4 WAYS THAT H.R. 610 WILL THREATEN THE FREEDOM OF HOMESCHOOLING FAMILIES

H. R. 610, a bill which calls for sending federal education grant money to states to distribute to public, private, and homeschooled students, sounds good at first, but as the old saying goes, there’s no such thing as free money.
William Estrada a lawyer and the Director of Federal Relations with the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) points out four ways in which H. R. 610 is set to threaten the freedom of homeschooling parents, including a tracking database for homeschool families:
1. Elimination of language protecting homeschool freedom in U. S. Code: Page 2, paragraph (a) repeals in its entirety the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which was most recently reauthorized as the Every Student Succeeds Act. While HSLDA applauds this repeal language, as we believe that the federal government has no constitutional authority to make education decisions which should be left to state and local authorities, this full repeal would also eliminate HSLDA’s language fully protecting homeschool freedom from all federal control.
2. Creation of a ‘federal right to homeschool:’ Page 3, Sec. 104 requires states to make certain assurances in order to receive their portion of federal education dollars. One of the requirements (paragraph (2)(A) on page 3) is that states ‘make it lawful for parents of an eligible child to elect … to home-school their child.’ While this sounds good, HSLDA has fought – successfully – for decades to make sure that there is no ‘federal right to homeschool’ because what could be created by a favorable Congress could be regulated by a future, hostile Congress. It is far better (and far more constitutionally sound) for education decisions – and homeschool freedom – to be protected at the state level. We ask our friends at the federal level to simply leave homeschooling families alone. The Constitution protects the right of parents to direct the education and upbringing of their children, as the U. S. Supreme Court has ruled in its seminal cases of Meyer, Pierce, and Yoder. Federal legislation to ‘protect’ homeschooling is unnecessary.

This post was published at The Daily Sheeple on FEBRUARY 15, 2017.