Somehow I think not to lose ground and to mobilize against anti-homeschool legislation we need to organize somehow. Iowa desperately needs a voice for home education during the General Assembly.

HSLDA has been, in my mind a pretty good voice – at least at the federal level.

LOL! Nope. We are a very hands-on statewide homeschool organization run by homeschool parents to support homeschooling in Virginia. As such we do a wide range of things, including monitoring legislation and lobbying. But we are not only a lobbying group. We provide information to homeschoolers through our website, hotline and helpdesk. We have an annual conference as well as regional seminars. We serve as a media contact. We work to resolve issues with school divisions when neccessary.

http://vahomeschoolers.org

“Maybe because VaHomeschoolers focuses on the state level?”

Huh? You lost me. What does not hold? I never said that the issues we face are not similar, just that the climate and specifics are different so how things are handled might be different. What works in one state might or might not work in another.

From my limited knowledge of FL homeschooling, I do know that there are some aspects that are very different than here in VA (sports access and virtual schools off the top of my head). I also think that evaluations/testing requirements are handled differently.

Other states have umbrella schools (we do not). Some states do not even have homeschool laws (we do). We have two active statewide homeschool organizations that each have lobbyists in the General Assembly. Other states do not. Teachers unions play a large role in homeschool politics in some states, here they do not.

All these differences make for very different ways in which things work. I would never tell another homeschooler in another state how to do things in their state. I would share how things work here and let them decide if things are similar or different enough to work in their state.

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Hmmm. Take driver’s ed changes affecting homeschoolers, as you say. Overreaching mandates are easy to agree we must oppose but what about the “creative options” Dana lauds above and I too defend?

“I don’t think we are served by fighting creative solutions in the public schools. I think the public is better served the more options we have available to us.”
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I can’t say that I disagree with these sentiments.

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Suppose a great state-of-the-art driver’s ed center with high-tech simulators for every student and a perfect safety record is funded by a public bond issue and built at the community college, operated by the public schools with police officers and the courts collaborating to make it a revolutionary offering? Say there’s a home education component in the program “targeting” or recruiting hs families to participate (for free but with certain rules and obligations and evaluations) and your group is asked to support and promote this creative initiative that can save lives and money, to your membership.
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Well…hypothetically speaking…we would not “promote” anything nor work as some kind of agent of the state. We would provide information to our members of options available (including information on the pros and cons, whatever they might be) to allow them to make an informed decision as to whether to participate. We would not actively work against it or oppose it, but would make sure that any “strings” were made clear. And if we saw any potential issues arising, we would work with the school system to remedy these issues. I actually doubt that this would cause any kind of controversy here.

And here is an example of where things are different in different states. I know that utilizing public school resources is a hot topic in many states with some homeschoolers fearing increased regulation. However, here in Virginia, we have had partial enrollment (for academic classes, not sports) as an option for many, many years. It just is not an issue and it has not led to any kind of increased regulation.

Those who don’t want to use it, don’t. Those who want to use it are aware of the increased testing requirements (if the class they take has a required state test they have to take it). But there has been no bleed over or increased regulations on homeschoolers who do not participate. We have worked with local homeschoolers to create more “homeschool friendly” access policies (state law allows access, but the policy is left to the descretion of the local school division).

But this is here in VA and I would never tell anyone else in another state that they should not worry about partial enrollment since I have no idea about their political or homeschooling climate. In another state it might cause more issues, I have no idea. Here it does not.

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I think I can guarantee it won’t be all sunshine and roses in a garden of mutual support and unanimity. . .
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I never said that there were never disagreements. Or that issues do not arise. I think the fact that we do not tell people what to think, but rather provide information on which they can make a decision that is right for their family helps. We do take positions at times which are based on our understanding of the political climate and our members’ views. Our membership survey allows people to be heard and we are extremely accessable via email. If we get a lot of questions on a position or issue, we will often write an article on it, usually presenting both sides or clarifying our position. Our goal is to provide information to help homeschoolers make educated decisions, not tell them how they have to think.

VaHomeschoolers has been around since 1993…seems to work pretty good so far!

Exactly. And this is something else that I am glad that VaHomeschoolers does. We provide the information on the bills (including links to the actual bills) and encourage people to read them and make up their own minds. We do say whether or not we support or oppose the legislation, but we also encourage people to not just take our opinion. HSLDA “elerts” drive me nuts, because they only provide a summary of the legislation and you are supposed to take their recommendation as to whether it is a good thing or not.

When I think about home education, I don’t see it as separate from any other family function. The state (as of yet) doesn’t regulate private activity until it crosses a certain line- that of causing some harm to another person or their property through force or fraud. The gov’t can claim an interest in one’s health, but they shouldn’t be allowed to mandate exercise and diet. They can publish research that supports the idea that viewing tv or computer games are harmful in excess, but they can’t pass legislation to limit how much time a kid spends playing Halo or watching Spongebob. They can even complain about religious beliefs and practices, but they can’t pass laws that limit the freedom of expression, religious or otherwise, unless it crosses into criminality.

I really wish that we as a country did not view education as a compelling gov’t concern. I know- I’m pipe dreaming about the privatization of education. I alternate that dream with the one about the FairTax. Now if I could just get Hugh Jackman into one of them, I’d be good to go. :p

But I think focusing on this makes it seem impossible for us to ever organize. In reality, however, it seems we are able to come together for a number of instances where homeschool regulation comes up.

I don’t oppose any homeschool organizations nor the very act of organizing. I just think we need to be cognizant of the fact that we do not pay our dues and consider ourselves protected. These are tools to keep us informed. I’m not about to sit and read every bill that goes before the unicameral and I appreciate that we have people who do. I’m not about to maintain an email list to notify every homeschooler in the state of pending legislation, but I’m glad we have people who do.

And when something comes up, each individual family needs to decide for themselves what action, if any to take. I think we can also perhaps respect that homeschooling is not the central issue for many of us. Many homeschool for reasons which are much more important to us than homeschooling itself, and it is unlikely they will be willing to silence themselves on these issues for some “greater good” of homeschooling they may not even agree with.

“I don’t think we are served by fighting creative solutions in the public schools. I think the public is better served the more options we have available to us.”

Suppose a great state-of-the-art driver’s ed center with high-tech simulators for every student and a perfect safety record is funded by a public bond issue and built at the community college, operated by the public schools with police officers and the courts collaborating to make it a revolutionary offering? Say there’s a home education component in the program “targeting” or recruiting hs families to participate (for free but with certain rules and obligations and evaluations) and your group is asked to support and promote this creative initiative that can save lives and money, to your membership.

I think I can guarantee it won’t be all sunshine and roses in a garden of mutual support and unanimity. . .