Tag Archives: compulsory school age

Educational, Elections, Homeschooling, Legislation, parenting

Compulsory School Age Mandates On Steroids?

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Every year, in Missouri, homeschoolers face legislation that threatens their parental rights and educational freedoms. Each year, lawmakers present bills, in some form, that mandates compulsory school age. The heavy hand of big government attempts to mandate compulsory school attendance because they know the more time they can mandate children spend in government schools, the more influence they can have on your children. Homeschoolers must always be vigilant in monitoring these attempts encroach on compulsory education requirements because these regulations will, without fail, reach over into homeschooling regulations, and parental rights to direct the education of our children will be forever lost.

On Tuesday evening, in his State of the Union Address, the president stated it was his intention to propose that every state mandate a raise in compulsory school age to 18. As homeschoolers, this flies in the face of all parental authority in deciding what is best for our children in the educational realm we choose appropriate.

Michel P. Farris, of Home School Legal Defense, issued a statement yesterday, urging all members of the homeschooling community to make their voices heard regarding the potential intrusion on educational freedom and parental rights proposed by the Obama administration.

Call Now!

Right now, please call the White House and your members of Congress, and give them this message:

“Last night, President Obama called for the government to mandate that all children stay in school until they graduate or turn age 18. This is not the federal government’s responsibility. Leave education decisions to parents, not federal bureaucrats. Tell President Obama to withdraw his compulsory attendance mandate immediately.”

  • The White House: 202-456-1414, or send an online message.
  • Your U.S. representative and two U.S. senators: 202-224-3121 (Capitol Switchboard) or use HSLDA’s Legislative Toolbox to find their names and contact info.

There appears to be no limit to this president’s desire for power. Car companies, banks, doctors, and now schools and the family. But this time he’s gone way too far, and homeschoolers and freedom-loving Americans need to make sure that he hears our message.

Thank you for standing with us for freedom.

Sincerely,

Michael P. Farris, JD, LLM
Chairman, HSLDA
Legislation

Missouri Law Makers Introduce Even More Legislation To Restrict Educational Freedom

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Missouri legislators are certainly earning their pay this year. While they aren’t going for the big power grab with one single piece of legislation, they certainly have peppered the session with lots of small attempts to chip away at your educational freedom. Here are a couple of other bills you should watch and be aware of.

HB 179 This bill raises compulsory school age for everybody, to 18 years of age. If your homeschooled child can show they have completed course work to satisfy 16 credit hours, they are exempt. It also takes away, previously allowed by law, the ability of metropolitan school districts to lower the age to sixteen by resolution of their school boards. This is another veiled bill to advance Educated Citizenry 2020. EC2020 seeks to mandate educational control of all students from pre-K to age 20. Hence, multiple bills in the legislature, this session, to change compulsory school age on both ends.

This bill has been referred to committee.

… strengthening the P-20 pipeline will encourage communication between all levels of the education community and the business sector to ensure that Missouri’s schools and institutions are meeting the demands of the workforce both in quality and area of preparation. …

Provide parents and early childhood educators with the information they need to see that all children enter kindergarten on par with their peers and ready to learn. Formalize DESE’s existing school readiness standards by requiring that standards be distributed to parents, early childhood educators, and school districts. School readiness assessment data and information on prekindergarten experiences for all kindergartners shall be included in core data reporting requirements.

Advance efforts to support voluntary, universal prekindergarten. Explore potential funding sources for prekindergarten education including federal funding. The Committee would like to note that there was not unanimous support for the prekindergarten recommendations.

 

HB 463 This bill focuses on Virtual Schools. Educated Citizenry is very focused on advancing Charter Schools and Virtual Schools.

The Committee also formulated ideas for improving provisionally accredited and unaccredited schools, including the need to continue to investigate alternative school models such as virtual schools and charter schools.

HB 463 mainly addresses funding for virtual schools. It is very important for homeschoolers to understand that virtual schools probably pose the most serious threat to homeschooling freedoms than any other issue in education reform. If you decide to participate in virtual schools, on a full or part time basis, you would certainly be required to register with the state as a participant, and funding, of course would be an issue. With that would absolutely come the mandates and restrictions of government control. It is something all homeschoolers should be aware of and keep in mind as they make decisions in the future whether or not they want to participate in virtual school program. This bill has also been referred to committee.

Homeschooling families in Missouri and across the country should be very aware of the legislative developments in Illinois. Illinois is the testing ground for government takeover of educational freedom. Please continue to watch closely the developments of SB 136. While Arne Duncan was the Chicago Education Secretary, before he joined the Obama administration’s Department of Education, he made it very clear that putting homeschooling under the mandates and control of the government was his goal.

 

Legislation

Missouri Legislation Status Update

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As of January 23rd, the status of the following bills are as follows:

SB13 – Requires the Joint Committee on Education to oversee a task force on teacher compensation and effectiveness.

Status: Hearing scheduled for 1/26/2011 – Education Committee

SB14 – Requires the State Board of Education to establish criteria for the transfer of students from an unaccredited school district to an accredited district in the same or an adjoining county.

