WYOMING
School Boards Association Attempting To Tighten Regulations
Home School Legal Defense Association has received a copy of the Wyoming School Boards Association (WSBA) proposed resolutions for 1993-94. These are resolutions for legislative enactment. One of the resolutions provides as follows:
“BE IT RESOLVED that the Wyoming School Boards Association support legislation that requires parents petitioning to provide a home-based education to their child(ren) under W.S. 21-4-102(b) be required to prove proficiency as a qualified teacher via Wyoming certification as a teacher or by other means as established by the Wyoming Department of Education to demonstrate proficiency.
Be it further resolved that the child(ren) be required to demonstrate mastery of academic standards set forth in home-based educational program curriculum in the Wyoming State Department of Education on an annual basis."
Although the resolution was defeated this year, we can be fairly certain that it will resurface. The resolution would have sought to require home educators to be certified teachers or implement some other qualification requirement for home instructors. At the present time there is no educational qualification requirement to teach one’s child in Wyoming. Further, the language regarding demonstration of “mastery” of academic standards sounds like the language used in the outcome-based education rhetoric. At the very least, the desire of the WSBA resolution is to have home-schooling children tested and evaluated annually. At the present time, Wyoming home school students are not subjected to end-of-year testing or other evaluation.
HSLDA’s position is that home schoolers have demonstrated by way of their academic performance nationwide that further attempts to regulate would be inappropriate and excessively intrusive. In brief, home schoolers have earned the right to be left alone.
We will keep you informed as to the efforts of WSBA to attempt to tighten up the regulations on home schoolers in Wyoming. In that regard, should legislation to accomplish the WSBA's goals be introduced, it may be necessary to organize a massive effort to defeat this legislation.
Clonlara Clarification
In the September/October issue of The Home School Court Report, we summarized in a short paragraph the results of the Clonlara decision by the Michigan Supreme Court. In order not to give the wrong impression, we felt it necessary to clarify our understanding of the case.
This case is very helpful to home schoolers throughout the state of Michigan since it stands for a very important principal of law. The Supreme Court in Clonlara reversed a lower court decision by stating that the department of education may still issue interpretive statements and guidelines for home schoolers. However, these guidelines and statements are not enforceable by law. This case is important because it secures an earlier 1986 Attorney General opinion which held that the department of education does not have the authority to regulate non-public schools including home schools. Essentially, what the Court in Clonlara was stating is that the department of education can issue interpretive statements on home schooling, yet those statements are not law. In other words, the department of education’s guidelines are not binding on any school district in the state of Michigan nor can they be enforced against home schoolers. We are very appreciative for the hard work attorney Kurt Bergerren did on this case on behalf of Clonlara and grateful for Pat Montgomery’s willingness to stand firm on this issue.
French Family Update
Earlier this year the Court Report notified readers that Home School Legal Defense Association was going to investigate allegations that the French government had improperly removed home school children from the homes of several members of the Citadel Christian Church. After a careful investigation of the action taken by the French court, HSLDA believes that further involvement on our part is not warranted because there is not sufficient evidence that the court erred in its charges of child abuse.
On October 9, 1993, a fact-finding delegation sponsored in part by HSLDA returned from Paris. The following information is excerpted from the report of Steve Snyder, President of Christian Solidarity International-USA, who was a member of the fact-finding team:
“After conducting a full investigation, the team was of the common mind that this was not a case of religious persecution. The team concluded that the French government had taken necessary action based on testimonials from a number of families formerly associated with the Citadel.”
