By Jim Brown
Home-schooling advocates in Pennsylvania are pushing for more freedom from state regulation.
Pennsylvania's 1988 home-schooling law is said to be one of the strictest in the United States. At the end of each school year, parents are required to have a qualified evaluator review the student's work portfolio. And after the evaluator makes a determination, that documentation is submitted to a local public school superintendent for further review.
Dee Black is senior counsel with the Home School Legal Defense Association. He says there is way too much state oversight in the Keystone State.
“Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation requiring parents to submit education objectives in each subject to the local superintendent before beginning home instruction,” Black says. “And Pennsylvania is one of only seven states requiring home-schooling parents to submit personal health information about their children to public school officials.”
The attorney also says Pennsylvania is one of seven states that require parents to have teacher qualifications established by the state before they are permitted to teach their own children, and the only state that requires parents with special-needs children to get the approval of a certified special-education teacher or school psychologist before they can teach their children at home.
Home-schooling advocates in the state are seeking passage of a bill in the General Assembly that would revise the 1988 home-schooling law. House Bill 2560 would require less state regulation and significantly reduce the amount of paperwork that home educators are forced to fill out each year.
Black says the current law was enacted at a time when there was a great deal of skepticism about the success of home schooling.
(This article courtesy of Agape Press.)