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Dear Legislative Alert Contacts:

FHE is reissuing the alert for HB1460 which is now number 6 on the House Perfection Calendar. Please encourage those on your legislative alert networks to make calls again to their state representatives about this bill first thing Wednesday morning. There is a very good chance the bill will be voted on tomorrow. Please contact only your state representatives, not your state senators at this time.

URGENT!!!! - Calls needed Wednesday morning, April 10, 2002. - URGENT!!!!

HB 1460 is number 6 on the House calendar for April 10 and could be brought to a complete vote at any time!

HB 1460
http://www.house.state.mo.us/bills02/bills02/hb1460.htm
http://www.house.state.mo.us/bills02/cal02/cal04.htm

Please call your Missouri State Representative NOW (State Legislature, not U.S.) regarding HB1460 (House bill number). BE SURE TO TELL THEM THE BILL NUMBER (HB for House bills.) Without a bill number, they will not take your call or letter as seriously, plus there are several similar bills, which have NOT been voted out. If your rep looks for the bill based on general info, they may look at the wrong one and think the bill is still in committee.

This bill will allow "metropolitan" districts to RAISE the compulsory (Webster's defines "compulsory" as coercive, and "coercive" as FORCED!) attendance age to 17. While there are "home school" exceptions (actually a defacto registration), "exceptions" can be pulled, modified, and are subject to abuse (which is what raises the call for them to be removed.) "Exceptions" also create resentment from those who are "not exempted."

Please use the following "talking points" to when you CALL your state representative. (E-mail is a poor third choice. E-mail is routinely ignored.) INCLUDE THE BILL NUMBER WHEN YOU CALL!

**Legislative Contacts Needed Regarding HB 1460**

As mentioned in a previous legislative update (see http://www.fhe-mo.org/lobbyist.htm), HB 1460 would allow individual metropolitan school districts to raise the compulsory attendance age to 17. Although home schoolers are exempted under this bill, the exemption itself would create problems for home schoolers (see below). This bill have been voted "Do Pass" by the House Education committee and is number 6 on the "perfection" calendar, which means it can be voted on at any time.

FHE opposes any increase in the compulsory attendance age, whether or not home schoolers are exempted.

As always, please be polite and respectful when you call. Our legislators need, above all, to be informed by you--their constituents. If you are unsure who your senator is or need more information on how to contact your legislators, check the following URL: http://www.senate.state.mo.us/ and scroll down to the link "Who is my Senator and Representative?"

Here are some talking points to use as you speak with your senator or rep:

BE SURE TO SAY WHAT BILL NUMBER YOU ARE CALLING/WRITING ABOUT!

There are numerous reasons why increasing the compulsory attendance age is a bad idea:

• FHE believes this is properly a parental decision, not a state decision.
  

• Simply increasing the compulsory attendance age will not make an unruly 16 year old suddenly want to be in school to learn. Students who want to drop out generally do not feel successful in school or do not believe that further schooling is worthwhile. Increasing the compulsory attendance age is a "too-little-too late" solution to a problem that begins much earlier in a student's school years.
  

• 16 year olds who do not want to be in school--but who are forced to attend--will cause numerous problems for teachers and other students through disruptive and violent behavior. Teacher assaults and school violence will increase.
  

• School districts with large numbers of disruptive students will press for more funding for additional security and special facilities to accommodate these "would-be dropouts".
  

The so-called "home school exemption" is no favor to home schoolers!

• Special exemptions are easily rescinded. Today's "exemption" would be tomorrow's "unfair leniency". Requiring home schoolers to attend until age 16 and every other student until 17 would eventually create resentment towards home education.
  

• Requiring fewer years for home schoolers than for other students would eventually be used as "evidence" that home schooling is somehow "inferior" or "insufficient".
  

• 16 year old dropouts will try to falsely claim to be "home schooling" in order to get around the requirement that they be in school. If many are able to do this, it would create a tremendous image problem for law-abiding home schoolers. The public would soon weary of seeing gangs of so-called "home schoolers" on street corners and would begin clamoring for new laws to regulate home schooling.
  

• HB 1460 contains a provision that only a "written statement" would be required from any 16 year-old in order to prove a claim that the student is home schooling. If that is true, then every 16 year old potential dropout will find a way to get such a "written statement"! (see #3 above).
  

However, it is likely that in the real world, this "written statement" would NOT be universally accepted by juvenile officers, DFS workers and others, increasing the likelihood that law-abiding home educators could be dragged into an investigation for educational neglect. (Keep in mind that current law clearly states that the logbook is a defense against a claim of educational neglect. However, this defense is already routinely ignored by some county prosecutors who unfortunately choose not to follow the law. If a meticulously-kept logbook is not always sufficient to prevent a charge of educational neglect, you can be sure that a mere "written statement" will not always prove to be sufficient either).

In summary, this "exemption" is not a favor to home educators--it is a maneuver designed to lull the home school community into believing that this bill is not a threat to us!

Please contact your state representative and ask that he/she vote NO on HB 1460 (be SURE to include the bill number when you call) with or without a "home school exemption". You can use some of the points above as talking points to help your legislators understand this issue.

Thank you for your diligence in this matter.

Sincerely,
Brad Haines
Executive Director, Families for Home Education