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| Date: From: Subject: | 1/31/2011 4:44:50 PM Home School Legal Defense Association North Dakota--Calls Needed on Homeschool Freedom Bill! |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== North Dakota--Calls Needed on Homeschool Freedom Bill! Dear HSLDA Members and Friends: House Bill 1211, legislation that would significantly improve North Dakota's homeschool law, is scheduled to be heard by the House Education Committee tomorrow, February 1, 2011, at 9:30 a.m. in the Pioneer Room at the Capitol. That's where your help is needed right now. Members of the committee need to know that you support this bill and want them to vote for it. Also, your presence at the hearing will send an even stronger signal of your support for this much-needed legislation. House Bill 1211 presents a rare opportunity for home educators in North Dakota to secure more freedom from unnecessary state control than ever before. This bill would do the following: > Make permanent the temporary change made in the law in 2009 which authorized parents to conduct home instruction at some location other than their own home; > Remove all parental qualifications for conducting a home education program; > Remove all monitoring of home education programs by state-certified teachers; > Create an exemption from standardized testing if the parent has a philosophical, moral, or religious objection to testing and the parent is a state-certified teacher, has a bachelor's degree, or has met the cutoff score of a national teacher examination; > Remove mandatory assessment of a child by the school district for a learning disability, regardless of what score the child achieves on a standardized achievement test; > Remove the requirement of a remediation plan filed with the public school superintendent for students who score below the 30th percentile and do not have a learning disability; and > Simplify the means by which a homeschool student may obtain a diploma from a school district, nonpublic school, or the North Dakota Center for Distance Education by providing that the student need only meet the issuing entity's requirements. ACTION REQUESTED: 1. Please call and/or e-mail as many members of the House Education Committee as possible and urge them to vote in favor of House Bill 1211 with this message or something similar in your own words: "Please vote for House Bill 1211 which would modernize North Dakota's homeschool law to bring it in line with the majority of states. Homeschooling parents have earned the right to less state oversight of their instructional programs." 2. Please attend the House Education Committee hearing at the State Capitol in Bismarck tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. 3. Please forward this email to every family you know who is not a member of HSLDA and urge them to contact members of the committee with this same message and to attend the hearing. The members of the House Education Committee are as follows: RaeAnn Kelsch, Chairman (R-34) rkelsch@nd.gov Lisa Meier, Vice Chairman (R-32) lmeier@nd.gov Lyle Hanson (D-12) lhanson@nd.gov Joe Heilman (R-45) jaheilman@nd.gov Brenda Heller (R-33) bheller@nd.gov Bob Hunskor (D-6) bhunskor@nd.gov Dennis Johnson (R-15) djohnson@nd.gov Karen Karls (R-35) kkarls@nd.gov Corey Mock (D-42) crmock@nd.gov Phillip Mueller (D-24) pmueller@nd.gov Karen Rohr (R-31) kmrohr@nd.gov David Rust (R-2) drust@nd.gov Mark Sanford (R-17) masanford@nd.gov Mike Schatz (R-36) mischatz@nd.gov John D. Wall (R-25) jwall@nd.gov You can also leave a message for your state representative with the legislative telephone message center at 1-888-NDLEGIS (635-3447) or 701-328-3373 (local). To view the text of House Bill 1171, please visit http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=10146 BACKGROUND: Forty-one states do not require homeschooling parents to possess a high school diploma or GED. Only nine states require parents to have a high school diploma or GED before they can teach their children at home. Studies conducted on homeschooling have concluded that there is little statistical difference between the academic performance of children whose parents have not finished high school and those who have a college education. Most significant, homeschool students whose parents are high school dropouts have average test scores higher than those of public school students. North Dakota is the only state in the national requiring homeschooling parents to be monitored by a state-certified teacher in any instance. According to a study conducted by Dr. Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute, the degree of governmental regulation had no significant effect on the academic performance of homeschoolers. Whether a state imposed a high degree of regulation, low regulation, or no regulation, homeschool student test score averages were nearly identical. Such regulations may be legitimately questioned since there is no apparent benefit to student learning. Let your voice be heard today! Sincerely, Dewitt T. Black, III Senior Counsel HSLDA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> 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. More reasons to join HSLDA... http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=1938 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ====================================================================== 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. ====================================================================== | |
