Date: From: Subject:

3/26/2009 1:45:41 PM Home School Legal Defense Association Wisconsin--Calls Needed to Oppose Early Education Bill

====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== March 26, 2009 Wisconsin--Calls Needed to Oppose Early Education Bill Dear HSLDA Members and Friends, Senate Bill 89 has been introduced in the Senate and is now in the Education Committee, scheduled for a public hearing on April 2. Senate Bill 89 would open the gate to lowering the compulsory school age by granting public schools authority to allow 4- and 5-year-olds entrance into kindergarten. While this bill does not affect homeschoolers right now, history demonstrates that what is initially optional in the educational arena inexorably becomes mandatory in due course. Early childhood education advocates have been clear in announcing their goal of mandatory preschool for all children, including homeschoolers. ACTION REQUESTED 1. Please call your assembly member and senator and give them this message: "Please vote against Senate Bill 89, which will mandate in our schools early education programs that have not been proven to be effective. This is a waste of taxpayers' dollars. It will also increase the pressure to expand compulsory attendance, which will restrict parents' choice in the education of their children." Do not identify yourself as a homeschooler. The legislative hotline toll-free is (800) 362-9472. Ask to speak with your state representative. Leave the above message with as many Senate Education Committee members as you can. Senate Education Committee Members: Senator John Lehman (Chair) - (608) 266-1832 Senator Robert Jauch (Vice-Chair) - (608) 266-3510 Senator Jon Erpenbach - (608) 266-6670 Senator David Hansen - (608) 266-5670 Senator Luther Olsen - (608) 266-0751 Senator Glenn Grothman - (608) 266-7513 Senator Randy Hopper - (608) 266-5300 BACKGROUND While the bill purports to make these programs optional, history shows us that there will be subsequent pressure to make them mandatory, universal, and funded with taxpayer dollars. Lowering the compulsory attendance age from 6 to 5 would subject Wisconsin home educators to the requirements of the homeschool statute one year earlier than now required. (You do not need to share this reason with your legislators.) Many education experts have concluded that beginning a child's formal education too early may actually result in burnout and poor scholastic performance later. 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. 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, Christopher J. Klicka, Esq. HSLDA Senior Counsel ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> For as little as 27 cents a day... There's not much you can get for 27 cents a day. 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