Nebraska
Three Victories
Home School Legal Defense Association thanks our Nebraska members for their response to our alert on Legislative Bill 268, sponsored by Senator Ardyce L. Bohlke, which will legalize home schooling for non-religious home school families. As expressed in our February 2 alert, HSLDA does not object to the language in L.B. 268 but was concerned about the possibility that it could negatively affect current home school law.
However, this concern was relieved when the author of the bill stated for the record that Rule 13 (the rule which interprets the present home school law) would not be amended and would stay the same. A special thanks goes to Dave Lostroh of Nebraska Christian Home Educators Association who testified on L.B. 268 and urged the legislature to amend the bill to show its intent to leave the present home school bill in its status quo. In HSLDA’s opinion, the author’s on-the-record statement is sufficient to protect the present home school law from amendment or modification. The bill has now been passed by the senate and awaits Governor Mike Johanns’ signature.
Filed January 7, another bill would have subjected children to compulsory attendance even though not compulsory attendance age. For instance, a child enrolled in kindergarten at age five, although not subject to compulsory attendance until age six, could not be disenrolled. This bill L.B. 152, sponsored by Senator Nancy Thompson, has been amended to apply to public school students only.
Lastly, L.B. 769, introduced by Senator D. Paul Hartnett, would increase the compulsory attendance from 16 to 18 unless the child had graduated from high school. Unfortunately, many school districts, superintendents and school boards do not recognize a home school high school diploma as legitimate. HSLDA has asked our members to contact their senators and ask them to vote against this bill.
At a March 8 hearing, the proponents for L.B. 769 failed to show up. Pointing out that there are already too many students in school who cause trouble because they don’t want to be there, a representative from the state school board association testified against the bill. Dave Lostroh gave his own oral testimony and presented HSLDA attorney Smith’s written testimony against the legislation. Several days later, the committee voted not to pass the bill out of committee. It is dead for this year!
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Beautiful Nebraska
by
Jim Fras
“. . . Beautiful Nebraska, as you look around, you will find a rainbow reaching to the ground . . .”
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