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Issues to watch in 2007
Every other year, the Wyoming legislature holds an extended legislative session. As lawmakers gear up for the long 2007 session, homeschoolers will need to keep a close watch on several legislative issues.
One such issue involves regulations promulgated by the Select Committee on Merit Scholarships regarding the Hathaway Scholarship (for Wyoming residents who attend Wyoming state-sponsored post-secondary institutions). Under the current regulations, homeschoolers are eligible based on their ACT scores. However, because public school students must participate in the “success curriculum” plus get a certain ACT score to be eligible, the committee has been debating homeschooler eligibility and additional qualification guidelines.
The merit scholarship committee actually asked whether “the state assessments could be made applicable to GED and home school students” (committee minutes, September 12, 2006, meeting). In that same meeting, the committee recorded this: “LSO (Legislative Services Office) staff stated that the amendment adopted required all proficiency standards to be met to receive a Hathaway scholarship, without exceptions for those [homeschooled] students.” This somewhat ambiguous statement seems to suggest that homeschoolers would have to certify that they had completed a public school success curriculum to qualify for this state scholarship, which is partially funded by homeschoolers’ tax dollars.
Other issues involving the Hathaway Scholarship include whether homeschooling parents will have to continue submitting a notice of intent even after their children pass the compulsory attendance age. Home School Legal Defense Association recommends that members considering participation in the Hathaway Scholarship voice their opinion on this matter to their elected representatives.
In other Wyoming news, the Quality Child Care Taskforce (a governor-appointed coalition of government officials and
private citizens) has been holding meetings throughout the state to obtain input from citizens about the Quality Child Care Initiative. HSLDA believes that these types of government-sponsored programs are steppingstones to mandatory early-childhood education and a lowering of the compulsory attendance age, both of which would expand government control over education.
HSLDA encourages members to become informed about these issues and join the process of safeguarding homeschool freedoms.
— by Michael P. Donnelly
