You read it here first. Homeschooling United has reported, extensively, on Race To The Top (RT3) and the government’s efforts to regulate and mandate your educational freedoms right out from under you. Now, World Net Daily (WND) reports how the federal government may have designs on controlling homeschooling educational freedom. Home School Legal Defense (HSLDA) issued a statement earlier this week encouraging you to contact your elected representatives because there is legislation in the hopper that may bring homeschooling under the same required regulation as its institutional school counterparts.

The concern is about Democrat-driven plans in the U.S. Senate to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, a massive federal program last reauthorized in 2001 as the No Child Left Behind Act.

The WND article also outlines clearly the feared outcomes of such legislation: the fear of loss of local, state and parental control, and pressure to succumb to nationally aligned curriculum and testing standards.

If you live in Missouri, you need to know the Common Core has been adopted by Missouri DESE. While legislation hasn’t pursued regulation for homeschooling, yet, the legislature does, year after year, continually introduce bills to increase the amount of compulsory school age required for children, across the board, which would also include homeschooling. Last session saw over 2000 pieces of legislation written and at least 130 bills related to education. None of the legislation in the last session was aimed at advancing local control of schools/education. Much of it was written to advance Educated Citizenry 2020, Missouri’s version of Race To The Top. While no education legislation was passed in 2011, the upcoming session is sure to see a hard push to accomplish agendas that failed in the legislature last spring.