Updated: October 2006
Teacher Qualifications for Homeschoolers
Issue Description
Most education officials publicly claim that teachers need special "qualifications" in order to be effective. They promote legislation or an interpretation of the law which would require homeschool parents to have one of three qualifications: 1) a teacher certificate, 2) a college degree, or 3) pass a "teacher's exam." Although this seems reasonable on the surface, not only do such requirements violate the right of parents to teach their children as guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments, but virtually all academic research documents that there is no positive correlation between teacher qualifications and student performance.
Issue Background
Since 1983, HSLDA has been battling teacher qualifications for homeschool parents in the legal arena. We have fought hundreds of school districts which have misapplied the laws in states such as Alabama, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, California, and South Carolina. These school districts often use the vagueness of the law to impose college degree or certification requirements on homeschool parents, which, if successful, would shut down over half of all homeschools.
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