by Rusty Pugh and Jody Brown
Legislation making its way through the Connecticut legislature could place severe restrictions on home schoolers. One expert says if the regulations are passed, it could have an impact nationwide.
Connecticut House Bill 5535 would replace the state's current home-schooling standards. But according to the Home School Legal Defense Association, the new rules would require unnecessary paperwork that will change the way parents are able to educate their children. Among the new regulations would be an annual notice of intent to home school, a daily schedule showing a minimum of 900 hours of instruction per calendar year, and an independent method of assessing a child's academic progress that must be reviewed by a school superintendent.
HSLDA attorney Dewitt Black says the new regulations would attempt to bring home schoolers down to the level of public schools. He says the regulations are not about standards — but rather about more state control.
“I think the premise is wrong there,” Black says. “I don't think that we could put these in the category of higher standards, but rather more state involvement. It is true that, on average, home-schooled students perform higher and better on the standardized achievement tests than [do] public school students. But in a very real sense, it's an economic threat to the existence of public schools.”
Black says the very fact that home schooling is superior to public education is perceived as a threat by public school officials, and they will attempt to mandate new regulations to neutralize the effectiveness of home education.
HSLDA reports that about 40 people testified earlier this month before the state's Committee on Education regarding Bill 5535. Only one of those individuals, a public school superintendent, spoke in favor of the bill.
The legal organization says it does not know what prompted the introduction of Bill 5535, or the extent of support for its passage. But it says it is crucial the proposal be stopped before it gains momentum. To that end, HSLDA has published a list of the state's legislators and encouraged advocates of home schooling to press those legislators to withdraw the bill or vote it down.
(This article courtesy of Agape Press.)
