Homeschoolers in New Hampshire are currently fighting SB337, a bill which would require them to file a curriculum plan to the state at the beginning of the school year, a provision which was just dropped from the law in 2006. The bill passed the senate, and on Tuesday, April 15, homeschoolers packed the Representatives Hall at the State House to listen to the continuation of the bill’s hearing before House Education Committee.
What a luxury to have a bicameral legislature to slow down overzealous public officials. And how nice of the Nashua Telegraph to actually report on the attendance at the hearing. Here in Nebraska, we broke attendance records with five overflow rooms being opened to accommodate us. But did the Lincoln Journal Star print so much as one word about it? No, the measly showing for the debate over the State Fair was way more newsworthy. But I digress.
The Nashua Telegraph’s article is actually quite good, so I am happy to only have to highlight the stance of the Department of Education and not try to reason through objections to the article as well. All quotes are from the article.
Roberta Tenney, an administrator for the department who oversees the homeschool program, said the bill would help get a dialogue going with parents who are looking to homeschool as an option.
Why? Why does the state need to start a dialogue with its citizens about anything? They are our representatives. Our public servants.
“We want, as educators, to be part of that conversation,” she said.
Say what? Why do you feel the need to be a part of the conversation about a child’s education at home? Why are you, as an educator, qualified to insert yourself into the conversation via legislation without proof of anything your legislation could actually improve? Just because you want to? I, as a parent, should be able to choose who I wish to approach for advice on how to educate my child.
Tenney said the department does not want to mandate what parents teach their children, but wants to be able to direct parents who are just starting out toward some available resources, such as the state’s grade level expectations.
Uh…then mail out a copy to everyone who registers as a homeschool. Maybe it will save them a little money on those books like What Every [fill in the blank] Grader Needs to Know. Or maybe it will give them encouragement when they struggle. State standards have that effect on me, at least. It reminds me of what it was like to teach in the public schools.
“It’s a precipitous change to go from every year planning to no planning at all,” Tenney said.
Oh. My. Goodness. Tenney, you are absolutely right. I bet every single homeschooler in the state simply stopped planning because the state stopped requiring the paperwork to be filed. Precipitous indeed. Someone has surely gone off the deep end, but I doubt it was the homeschoolers with their new found freedom to not send in their curriculum.
New Hampshire already requires homeschools to submit to testing…standardized testing or the evaluation of a certified teacher…what do you possible hope to gain from this? Especially since it is merely paperwork to be filed with no requirement of approval?
The Education Committee shall probably vote next week and, if passed, it shall proceed to the full House from there. Let’s hope that this batch of legislators can see through the flimsy argument put up by the New Hampshire Department of Education.
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From New Hampshire:
Practicing Gratitude has a nice visual metaphor for why this legislation is cracked…like the model of the Liberty Bell on the Statehouse Lawn.
Carr Family Life shares a picture of the packed hearing room.
And Bosse 2008, the campaign blog of a Republican Congressional Candidate shared his two cents as well. OK, maybe four cents.
Our Family Life…An Unschooling Journey outlines why she opposes this bill and has pictures from previous hearings.
And some adorable pictures from Documenting an Unschooling Life. Everything truly is a learning experience.
Principled Discovery is a place to stop and discuss news and information related to faith, family and particularly education. Pour yourself a cup of tea and join the conversation! 
The proposed bill would require parents, prior to starting a homeschool program, to outline their plans for implementing their curriculum.
We have to do this in Ohio- submit a curriculum outline and list of resources ‘for informational purposes only’. My list looks like this:
Math- Saxon
Language Arts- internet and library
History- internet and library
Science- internet and library
Health- internet and library
Phys Ed- internet and library (one of these days I am just going to include a pic of our tree fort)
Now they have all the information I have. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could submit it with one of those Mission Impossible gadgets that makes the whole thing self-destruct after they read it?
Anyway, I thought the whole “let’s have a dialogue” and “we want to be part of the conversation” was a disingenuous way to say that they are going to use the police power of gov’t to butt in and interrupt. Anyone who wants to have a dialogue with home educators can read articles and blogs and forums online, attend support group meetings, and check some books out at the library. But that just wouldn’t be as much fun for them as taking a legislative crowbar and breaking in.
Blah, Blah, Blah, Homeschoolers aren’t certified and therefore idiotic parents out to ruin their children, Blah, Blah, Blah.
I’ve heard all this before, and it hasn’t improved with the retelling.
With politicians and DOE types, it doesn’t seem to matter if they are northern or southern. The accent is always the same!
Yeah…we have to submit a scope and sequence. Also not “approved.” But we don’t have to submit our testing, so I don’t really mind.
Our State Board of Education was actually neutral on the legislation here.
I hope that doesn’t change now that the Commissioner has quit.
Oh…and if a “dialogue” is the goal, why not ask homeschoolers what kind of legsislation would be helpful to them, and what kind of resources they need.
I am guessing NH is more like Vermont than Ohio. I wish I could submit a curriculum that short. We have to be painstakingly specific.
And once, they told me I needed to be more specific because the curriculum I sent in (which was a word-for-word copy of the grade level expectations used by VT public schools) sounded - get this - too hard for a second grader.
At least we have a law now that exempts us from the curriculum after three years. And now that the law has been in effect and nothing traumatic happened, the exemption comes after two years.
We still have to assess at the end of the year, though (test, teacher assessment, or portfolio - fun!)
It just doesn’t sound like any dialogue to me.
“We talk; you listen.”
Yeah, you’re probably right. More of a monologue.
You can blame Senator Iris Estabrook for this. Even though she is not running again in 08, she recommends that the very dangerous Follow the Child program follow your child right into your home. It is a snoopy intrusive social engineering program.
These Democrats at the statehouse in NH want to control every part of your life. Homeschool standards are much higher than NH standards I can tell you that!