeschooling freedom!
This past Wednesday, the D.C. State Board of Education (SBOE) approved the State Superintendent of Education’s June 27 draft of the home education regulations. After some discussion, the SBOE voted 5 to 1 in favor of the superintendent’s regulations.
Only Board Member William Lockridge voted “no.” When giving his reasons, he exposed the unbridled discretion the Superintendent would now have over homeschoolers. Lockridge likened the new power of the Superintendent over parents as a type of “socialism.”
These regulations were objected to by many—the Board recorded receiving over 2,800 emails, 400 phone calls, and written comments in opposition.
This was the third public session held to discuss these regulations. In the first session, over 120 homeschoolers attended and over 30 testified including lengthy presentations by Chris Klicka, Mike Donnelly, and Scott Woodruff of HSLDA. That resulted in the removal of the worst requirement: home visits by D.C. school officials.
However, in spite of testimony presented by Ethan Reedy, President of D.C. Home Educators Association, and Chris Klicka of HSLDA, the Board passed the new restrictive regulations. It was clear the Board already had its mind made up. (Klicka’s written testimony can be reviewed online here).
HSLDA had even delivered a letter signed by 10 congressmen on the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform encouraging them to “work with HSLDA to ensure that the proposed changes in the city’s rules … will not have an adverse impact on homeschooling families in the District.” All to no avail.
Among other things, the new regulations require annual notification of a parent’s intent to homeschool on a future form developed by OSSE (Office of the State Superintendent of Education), maintenance of a portfolio of schoolwork, and up to two annual portfolio reviews by the OSSE to determine whether a homeschool program, in OSSE’s opinion, is providing “regular, thorough instruction” in the required subjects. No guidelines are provided by the Board giving the OSSE arbitrary discretion to implement these provisions.
To read the new regulations, click here.
HSLDA is working on an analysis to guide our D.C. members in their response to this development. Please stay tuned for further information as OSSE’s deadline for notification (August 15) approaches.
I haven’t found that to be the case. I think they’re doing what they can when they can.
They fighting quite the formidable foe.
Say, remember what I said about gov’t having the monopoly on the legal use of deadly force to impose its will on people?
This is what we homeschoolers have our backs up about - some government school “know better” busybody socialist using the GUNS of government to make sure we can’t educate our kids as WE parents see fit.
It is socialist, actually FASCIST to be more accurate.
Homeschoolers aren’t teaching their kids the “values” of socialism, “diversity”, and the celebration of homosexuality -
so, put a gun to their head, take their kids, and teach them those “values” against the parents’ will.
If you think about it, they've already declared war on us. If you don't comply, armed representatives of the government shows up to force you to comply, and if you resist, you are killed. And it's "legal".
Lucky for them, they can supplement it
I notice that of the thousands of calls & emails received, apparently only 16 were actually from D.C. parents.
Just out of curiousity, what about this rule differs from homeschooling rules in other states, and what do you find particularly obnoxious, other than the fact that there are rules at all?
I thought most states had some sort of basic guidelines.
1) There is a fundamental conflict of interest!
Government schools have an interest in frustrating homeschooling and promoting institutionalization of children in its monopoly schools.
2) In addition to the interest in promoting its own monopoly, behind every government school teacher, principal, and superintendent stands the government and armed policeman.
Glad we HS'd in CA & OK...
Two great states to do so....
Right next door, here in NJ, we watched what was happening in PA. It appeared some homeschoolers themselves lobbied for those laws. I even know a former PA homeschooler who agreed with the legislation. Is that typical of most homeschoolers there? In my state, homeschoolers vehemently oppose any and all regulations or gov't interference.
At one point, the Democrats tried to pass legislation here, too. They said there were an estimated 4,000 homeschoolers in the state. We all snickered at the number. One day, we hit the phone lines with calls. On another day, 2,000 showed up to protest in the state capitol. They must've realized there were many more of us than expected, and the whole idea of regulation was dropped. Last I read, the estimated number of homeschoolers here is closer to 40,000. The schools already are overwhelmed and over budget as is; they couldn't possibly handle us all. Also, I suspect those legislators realized roughly half of the homeschoolers here are their constituents (Democrat/left-leaning). TBH, the homeschool freedoms here are the only reason to stay; everything else is headed downhill.
Just wait until they start rejecting the portfolios as “unsatisfactory”, even is they would be suitable for a PhD candidate.
Professional educators are the bottom of the academic barrel.
The real key is what powers they have if they decide the homeschool family’s work is unsatisfactory. That and even Pennsylvania only requires one yearly review and that by a teacher the family chooses.
I am tempted to let my husband move us to Texas where, once we have kids, all we’d have to do is say “We’re homeschooling” and that’d be it. Iowa has pretty strict laws too.
It’s a libertarian freedom issue to me. The fewer regulations on me personally, the better. I don’t want the state checking that I store my guns properly and I don’t want them checking that I teach my kids properly.
I don’t know of any homeschooler in PA who appreciates the PA homeschooling law. And I know a lot of people!
It’s a hassle, and in some school districts, not ours, the attitude of the school authorities is rather hostile to homeschooling. Every child homeschooled represents a large sum of money they don’t get from the state. In a district where, for example, they spend $10k on every public school student and less than $1k comes from local property tax, taking a kid out of the system means taking $9k out of their mitts. How much of the $10k is actually spent on the student in public school, versus how much is skimmed, I can only imagine. (I imagine more than half.)
Check your freepmail!
I just wondered. I read part of the link from the D.C. website (it was linked to from the HSLDA article) and it sounded as if they'd made some changes to the original proposal based on input from homeschoolers and HSLDA, i.e., it sounded as if they were trying to be responsive to their constituents.
I can see the libertarian viewpoint. However, I don't mind my students having to take a test to ensure that I've actually taught what I ought to be teaching, and having periodic checks for homeschooled students sounds much the same to me.
To some extent, it appears that having the homeschooled students even take some of the same standardized tests might be a plus for many homeschooled families - more evidence for the contention that homeschooling is at least as successful as traditional schooling, and sometimes more so.
I wonder how many people in DC actually homsechool? Not very many, I'd guess. Lots of single people and childless couples here. The people in the poor parts of town are probably unlikely to homeschool, while the more wealthy residents here send their kids to private school.
Some states do require standardized tests. Some require that plus reporting, like PA. Personally I’d prefer just a test based option. It’d be easier and less subject to meddling. But I don’t think there’s any evidence that PA homeschoolers are doing better than TX homeschoolers because of the greater supervision.
It sounds like HSLDA managed to get them to take out the worst provisions; but like their new handgun law, what’s left in is more telling than what was relaxed. Remember DC just declared with its laws that any weapon that can take a magazine with more than 12 rounds in it is a machine gun (awesome! I personally own two machine guns then! And my husband doesn’t have any, I’ll have to point that out to him). Common sense requirements are totally foreign to them.
I was curious about that as well.
I agree with you. A test once a year doesn't seem too onerous, and might give you some good information as well.
Common sense requirements are totally foreign to them.
Well, it is D.C., after all. Everyone who enters there seems to leave common sense at the beltway.
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