MASSACHUSETTS
Rally for Freedom
More than 1,500 people rallied on May 15, 1997, to oppose House Bill 1886. The Boston Common was alive with bright homeschooled faces and private school banners. Over 600 people crammed into the largest hearing room in the Boston State House to make their opposition to state-mandated testing known. This bill would have imposed Outcome Based Education (OBE) testing on all private and most home schools.
The bill sponsor, Representative Harold Lane, Jr., offered substantial changes which would remove the mandatory testing provisions. H.B. 1886, as amended, was long and complex. Over the course of the next two weeks, private and home school leaders reviewed the bill, and came to the conclusion that it was not good for private education at all. Although they made their opposition to H.B. 1886 clear to the Joint Education Committee, the committee voted the bill out "favorably."
This means that homeschoolers will get a second opportunity to learn the legislative process from the inside out. Massachusetts is one of the few states where homeschoolers have not yet had to fight a "pitched battle" against bad legislation, but they are getting quite a civics lesson this year. HSLDA encourages every member to do their part to persuade their representatives and senators to "just say no" to unnecessary legislation.