Status: Received its second reading on 1/12/2011 and advanced to the Education Committee

SB20 – Modifies the compulsory attendance age for the St. Louis City School District so that students must attend school from five years of age to eighteen years of age

Status: Received its second reading on 1/12/2011 and advanced to the Education Committee

SB21 – Requires kindergarten attendance at the start of the school year for children who turn age five at any time during the calendar year

Status: Received its second reading on 1/12/2011 and advanced to the Education Committee

HJR10 – Proposes a constitutional amendment removing the current ban on providing state funding to educational facilities controlled by religious organizations

Status: Introduced and read on 1/18/2011. Received its second reading on 1/19/2011.

Watch SB13, SB14 and HJR10. They are crucial to teacher compensation, addressing open enrollment issues and advancing Educated Citizenry 2020. HJR10 may also invoke vouchers in Missouri.

The coming week is National School Choice week and the legislators are being wooed by various educational organizations. They will all attend a screening of “Waiting For Superman,” a movie on the failure of public education and how Charter Schools can save the system. Very timely since Republican leadership is pushing Educated Citizenry 2020 of which the cornerstone is Charter School expansion. We expect more legislation to be introduced next week during the pomp and circumstance of the week’s festivities.

Homeschooling, Legislation

Is Homeschooling Under Attack In Missouri?

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Homeschoolers in Missouri have long enjoyed reasonable freedom to educate their children at home without much government interference, but the last several years have brought subversive attacks to chip away at those freedoms. The upcoming session proves to be no different. Culture Vigilante reported that the 96th general assembly will once again consider placing more restrictions on the citizenry as it relates to a parent’s right to make educational decisions for their children. Robin Wright-Jones pre-filed a bill, SB 20, in early December which would lower compulsory school age for students in metropolitan school districts to 5 years of age. While the present compulsory age is 7 to 17, (18 in metropolitan school districts and 16 under certain credit hour parameters) this bill mandates that children start school at age 5. While it does address, specifically, students of metropolitan school districts, and exclude homeschoolers, here’s where it gets sticky.

SB 21, also filed by Wright-Jones, pretty much negates the exclusions in the previous bill. And it also plays fast and loose with the definitions of calendar year and school year so that not only will your children be mandated to begin schooling at age 5, some of them will actually be 4 years old, if the bill is adopted as written. And remember, these are mandates, not suggestions.

… ANY child whose fifth birthday occurs at any time during the calendar year shall be deemed to have attained the age of five years at the commencement of the school year beginning that calendar year.  The parent, {guardian, or other person having charge} of ANY child who has attained the age of five years in accordance with this section shall be responsible for enrolling the child in kindergarten.

So, that means if your child is 4 years old and does not turn 5 until after the beginning of the school year, he is 5 years old in the eyes of the state and must go to kindergarten. Present laws would postpone admittance to school until the following year. Also, there is no exclusion for children outside of a metropolitan school district or homeschoolers in this bill. And just incase your child misses the age mandate of the first part of this bill there is a provision to allow the school system to evaluate your young geniuses and admit them even earlier to school.

If passed, SB 20 will also raise the compulsory school age in metropolitan school districts to 18, and firms up the upward adjustment to 17 years of age in other (seven director) school districts, and takes away the ability of those districts to adopt a lower compulsory age via their school board.

Now, anyone who has ever had any involvement with public education knows that there is, in Missouri, a provision in the law for schools to collect funding for any warm body who inhabits a school building. So, perhaps that is where some of the motivation comes from in these two bills. Culture Vigilante also outlines resolutions from the NEA lobby and their influences in this area of legislation.

What ever the motivation, for the reoccurring attempts to mandate that a government school have more and more control of your children, it is important to communicate, with your representation, that you will accept no regulation that takes away your rights to choose how and when you educate your children.

In 2009, Republicans in the House and Senate introduced and passed legislation, SB 291, that tightened the noose around the neck of parents by raising the compulsory school age for all students, including homeschoolers, in the state from 16 to 17 and changed the requirements for graduation. Because the homeschool community, as a whole, has no directed lobby or representation in the capitol, the legislation was not flagged early during the session, and was slipped through and voted on the at nearly the last possible moment in the 2009 legislative assembly. This unfortunate circumstance gave very little opportunity for constituents to be educated on and voice their displeasure with its intrusive constraints. Well, hopefully, we have learned our lesson about how important it is to be proactive and educated about our rights and freedoms, or they will be taken away. Maybe not all at once, but they will be taken away, and when our children have children they may be living in a very different world with a lot fewer choices for themselves or their progeny.

It seems that each year there is an effort to chip away at your rights to educate your children in the manner you, as a parent, deem appropriate. While we still have the choice, perhaps it is important to teach your children about their freedoms and which actions and laws ensure those liberties, so that we strengthen the liberty loving culture and maintain it for the future. That education also includes watching your representation and letting them know how you feel about maintaining your freedoms.