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| Date: From: Subject: | 2/24/2009 1:18:14 PM Home School Legal Defense Association New Hampshire--More Action needed to Oppose Threatening Legislation |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== February 24, 2009 New Hampshire--More Action needed to Oppose Threatening Legislation Dear HSLDA Members and Friends: Thank you again for your overwhelming presence at the Capitol on February 11. It was a privilege to be there to testify on behalf of our members. To read the article about the event you can visit: http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=6151 . The Education Committee will meet in executive session 10 a.m., March 5, in LOB 207 to decide whether to recommend ITL or OTP the bill. Although no public input will be allowed, we hope that homeschoolers will attend the meeting to show their concern and to demonstrate continued opposition to the bill. Now that the bill has had its public hearing, it is time to insure that the Education Committee gets the message that H.B. 367 and 368 should be voted ITL (inexpedient to legislate) without amendment. ACTION REQUESTED 1) Please contact the Education Committee by March 5 2009, using the alphabetized list at the following link: http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=6034 Please tell them politely in your own words to ITL these bills without amendment and not to make ANY changes to the homeschool law. "As testimony at the hearings showed, H.B. 367 and 368 should be voted ITL without any amendments. There is no need to make any changes to the homeschool law. This bill is misguided and unnecessary. Twenty years of experience show that the New Hampshire homeschool law works well--no changes are needed or wanted. Please vote this bill ITL." A Yahoo group has been created to track the legislators' positions--many have already stated that they will vote ITL. This contact will reinforce that message and confirm their position. The Yahoo group can be joined at http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=6152 . Please send any interesting correspondence to nh@hslda.org and/or to the Yahoo group's vote tracking database. BACKGROUND Here is what this bill will do: Instead of having four methods to comply with the annual assessment requirement, EVERY homeschooler EVERY year will have to submit to BOTH standardized testing AND a portfolio evaluation administered by a "credentialed educator". Superintendents or non-public school principals would be required to review BOTH test results AND the portfolio evaluation to determine IF a home educated student, in the opinion of the superintendent or nonpublic school principle, has demonstrated satisfactory "academic growth" and MAY continue without probation. Following a one-year probation, the superintendent or nonpublic school principal would be able to terminate a home education program. Parents would be able to appeal to the State Board of Education, whose decision would be FINAL. New Hampshire homeschoolers would have to pay for two evaluations instead of just one. Participating agencies would have to use their scarce and valuable time to comply with unnecessary bureaucratic filing requirements for no good reason. Parents would not be allowed to choose the best method of assessment for their student. Superintendents and principals would have to use their own subjective judgment to determine whether a student has demonstrated "academic growth". The bill creates undefined terms (such as "credentialed educator" and "academic growth") that would increase the chances of arbitrary decision-making by superintendents or principals, who would have to use their own subjective opinion to decide whether home education programs are put on probation or terminated. New Hampshire's homeschool law was passed in 1990 after much deliberation among all stakeholders including homeschoolers, public education officials, and legislators. The next year, in 1991, the New Hampshire legislature amended the homeschool law to add a statement of purpose "The general court recognizes, in the enactment of RSA 193-A...that it is the primary right and obligation of a parent to choose the appropriate educational alternative for a child...The general court further recognizes that home education is more individualized instruction that instruction normally provided in the classroom setting." The law has been modified slightly since. Then in 2008, a legislative commission formed by S.B. 337 to examine to see if changes were needed in the law voted 4-2 with one abstention by the chairman, NOT to make changes to the homeschool law. Although the report was not published, the minutes of these public meetings are available for review and indicate that this is what happened. In the face of this study commission and a lack of substantive data indicating any problem to be solved at all (never mind that the current draft not only does not SOLVE a problem but would create a host of other problems), Representative Day has proposed radical changes to the law in the form of H.B. 367 and 368. In the surrounding states of Vermont, Massachusetts and Maine, the last 20 years have seen great conflict between homeschoolers and the government over how much involvement by the government is appropriate. In Massachusetts there have been two Supreme Court cases and a number of lower level court cases--even today there is constant friction between homeschoolers and local school officials. In Vermont there are dozens of hearings every year over usually minor issues of administration and paperwork at the state level. In 2003, Maine finally reduced the amount of regulation on homeschoolers and switched its law from approval to a "notice of intent" because of the problems. In stark contrast, New Hampshire has enjoyed a healthy relationship between homeschoolers and the government because of the respect the law creates options to partner with a nonpublic school and to choose from among four different options to comply with the annual assessment. In the United States of America, only a minority of the states require ANY assessment of home educated students. Only Pennsylvania, one of the most restrictive in the country, requires both a portfolio and test and that only during grades 3, 5 and 8--a total of three years of the student's entire educational career. H.B. 367 and 368 are unnecessary. The bills impose a needless burden on homeschoolers and shift authority to determine whether a child should be homeschooled from parents to others. Parents have a fundamental right under the U.S. Constitution to direct the upbringing and education of their children, and legislation like Representative Day's undermines this right by going against the presumption that parents act in their children's best interest. Thank you for your work to support homeschool freedom in New Hampshire and for taking action to defeat this harmful legislation. Sincerely, Michael P. Donnelly, Esq. HSLDA Staff Attorney ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> Can you look at the clouds and tell the direction of the wind? An interesting phenomenon of wind is that it can blow in multiple directions at the same time, at different heights from the ground. But usually there is a prevailing wind. HSLDA watches the gusts and monitors the prevailing trends of change in the legal climate of home education. So no matter which way the wind is blowing, we're there to protect your family. 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Thank you for your cooperation. ====================================================================== | |
