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| Date: From: Subject: | 2/16/2007 2:10:16 PM Home School Legal Defense Association Iowa: Call to Stop the Expansion of State Control over Your Children |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== February 16, 2007 Iowa: Call to Stop the Expansion of State Control over Your Children Dear HSLDA members and friends: Your calls are needed to stop a bill that would expand compulsory school attendance to a student's 18th birthday. House File 6 is presently in a House Education Subcommittee, and is scheduled for a hearing Monday, February 19 at 10:15 a.m. This would require you to notify the school district of your homeschooling and assess your homeschooled child an extra two years. ACTION REQUESTED: 1. Please call and email as many members of the House Education Subcommittee as possible and urge them to vote against House File 6 with this message: "Please vote against House File 6, which would raise Iowa's compulsory school attendance age from 16 to 18. This bill restricts the right of parents to choose educational or work options for their children. This bill will also waste taxpayer dollars in requiring the attendance of students who are unwilling to remain in school." Please do not identify yourself as a homeschooling family, since this issue is broader than just homeschooling. The contact information for the members of the House Education Subcommittee is as follows: To contact the members of the House at the Iowa State Capitol, dial the House Switchboard at (515) 281-3221 and ask to leave a message for one of the following senators. Cindy Winckler (Chair) Cindy.Winckler@legis.state.ia.us Royd Chambers Royd.Chambers@legis.state.ia.us Art Staed Art.Staed@legis.state.ia.us To view the text of House File 6, please visit: http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=3762 BACKGROUND: > 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 work force. (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/elink.asp?id=3623 . Sincerely, Scott A. Woodruff, Esq. HSLDA Staff Attorney ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> Will your friends stand by you in trouble? They will if you're an HSLDA member and your homeschool is threatened. HSLDA is ready to stand by your side along with 80,000 other homeschool families. More reasons to join HSLDA... http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=1105 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ====================================================================== The HSLDA E-lert Service is a service of: Home School Legal Defense Association P.O. 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If this is an invalid email address or you have other problems, please reply to webmaster@hslda.org. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER: This is considered a private and confidential message from HSLDA to its bonafide HSLDA E-lert Service subscribers. HSLDA cannot attest to the authenticity of copies posted, forwarded, or sent by any party other than HSLDA. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: Please do not reply or otherwise use this email address; hslda@hslda.org is for broadcast purposes only and is not intended to receive incoming messages. We cannot reply to any email sent to this address. If you have comments or questions, please send email to info@hslda.org or call HSLDA at 540-338-5600. HSLDA members can also email staff directly through the Members website at http://members.hslda.org/contact.asp. Thank you for your cooperation. ====================================================================== | |
