Home Education Week in Az. Rejected

Center for Arizona Policy ^ | Len Munsil

[HungarianGypsy]

On Monday more than 500 supporters of home schooling gathered at the State Capitol for Arizona Home Education Week, a decade-long tradition organized by Arizona Families for Home Education (www.afhe.org) that has been officially recognized each year by a gubernatorial proclamation. That is, until this year. After giving the event's sponsors the runaround for several weeks, a policy advisor to new Gov. Janet Napolitano called to tell AFHE that its request for a proclamation had been rejected because of concerns over the impact of home education on "shareholders." Earlier, when AFHE tried to get the legislature to approve a proclamation, House Democrats balked, with one saying openly that he had real concerns about parents educating their children! These are ominous developments for the home schooling community, which consistently has produced superior academic results among its students while saving precious taxpayer money and reducing our state budget. We will be watching for any efforts to weaken Arizona's home schooling laws, but home educators need to be alert and active politically to preserve their hard-won freedoms.

[HungarianGypsy]

In order to get around this, an "unofficial" statement was read proclaiming that homeschooling parents could recognize this as a week to celebrate home education. There are a few Republican representatives who homeschool their own children. One was trying to get this proclamation signed. He mentioned that one of the Democrats (referred to as "Ted") said he could not sign such a proclamation. Then preceded to talk about all the bad things about homeschooling. At this point the other representative stated, "I'm a homeschooling dad." In response Ted said, "You're family is probably the exception." "No," the representative answered, "My family is the rule." Maricopa County also sent a representative. Sandra Dowling sent her apologies, but was in Washington on Monday. Although Home Education Week was not officially recognized by the state, it was recognized by Maricopa County. Sandra Dowling is very supportive of home education. Remember that next election.

[knuthom]

Gov. Janet Napolitano called to tell AFHE that its request for a proclamation had been rejected because of concerns over the impact of home education on "shareholders."

Shareholders? What does that mean?

[HungarianGypsy]

I don't know. Maybe the people who invested in putting her into office.

[hsmomx3]

Thanks for this info. about Sandra Dowling. I had heard she had been ill (cancer). I'm glad to see that she is favorable toward the homeschooling community.

[hsmomx3]

I wrote to my senator (Dean Martin) and asked him if he knew what it meant. I am still waiting for a response and will post it here when I receive one.

[hsmomx3]

I didn't get a response (yet) about the shareholder statement but I just rec'd this:

"I need your help to pass an important bill for teachers that will be heard in the state Senate on Monday February 17th (President’s Day). I have introduced a bill to reimburse teachers $250 for their out-of-pocket expenses on classroom supplies and materials.

SB1355 will bypass bureaucrats and politicians, and empower teachers to directly acquire needed educational supplies, putting more money directly into classrooms. The bill works by letting teachers claim up to $250 each year for classroom supplies and materials when they file their taxes. Teachers will be reimbursed the $250 via a larger tax refund. This allows us to administer the program using the existing system of tax refunds, so there is a negligible administrative cost and money can be put directly in the hands of teachers at the end of the year. This is called the $250 teacher tax credit for school supplies and materials.

I NEED YOUR HELP TO GET SB1355 PASSED. We are in a budget crisis and there will be opposition as special interests would like this money to be spent on other programs instead of reimbursing teachers. We need to tell legislators to focus on getting more money into the classroom.'

I guess teachers take priority over parents as educators at the moment.

[hsmomx3]

Oops--the last sentence (posted: "I guess teachers take priority over parents as educators at the moment.") is mine and the rest is from Sen. Martin.

[HungarianGypsy]

When I told my husband about this bill last night he said you might want to voice your support *if* homeschooling teachers can get the same deduction.
It's understandable that teachers pay for a lot of supplies, but in my day students were not required to buy their own crayons, glue, tissues, etc. Now parents in schools have to buy these items, instead of the school.
Homeschool teachers have to buy our own books and any other materials we need.
As long as receipts are saved it should work just like any other deduction.