A 1988 Pennsylvania home education law is the most restrictive homeschool law in the United States. Today on Home School Heartbeat, hosts Mike Smith and Michael Farris inform homeschooling parents of this growing threat to religious liberty.
Mike Smith:
Mike, this week we’ve been talking about an HSLDA case in Pennsylvania involving six homeschooling families. What exactly is the law that’s being challenged by the families?
Mike Farris:
Well, they’re challenging Act 169, which is the general Pennsylvania homeschooling law, as it’s applied to them. Because the law requires them to do a whole lot of things. They have to have a log of their children’s work, they have to have samples of their kids work, they have to have standardized testing, they have to take their children to be reviewed by a certified teacher that they pay for that doesn’t work for the local school district necessarily, and they have to take all this work—a mountain of paperwork—down to the local school officials and let them look at it all and make their own judgment. They can reject the test scores. They can reject the teacher certification. They can reject the certified teacher’s report. They can reject it all and simply say “We don’t think you’re doing an adequate job with the education of your children.” The parents believe that that system gives unto Caesar that which is God’s, which is the discretionary control of their religious education.
Smith:
Thanks, Mike. This is an important issue for parents who believe that God has given them the full authority for their children’s education. And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.
