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| Date: From: Subject: | 5/12/2004 5:43:07 PM Home School Legal Defense Association Missouri--Urgent: Calls Needed to Defeat Compulsory Attendance Increase |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== May 12, 2004 Missouri--Urgent: Calls Needed to Defeat Compulsory Attendance Increase Dear HSLDA members and friends: Despite many calls from parents, the House amended Senate Bill 968 to allow the St. Louis school system to raise the age of compulsory attendance from 16 to 17. Your help is urgently needed to stop this expansion of government control over children. You may be told this bill is needed to comply with the order of a federal judge requiring St. Louis to reduce the number of dropouts. This bill will not solve the problem the judge is concerned about. Oregon compels attendance to age 18, but has the lowest high school completion rate in the country. Maryland and North Dakota have the highest completion rates in the nation, but they compel attendance only to age 16! Forcing unwilling students to stay cooped up in a classroom one more year will not reduce the dropout rate. Graduation is not a matter of "doing time"--it is a matter of learning. If a student is not learning in the classroom, staying there one more year does no one any good--and raises everyone's taxes. ACTION REQUESTED 1. Call your both your Senator and your Representative and courteously express your opposition. This amendment affects all parents, so it is not necessary to identify yourself as a homeschooler. Your message can be as simple as: "I urge you to vote against SB 968, or any other bill, to allow a metropolitan school district to raise the age of compulsory attendance. It will waste taxpayers' money. Statistics show that forcing older teenagers to attend school does not improve graduation rates." Go to our legislative toolbox at http://www.hslda.org/toolbox to find out who your Senator and Representative is and to find their phone number. 2. Calling your Senator and Representative is especially important if you live in the St Louis area, since this bill is being proposed as a "favor" to St. Louis legislators. If you live in the St. Louis area and can convince your Senator and Representative to oppose the bill, it smashes the myth that people in St. Louis want this bill. 3. Calling your Senator is also especially important if they are on the conference committee currently considering the bill. The Senators on the committee are: Matt Bartle - (573) 751-1464 Harold Caskey - (573) 751-4116 Bill Foster - ( Majority Caucus Chair, R) - (573) 751-3859 Steve Stoll - (573) 751-1492 Charlie Shields - (573) 751-9476 4. Pass this on to others. And pray! BACKGROUND 1. Raising the compulsory attendance age will not reduce the dropout rate. In fact, the two states with the highest high school completion rates (Maryland, 94.5% and North Dakota, 94.7%) compel attendance only to age 16, but the state with the lowest completion rate (Oregon, 75.4%) compels attendance to age 18. (Figures are three year averages, 1996 through 1998.) 2. Most states (29) only require attendance to age 16. Older children who are unwilling to learn can cause classroom disruptions and even violence, making learning harder for their classmates who truly want to learn. 3. 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. 4. The amendment would restrict parents' freedom to decide if their older teenager 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. 5. A 16 year old homeschool student would still be obligated to enroll in and "attend regularly" a homeschool as defined by law for the entire school term (but the 16 year old's parents would not be required to keep records or provide 1,000 hours of instruction). Failure to do so could mean criminal or civil punishment for the homeschooling family in St Louis--and the rest of the state, if it spreads. 6. If you speak to someone who thinks homeschoolers are exempt, you can explain to them that if the amendment is adopted, Statutes of Missouri section 167.031.1 will read: "A parent ... of a child between seven years of age and the compulsory attendance age for the district shall cause the child to attend regularly some public, private, parochial, parish, homeschool or a combination of such schools not less than the entire school term of the school which the child attends ... ." Thank you for working to protect freedom by taking advantage of every opportunity for a victory! Sincerely, Scott Woodruff HSLDA Staff Attorney ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> What do you look like when you get out of bed? It's hard to look our best all the time. HSLDA works to present homeschooling in an engaging, dynamic, and informative light to the public news media. More reasons to join HSLDA... http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=1104 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ====================================================================== The HSLDA E-lert Service is a service of: Home School Legal Defense Association P.O. 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Thank you for your cooperation. ====================================================================== | |
