Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

What can homeschoolers do if they are denied a job because of their educational background? HSLDA's president, Michael Smith, tells us on today's Home School Heartbeat.

Mike Smith:
In a truly free market, employers are free to discriminate against employees for any reason. Some laws create special protections for some classes of employees (race, sex, religion, and national origin are well-known examples), but no government has yet passed a law prohibiting employment discrimination against homeschoolers.


This does not mean that the homeschool community should ignore companies that discriminate against homeschoolers. Companies turn homeschoolers away for one of two reasons. Either they reject homeschoolers because they don't like what they stand for, or they reject homeschoolers because some manager believes that the law requires them to have an "official" diploma.


Some managers know they can hire homeschoolers, but would have to change internal policy to do so. That may seem like too much effort for a busy (or very lazy) manager, since homeschoolers make up a relatively small portion of the workforce.


For this reason, homeschoolers should not be silent about outdated policies. Homeschoolers have had years of practice at contacting their elected representatives. The same principles that work in Congress can work in the business world. A handful of intelligent letters to the president of a company can light a fire under the busiest personnel manager. Multinational corporations may take a little longer, but homeschoolers have proven they are willing to work together to accomplish big goals. And until next time, I'm Mike Smith.