| From the HSLDA E-lert Service: |
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| Date: From: Subject: | 2/26/2013 11:51:52 AM Scott Woodruff--HSLDA Calls Needed to Oppose Lowering Compulsory School Attendance Age from 7 to 5 |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== Calls Needed to Oppose Lowering Compulsory School Attendance Age from 7 to 5 Dear HSLDA Members and Friends: Your calls are needed immediately to stop Illinois Senate Bill 1307, which would expand state control over children and families in Illinois. Current law requires school attendance beginning at age 7. Senate Bill 1307 would lower this to age 5. If this bill passes, homeschooling parents will have to comply with Illinois compulsory attendance law a full two years earlier than now. Two more years of your child's life would be under a government mandate. This bill would also result in an inevitable tax increase because school districts would be required to offer kindergarten programs for this new influx of children. ACTION REQUESTED Use our Legislative Toolbox at http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=17364 to find who your Illinois state senator is. (You will only be able to find your state senator if you enter your Zip code). If he or she is listed below as a member of the Senate Education Committee, please call them before 1:00 p.m. tomorrow. Please call the committee chairman and vice chair even if your senator is not listed below. Your message can be as simple as: "Please vote 'no' on SB 1307. It would lower the age of compulsory school attendance from 7 to 5. Parents, not the government, know when it's best for their young child to start formal education. Taxes will go up for everyone to pay for it." It is not necessary to identify yourself as a homeschooler since this would affect every Illinois parent. Please forward this email to every family you know who is not a member of HSLDA and urge them to contact the Senate Education Committee members with the same message. CONTACT INFORMATION--The Senate Education Committee members are: William Delgado, Chair (217) 782-5652 Kimberly A. Lightford, Vice Chair (217) 782-8505 Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant (217) 782-0052 Daniel Biss (217) 782-2119 Bill Cunningham (217) 782-5145 Iris Y. Martinez (217) 782-8191 Julie A. Morrison (217) 782-3650 Michael Noland (217) 782-7746 Steve Stadelman (217) 782-8022 David S. Luechtefeld, Minority Spokesperson (217) 782-8137 Jason A. Barickman (217) 782-6597 Karen McConnaughay (217) 782-1977 Sue Rezin (217) 782-3840 Chapin Rose (217) 558-1006 BACKGROUND Requiring children to attend school at age 5 is a very bad idea for the following reasons: 1. SB 1307 forces children into school too soon. There are no long-term replicable studies proving that mandating attendance at age 5 rather than 7 is better for the educational development of the child. To the contrary, there is much research indicating that early childhood education does not improve the child's potential for being a better student in the future, because early gains disappear in a few years. This is especially significant for boys, because their cognitive and verbal skill development generally lags behind that of girls at this age. 2. SB 1307 decreases beneficial parental contact with their children. Two extra years of development outside of school can be critical for a child at this early age. Carl Zinsmeister, adjunct research associate at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, says, "Declining parental attachment is an extremely serious risk to children today. The verdict of enormous psychological literature is that time spent with the parent is the very clearest correlate of healthy child development." Parents should continue to have the authority to decide what is best for their children. 3. SB 1307 is based on faulty information. This attempt to bring children into formal education programs at a younger age is based on an erroneous assumption. Arthur Jensen, a learning psychologist, wrote in the Harvard Educational Review in 1969 that Benjamin Bloom's conclusion that people develop 50% of their mature intelligence by the age of 4 is statistically unwarranted. In 1970, Nancy Bayley, a University of California child psychologist whose data Bloom used, pointed out that Bloom's theory was wrong because it was based on an inadequate definition of intelligence. In spite of statements to the contrary, there is no solid evidence that early education brings any lasting or permanent educational benefit to a child. The conclusions being drawn based on recent studies of child's brain development are similar to the above faulty conclusions. The fact that a young child's brain develops rapidly does not warrant the faulty conclusion that more institutionalized and peer-dominated settings improve the child's mental, emotional, and social development. There are studies that have demonstrated the opposite. 4. SB 1307 would have an adverse financial impact on all Illinois families. This increase in the kindergarten population will increase the financial burden on the state's ability to fund its public education programs. This will result in the need to increase state education revenues. Increases in education revenues come either as direct increases in taxes from citizens; approving and selling bonds, which moves the tax burden to future generations; or transferring funds from another part of the state budget. Thank you for standing with us for freedom! Sincerely, Scott A. Woodruff, Senior Counsel, HSLDA P.S. 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? Your support for our work enables us to defend individual families and protect homeschooling freedom for all. Join now: http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=17365 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> Is customer service an art or a science? For us, good customer service is both an art and a science -it should appeal to our members and be effective. Consider what our members say about us: We're thankful for the support HSLDA membership provides us. We'd never homeschool without them. We highly recommend HSLDA to all homeschoolers. - North Tonawanda, NY I cannot imagine our homeschool journey without HSLDA's strong leadership, protection, and guidance. God bless HSLDA! - Alta Loma, California More reasons to join HSLDA... http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=1940 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ====================================================================== 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. ====================================================================== | |
