| From the HSLDA E-lert Service: |
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| Date: From: Subject: | 2/2/2006 1:33:49 PM Home School Legal Defense Association Pennsylvania--Calls Needed to Senator Rhoades |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== February 2, 2006 Dear HSLDA members and friends: Senate Bill 1023, the bill removing superintendents from evaluating home education programs, is stalled in the Senate Education Committee. Your calls to the Chairman of the Committee are needed to get this bill moving. Unless the Senate Education Committee passes this bill and sends it to the full Senate for a vote, it will die for lack of action. The Chairman of the Senate Education Committee is Senator James Rhoades. The information we have is that he is the key legislator who is holding up passage of Senate Bill 1023. He needs to hear from you! The companion bill to Senate Bill 1023 has already passed the full House of Representatives, so favorable action by the Senate on Senate Bill 1023 is all that is needed to get this legislation through the Pennsylvania General Assembly. This bill would totally eliminate a superintendent's authority to review your portfolios and evaluate the progress of your home education program. Please contact Senator Rhoades today! Action Requested: (1) Please call or write (both would be better) Senator James Rhoades, Chairman of the Senate Education Committee, with this message: "Please support Senate Bill 1023 which would improve the homeschool law of Pennsylvania. It would remove the unnecessary double evaluation of home education programs and streamline administrative procedures for both school districts and parents." The contact information for Senator Rhoades is as follows: Senator James Rhoades Chairman, Senate Education Committee Senate Box 203029 Harrisburg, PA 17120-3029 (717) 787-2637 jrhoades@pasen.gov (2) Please forward this email to other homeschooling families who are not members of HSLDA and ask them to contact Senator Rhoades as well. Reasons to Support Senate Bill 1023: Senate Bill 1023 would do the following: > Eliminate the public school superintendent's review of portfolios; > Require superintendents to accept an evaluator's determination that an appropriate education is occurring in the home education program; > Provide for an administrative procedure to resolve any claim by the superintendent that the parent has failed to comply with any aspect of the homeschool law; and > Ensure that the home education program may continue during the time of any appeal of an adverse ruling by a hearing examiner. To review a copy of the bill text, go to http://www2.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/BI/BT/2005/0/SB1023P1387.pdf Background: In 1998 the General Assembly of Pennsylvania enacted a new home education statute, Section 13-1327.1 of the Pennsylvania Statutes Annotated. This legislation was prompted by a federal court decision that same year declaring the compulsory school attendance statute unconstitutional for vagueness. HSLDA represented the plaintiff in that case challenging the constitutionality of the state law. The compulsory attendance law, Section 13-1327, permitted homeschooling by a "properly qualified" private tutor if the instruction was "satisfactory" to the local public school superintendent. With 501 school districts in Pennsylvania, each with its own standards for who was properly qualified to teach and what was considered satisfactory instruction, there was no objective standard parents could rely upon in complying with state law. By enacting the home education statute in 1988, the General Assembly addressed the vagueness issues of the compulsory attendance statute, but Pennsylvania also became one of the most highly regulated states in the nation. Only New York, which also adopted its home instruction law in 1988, has more state oversight of home education than Pennsylvania. After 17 years of demonstrating success under an unnecessarily restrictive law, home educators in Pennsylvania have earned the right to less state oversight. If you have any questions or concerns about what this bill would do, please do not hesitate to contact us for additional information. Sincerely, Dewitt T. Black, III HSLDA Senior Counsel ====================================================================== 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. ====================================================================== | |
