| From the HSLDA E-lert Service: |
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| Date: From: Subject: | 2/22/2012 2:39:20 PM Home School Legal Defense Association Take Action Today to Resist Government Intrusion! |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== Take Action Today to Resist Government Intrusion! Dear HSLDA Members and Friends, Your action is needed today to defeat an attempt to increase government control over your children. LB 996 will increase the government's intrusion into your family for two more years if it passes. Exemption C now allows parents to decide whether their 16-year-old children should be exempt from Nebraska's compulsory attendance law, but LB 996 will remove this exemption and increase state control over all Nebraska families. Your help is needed to defeat this expansion of state control. If passed, all homeschool families will have to comply with the Department of Education's notice requirements until their students either graduate or turn 18. Although many families continue to homeschool students after age 16, parents, not the government, should determine when children are ready to complete their formal secondary education and focus on work or college. This is an important freedom we must preserve! Please take action today to defeat LB 996! ACTION REQUESTED: Please contact your senator and Speaker Mike Flood as soon as possible and ask them to vote no on LB 996. Give the following message in your own words. You should not mention that you are a homeschooling parent as this issue affects all parents in Nebraska. "LB 996 takes away the right of parents to decide when their children should be subject to compulsory attendance. Parents, not the government, should decide if their 16-year-olds are ready to go to work, college, into the military or some other vocation whether they graduate or not. This bill will result in higher taxes and will turn classrooms into jail cells. Many children who today do not want to be in school will be forced to stay, which will inevitably result in problems for the other children who are there and want to learn. The current law that allows parents to exempt their children from compulsory attendance at age 16 works; please vote no on LB 996!" You can find your senator's contact information here: http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=13839 . If you do not know who your senator is, you can use the Nebraska Legislature's "Find Your Senator" tool, here: http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=13840 . Speaker Mike Flood can be contacted at: Sen. Mike Flood District 19 Room No. 2103 P.O. Box 94604 Lincoln, NE 68509 Phone: (402) 471-2929 Email: mflood@leg.ne.gov BACKGROUND: Contrary to popular belief, raising the compulsory attendance age does not necessarily result in higher rates of high-school attendance or improved academic performance. 1. According to an October 2011 study released by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), raising the compulsory attendance age will not reduce the dropout rate In the 2008-2009 school year, the most recent date for which statistics are available, five of the top six states with the highest high school completion rates - Vermont (89.6%), Minnesota (87.4%), North Dakota (87.4%), Iowa (85.7%), and New Jersey (85.3%) - compel attendance only to age 16. Conversely, the state with the lowest completion rate - Nevada, at 56.3% - compels attendance to age 18. In fact, of the five states with the lowest graduation rates in the country, all five compel attendance to either age 17 - Mississippi (62.0%) and South Carolina (66.0%) - or age 18 - Nevada (56.3%), New Mexico (64.8%), and Louisiana (67.3%). Complete state-by-state results are available on page 25 of NCES's October 2011 report: http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=13841 . 2. Older children unwilling to learn can cause classroom disruptions and even violence, making learning harder for their classmates who truly want to learn. 3. Passing this bill would restrict parents' freedom to decide if their 16-year-old is ready for college or the workforce (for example, some 16-year-olds benefit more from valuable work experience than from being forced to sit in a classroom). 4. Another significant impact of expanding the compulsory attendance age is an inevitable tax burden to pay for more classroom space and teachers to accommodate the additional students compelled to attend public schools. When California raised its compulsory attendance age to 18, for example, 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. 5. A study by Cornell University on raising the age of compulsory attendance found that there was no correlation between passing a law to raise the age of compulsory attendance and high school completion rates. The study shows that specific programs targeting at-risk youth can help improve completion rates, but a law raising the age of attendance does not. To view the report click here link: http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=13842. (This resource and several above require Adobe Acrobat Reader: http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=13845 .) For more information, please see our Issues Library page on compulsory attendance age legislation : http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=13843 . We greatly value you and your support - it is a privilege to serve you! If you or someone you know is not a member of HSLDA, will you consider taking a moment today to join or recommend us and support our work defending individual families threatened by government officials and protecting homeschooling freedom for all? Join now: http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=13844 Sincerely, Michael P. Donnelly, Esq. 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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Thank you for your cooperation. ====================================================================== | |
