Another Homeschooling Mom Speaks Out Against HB 367 and 368

The following LTE appeared in the Concord Monitor.

I love it when I see homeschoolers sticking up for their rights. Democrats are big on people having a right to choose any lifestyle they want without government interference. The right to homeschool is a civil right just as the right to choose to have a civil union is for gay people. Democrats who deny the right to homeschool are bigots and are discriminating against homeschoolers. It is time to put the rights of homeschoolers ahead of pandering to the NEA, AFT and educrats. Rep. Day Kill the Bill do not stomp on our civil rights.

Cathy


Bills divert resources from public schools
Deb Baker, Concord

February 01, 2009 - 12:00 am


House Bills 367 and 368 divert resources from public schoolchildren waiting for a solution to school funding and improvements in the quality of their educations.



These bills do two things: require SAUs to spend scarce resources on redundant home-schooling paperwork and force home-schoolers to have two year-end evaluations instead of one.

New Hampshire home-schoolers are already required to report annual progress, either with standardized tests or portfolio review by a certified New Hampshire teacher.

Department of Education officials were unable to provide any evidence of home-schoolers not making progress during legislative hearings last year. The state's own dismal data on proficiency in basics like math, reading and writing shows that public schools are not providing "adequate education" for every child that legislators crow about.

Legislators generally grant that home-schooling works but worry about "outliers" - people who use home-schooling to avoid truancy. Educators claim poor parenting causes truancy, not poor schools. Blame game aside, existing laws already protect both the state's interest and children's well being.

I urge taxpayers who are sick of government dithering over public education and who are tired of educators blaming parents for schools' problems: Call your representatives and members of the House Education Committee and tell them to oppose these wasteful bills.

Why squander precious education dollars doubling expenditures on home-schoolers, a small group whose educations are already highly regulated? Legislators must devote their energies to New Hampshire's thousands of public school students and to taxpayers waiting for a sensible plan to make living here affordable and schools successful.

DEB BAKER

Concord