HSLDA Media Release	March 5, 2001

West Virginia home schoolers yearning and lobbying to breath free

CHARLESTON, WV-West Virginia home schoolers are putting in long hours in the state legislature this year, toiling to remove a legal relic from the statute books that hurts the freedom to home school in that state.

State law requires home school parents to have four years more formal education than their home-schooled children. The regulation means that only those who have attended some college can teach high school students, and they can only teach grades four years below the final level of college they successfully completed.

West Virginia gets a black eye from being the only state with this outdated regulation.

House Bill 2595, if passed in the 2001 legislative session, would correct this unfair treatment of West Virginia home school parents. The bill originated in the House Education Committee.

"There was a time when nobody knew for certain that home school parents could do a good job teaching their own children, but now we've proven it can be done," said Scott Woodruff, an attorney for the Home School Legal Defense Association.

"A number of scientific studies have found that parents don't need college for their children to score well above average on standardized tests," Woodruff said.

"The Christian Home Educators of West Virginia (CHEWV) have provided excellent research and data to legislators to support and document their arguments. CHEWV's opponents use slogans very effectively, but when it comes to public policy, slogans are a foundation of quicksand."

In neighboring Virginia, parents have several options. Under one option, the parents must have a college degree, but there are three other options that require no college whatsoever. In Maryland, two home school options are available, neither of which require any college.

Last year, the West Virginia Legislature passed Senate Bill 189, which suspended the unfair four-year requirement for one year. During the discussions on S.B. 189, the legislature became acquainted with West Virginia home schoolers.

"Home schoolers developed solid relationships with committee members, and thereby gained credibility," Woodruff said. "We learned there was surprising legislative support for getting rid of the four-year requirement."

To no one's surprise, the state's largest educators' union opposes H.B. 2595. One reason for union opposition to H.B. 2595 may be monetary, Woodruff explained. "It's common knowledge that if more students are forced to remain in public schools, even to the detriment of their academic achievement, more dollars go to the school districts.

"Our challenge now is to protect the bill from an onslaught of vindictive amendments, but we remain hopeful that the legislature will vote for children and parents who want to home school."

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