WASHINGTON, DC—Congressman John Hostettler, Republican from Indiana’s 8th district, has been awarded the Home School Freedom Award for the year 2000 by the Home School Legal Defense Association.

The award was presented to Hostettler by Michael Farris, president of the association, during a ceremony on Capitol Hill .

“We’re always thrilled when someone serves the way he campaigns,” Farris told the group of home schoolers who had gathered to learn about communicating to their representatives in Washington, D.C. “Not only did Congressman Hostettler campaign on principles, he serves consistently on those principles.”

Farris pointed to Hostettler as the “chief architect of ‘The Children’s Tax Identification Alternative Act,’” as well as to the congressman’s opposition to the misguided Religious Liberty Protection Act, and to Hostettler’s hard work to promote military acceptance of home schoolers into the enlisted ranks.

Current tax law requires parents to use a child’s Social Security number on their income tax forms or they cannot claim deductions for the child. Social Security numbers are a matter of conscience for some home schooling parents, and Hostettler’s “Children’s Tax Identification Alternative Act” would allow parents to claim deductions, while not being required to obtain Social Security numbers for children who are not yet working age.

The Religious Liberty Protection Act, or RLPA, ties the protection of religious liberty to the commerce clause of the United States Constitution. RLPA is “well intended,” Farris said, but a “bad method” for protecting religious liberty. “Religious Liberty shouldn’t be tied to commerce.”

Until last year, home school military recruits were treated as high school dropouts who held a general equivalency diploma (GED). Thanks in part to Hostettler’s efforts, a five-year pilot plan was initiated and home school graduates will now be treated like other high school graduates.

Hostettler illustrated effective communication to congressmen and senators through President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

Lincoln returned to first principles, Hostettler said, “to highlight that this nation is not like the other nations on earth … Lincoln saw that the United States was built on the premise that America had been endowed by her Creator with certain unalienable rights. … He knew that this nation was conceived in liberty … and that it was worth living and dying for.

“History is on our side. Our heritage is on our side. Lincoln knew this. It worked for him. And, hopefully, when the day is done, when the decisions are made on an issue that could go either way, you will have planted just enough doubt, enough question, that a member of Congress might pause and reflect on something beyond the issue at hand. They might pause and consider the oath that they took to uphold the Constitution of the United States. They might just pause and think about what America was, what it is, and—thanks to you—what it “ought” to be.”