The Voice of Homeschoolers in North Carolina Have Been Heard!

On 2/16/05 I posted an article originally written by Lee Duigon Oct. 1, 2003. His article was titled "A Quiet Threat to Homeschooling." Following is a small excerpt:

Children have a constitutional right to learn about beliefs and ways of life other than those of their parents, and the state has a duty to secure that right for them.

So argued Rob Reich, political science and education professor at Stanford University, at the 2001 convention of the American Political Science Association, reading from a paper entitled, Testing the Boundaries of Parental Authority over Education, the Case of Home Schooling.” He included the paper as a chapter in his 2002 book, Bridging Multiculturalism and Liberalism in Education.

. . .

In his writings, Reich proposes that homeschooling should be monitored by the state to ensure that parents teach their children beliefs and lifestyles that they may oppose —that parents may even believe to be evil.

Last week, the legislature in NC met to discuss moving the Division of Non-Public Education (DNPE) under the authority of the Department of Public Instruction (DPI). If approved, this action would, in effect, move homeschoolers under the authority of the public school system, a move that would bring homeschooling one step closer to being "monitored by the state to ensure that parents teach their children beliefs and lifestyles that they may oppose." However, thanks to an alert from the great people at North Carolinians for Home Education (NCHE), this threat may have been stopped (for now).

After hearing about the legislature's committee meeting, the NCHE sent an alert out to many homeschool "channels" asking homeschoolers to contact their Senators, Representatives, Governor Mike Easley, and Secretary of Administration Gwynn Swinson. And homeschoolers did! Apparently committee members received thousands of email messages and phone calls and as a result "there was no action on the proposal" and the Committee is willing "to re-examine this move in a different light." [1]

I personally sent an email to every committee member, the Govenor, and the Secretary of Administration. So far (as of 3/28/05) I have received a response from only Senator Brock. Here is his response via his Legislative Assistant:

Thank you for your email regarding the Department of Non-public Education. Your comments are very important to the Senator and he appreciates your correspondence. He wants you to know that he does agree with you and feels the DPNE and the DPI should remain separate. He will keep your thoughts close in mind as the General Assembly continues it's deliberations during the 2005-2006 Session. (Emphasis added.)

Many NC homeschoolers are already upset that we have to register with the State, keep attendance and immunization records and administer annual testing.[2] My personal opinion is that NO other restrictions or restraints should be tolerated.

Notes:
[1] http://nche.com/alert.html
[2] http://www.doa.state.nc.us/dnpe/hhh103.htm