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| Date: From: Subject: | 4/11/2006 5:17:48 PM Home School Legal Defense Association Colorado--Compulsory Attendance Bill--Correction to Previous E-lert |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== April 11, 2006 Colorado--Compulsory Attendance Bill--Correction to Previous E-lert Dear HSLDA members and friends: Please disregard the previous e-lert on Senate Bill 73. This e-lert contains correct information concerning the amended legislation. We now need your calls to the House Education Committee members, as Senate Bill 73 is scheduled to be heard Thursday, April 13 at 1:30 p.m. Colorado Senate Bill 73 passed the Senate and has been introduced in the House and referred to the Education Committee as of Tuesday, March 28, 2006. This bill would lower the compulsory attendance age from 7 to 6 and raise it from age 16 to 18. This means children in these ages will be subject to state control 3 more years! Homeschoolers, for instance, operating under satellite schools will have to be enrolled in these private schools 3 more years. Although the bill passed the Senate, it passed with amendments that would exclude homeschoolers operating under the homeschool law, from 2 of the 3 years of expansion. This is an uphill fight. But God can deliver as we practice the "widow at the judge's door" principle. Remember, the account in Luke 18:1-7? "Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: 'In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, "Grant me justice against my adversary." For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, "Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming! And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?' " At the CHEC Capitol Day, hundreds of homeschoolers visited their representatives and urged them to vote against Senate Bill 73. HSLDA supplied a flier for everyone at the rally with our concerns regarding Senate Bill 73. Hopefully these personal visits will help derail this bill. So keep up the pressure. We need to wear the lawmakers out. We will win this battle yet! ACTION REQUESTED: Please contact the representatives below on the House Education Committee and give them this message: "Please vote against Senate Bill 73, which expands the compulsory attendance age. This bill is unnecessary. It restricts parental choice and wastes taxpayer money." Do not identify yourself as a homeschooler. You can contact the members of the House Education Committee by calling the numbers listed below: Rep. Merrifield - Chair - 303-866-2932 Rep. Paccione - Vice Chair - 303-866-2917 Rep. Benefield - 303-866-2950 Rep. King - 303-866-2191 Rep. Larson - 303-866-2914 Rep. Massey - 303-866-2747 Rep. McKinley - 303-866-2398 Rep. Penry - 303-866-3068 Rep. Pommer - 303-866-2780 Rep. Rose - 303-866-2955 Rep. Solano - 303-866-2918 Rep. Todd - 303-866-2919 Rep. White - 303-866-2949 BACKGROUND: 1) Lowering the compulsory attendance age from 7 to 6 and raising it from 16 to 18 is a waste of taxpayer's money. 2) Many education experts have concluded that beginning a child's formal education too early may actually result in burnout and poor scholastic performance later. 3) Lowering the compulsory attendance age erodes the authority of parents who are in the best position to determine when their child's formal education should begin. 4) Raising the compulsory attendance age will not reduce the dropout rate. In fact, the two states with the best 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.) 5) 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. 6) 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. 7) 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/elink.asp?id=2791, or you can see our previous e-lert at http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=2828 . Sincerely, Chris Klicka HSLDA Senior Counsel ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> There may be no such thing as a free lunch... ...but there is a way to get a free membership! Through our Three-for-Free program, you can get a free one-year renewal for simply referring three of your homeschooling friends into membership with HSLDA. 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Thank you for your cooperation. ====================================================================== | |
