Issue Description

Congress is preparing to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) first passed in 2001. NCLB is itself a reauthorized version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) first passed in 1965. HSLDA does not support NCLB because we view it as a massive encroachment of the federal government into the state and local government’s authority over education. However, the materials below will provide information on how HSLDA is working to ensure that the federal government has no control over homeschools and private schools.

Issue Background
In 2001, HSLDA worked with Congress to put language into NCLB to ensure that federal, state or local governments could not use provisions of the law to regulate homeschoolers and private and religious schools. Additional language protects against a nationalized test, nationalized curriculum, nationalized teacher certification, or a national database of student specific information.