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| Date: From: Subject: | 10/16/2006 11:41:38 AM Home School Legal Defense Association Pennsylvania-Calls Needed Now for Last Chance to Pass Homeschool Bill |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== October 16, 2006 Pennsylvania-Calls Needed Now for Last Chance to Pass Homeschool Bill Dear HSLDA members and friends: This is our last opportunity to reduce government restrictions on home education! Please call your state representative immediately. Today at 1:00 p.m. the Pennsylvania House of Representatives will consider an amendment to pass the favorable homeschool law we have been working on for over two years. If it passes the House it is very likely that this bill will be enacted. Representative Ronald S. Marsico has agreed to attach the favorable homeschool language from House Bill 505 to Senate Bill 143 which has already passed the Senate. If the House agrees to this, Senate Bill 143 will be returned to the Senate for concurrence by a simple up or down vote. There are only a few days left in this legislative session to get this bill through. And the third and final consideration of Senate Bill 143 is today. Time is of the essence! This bill with the proposed homeschool amendment would totally eliminate a superintendent's authority to review your portfolios and evaluate the progress of your home education program. Action Requested: (1) Please call and e-mail your state representative with this message: "Please support Senate Bill 143 with Representative Marsico's amendment 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." To find the name and contact information for your state representative, use HSLDA's Legislative Toolbox at http://www.hslda.org/toolbox . (2) Please forward this email to other homeschooling families who are not members of HSLDA and ask them to contact their state representatives as well. Reasons to support Senate Bill 143: As amended, Senate Bill 143 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 homeschool language from House Bill 505, go to http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=3365 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 home schooling 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 18 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> Have you ever yelled into the wind, only to hear the sound of your voice blown back at you? It's hard to be heard in the midst of a storm. Trying to influence federal legislation is much like yelling to be heard while standing in a fierce wind. Yet when 80,000 voices join together, they become a powerful force that cannot be drowned out. Join HSLDA to be heard above the tempests that threaten homeschool freedoms. 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Thank you for your cooperation. ====================================================================== | |
