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| Date: From: Subject: | 3/30/2004 5:28:36 PM Home School Legal Defense Association Illinois--Calls Needed to Defeat Compulsory Attendance Bill |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== March 30, 2004 Illinois--Calls Needed to Defeat Compulsory Attendance Bill Dear HSLDA members and friends, Your calls are needed to defeat Senate Bill 2918. S.B. 2918 raises the compulsory attendance age from 16 to 17. Last week this bill rapidly passed the Senate and is now in the House Rules Committee. If passed into law, this bill will subject homeschool students to the requirements for private schools for another year. Homeschoolers have defeated these compulsory attendance age bills several times before and we can do it again! ACTION REQUESTED: Call as many as you can of the Rules Committee representatives (listed below) and express your opposition to S.B. 2918. In particular, be certain to call the representative on the committee who represents your legislative district. Give them this message: "We urge you to vote against S.B. 2918 as it would waste taxpayer's money. Statistics demonstrate that compelling 17 year olds to attend school does not improve graduation rates." You do not need to identify yourself as a homeschooler. House Rules Committee Chairperson: Representative Barbara Flynn Currie, (217) 782-8121 Representative William B. Black, (217) 782-4811 Representative Gary Hannig, (217) 782-8071 Representative Brent Hassert, (217) 782-4179 Representative Arthur L. Turner, (217) 782-8116 BACKGROUND Here are some of the reasons HSLDA opposes S.B. 2918: - Raising the compulsory attendance age from 16 to 17 would subject Illinois home educators to the requirements for private school one year later than now required. (You do not need to share this reason with your legislators.) - Raising the compulsory attendance age will not reduce the dropout rate. In fact, the two states with the highest high school completion rates, Maryland at 94.5% and North Dakota at 94.7%, compel attendance only to age 16. The state with the lowest completion rate (Oregon: 75.4%) compels attendance to age 18. (Figures are three year averages, 1996 through 1998.) - Twenty-nine states only require attendance to age 16. Older children unwilling to learn can cause classroom disruptions and even violence, making learning harder for their classmates who truly want to learn. - It would restrict parents' freedom to decide if their 16 year old is ready for college or the workforce. (Some 16 year olds who are not academically inclined benefit more from valuable work experience than from being forced to sit in a classroom. - Another significant impact of expanding the compulsory attendance age would be an inevitable tax increase to pay for more classroom space and teachers to accommodate the additional students compelled to attend public schools. When California raised the age of compulsory attendance, unwilling students were so disruptive that new schools had to be built just to handle them and their behavior problems, all at the expense of the taxpayer. For more information on compulsory attendance, please see our memorandum at http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000000/00000028.asp Thank you for your efforts! Sincerely, Chris Klicka Senior Counsel {{JoinAd}} ====================================================================== The HSLDA E-lert Service is a service of: Home School Legal Defense Association P.O. 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If this is an invalid email address or you have other problems, please reply to webmaster@hslda.org. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER: This is considered a private and confidential message from HSLDA to its bonafide HSLDA E-lert Service subscribers. HSLDA cannot attest to the authenticity of copies posted, forwarded, or sent by any party other than HSLDA. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: Please do not reply or otherwise use this email address; hslda@hslda.org is for broadcast purposes only and is not intended to receive incoming messages. We cannot reply to any email sent to this address. If you have comments or questions, please send email to info@hslda.org or call HSLDA at 540-338-5600. HSLDA members can also email staff directly through the Members website at http://members.hslda.org/contact.asp. Thank you for your cooperation. ====================================================================== | |
