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| Date: From: Subject: | 3/8/2006 11:39:48 AM Home School Legal Defense Association Massachusetts--Calls Still Needed to Stop Compulsory Attendance Bill |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== March 7, 2006 Massachusetts--Calls Still Needed to Stop Compulsory Attendance Bill Dear HSLDA members and friends: House Bill 1202, which would raise the compulsory attendance age by a year (to 17, or until completion of the 10th grade), has been favorably reported by the Joint Committee on Education. We must act now to make sure that this change does not become law! ACTION REQUESTED: Please call your representative today and urge him or her to vote against H.B. 1202. Please give your representative this message, "Raising the compulsory attendance age does not solve truancy problems! It costs Massachusetts money without providing any advantage. Please vote "No" on H.B. 1202!" To find contact information for your legislator, visit HSLDA's Legislative Toolbox http://www.hslda.org/toolbox . BACKGROUND: Massachusetts law currently requires children to be educated until they turn 16. At that point, homeschoolers do not have to notify the district of their educational choices. This bill would extend those requirements until the child turned 17, or completed the 10th grade. > 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/Issues/E/Early_Education.asp . Sincerely, Scott Somerville HSLDA Staff Attorney ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> Who are the nation's best lobbyists? We don't know that this has ever been determined; but we do know that HSLDA's National Center for Home Education is the only national organization lobbying on behalf of homeschoolers on Capitol Hill. More reasons to join HSLDA... http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=1102 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ====================================================================== The HSLDA E-lert Service is a service of: Home School Legal Defense Association P.O. 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