| From the HSLDA E-lert Service: |
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| Date: From: Subject: | 4/8/2003 1:57:25 PM Home School Legal Defense Association New Hampshire--Calls Needed, Vote Thursday on Compulsory Attendance Bill |
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---------------------------------------------------------------------- From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- April 8, 2003 Dear HSLDA Members and Friends, On April 10 the New Hampshire Senate may take final action on Senate Bill No. 55, which would raise the age of compulsory school attendance from 16 to 18 years of age. ACTION REQUESTED 1. Call your Senator and express your opposition to S.B. 55. Visit www.hslda.org/toolbox and enter your zip code to find the name and contact information for your state senator. You can also call the Senate Clerk's Office at 603-271-3420 for this information. Your message to your senator can be as simple as: "I urge you to vote against S.B. 55, which would raise the age of compulsory attendance. It undermines the power of parents to decide what is best for their children. It wastes taxpayers' money. Statistics show that compelling 16 and 17 year olds to attend school does not improve graduation rates." Remember that this bill affects all people, not just homeschoolers, so it is not necessary for you to identify yourself as a homeschooler. 2. Read the "Background" section below to understand why homeschoolers are not "exempted" from the bill as some may claim. 3. Pass this on to others. S.B. 55 would affect all parents, not just those who homeschool. BACKGROUND On March 20, the full Senate took up S.B. 55, amended it, and then referred it to the Finance Committee because of its anticipated financial impact. (The amendment is discussed below.) The Finance Committee considered the bill and voted it "inexpedient to legislate" and sent it back to the Senate where we anticipate final action on April 10. The amendment the Senate added before sending the bill to the finance committee is an ineffective attempt to exempt homeschoolers from the higher age of compulsory attendance. The senate presumably hoped that if homeschoolers were exempted, they would stop opposing the bill, and the way would be open to impose the higher attendance age on everyone else. The Senate's amendment to S.B. 55 states: "The provisions of this act shall not apply to children who are homeschooled pursuant to a home education plan established under RSA 193-A. The provisions of this act shall not be construed to alter, modify, or affect in any way the provisions of RSA 193-A." The reason this language fails to exempt homeschoolers is that only a "child" can be under a home education plan under RSA 193-A, and "child" is defined under 193-A:1.I as someone under 16. As soon as a child turns 16, he cannot by law be under a home education plan under RSA 193-A. Therefore, the senate's amendment only exempts those under 16, who do not even need the exemption! Furthermore, even if the age problem were resolved, the exemption would still only benefit those being homeschooled in compliance with ("pursuant to") RSA 193-A. This is tantamount to saying, illogically, that you will be exempted from the law as soon as you comply with it. A principal advantage of keeping the compulsory age at 16 is that parents have complete liberty after a child reaches that age to decide what is best for the child, whether to enter a vocational path, continue their secondary education, move forward to college education, or some other alternative. Under the Senate's amendment, homeschool families would still be required to comply with Chapter 193-A even after their child was 16 or 17. Even if the amendment exempted students who were in a homeschool program prior to reaching age 16, we would still oppose the bill. We do not believe any such special exemption would last long. Such exemptions could be subject to court challenge. Also, once every private and public student in the state is subject to the higher compulsory attendance age, it would be easy for a special exemption just for homeschoolers to be criticized and subsequently removed. In response to highly effective homeschool opposition to raising ages of compulsory attendance across the country, we are seeing a growing trend for state lawmakers to "exempt" homeschoolers from higher compulsory attendance ages. We oppose bills that take away parental freedoms even if they seem to create a special exception for homeschoolers. For other reasons HSLDA opposes this bill, visit our website at: http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?ID=785 Thank you for standing with us to protect liberty by preventing this bill from becoming law. Sincerely, Scott A. Woodruff HSLDA Staff Attorney {{JoinAd}} ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The HSLDA E-lert Service is a service of: Home School Legal Defense Association P.O. 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