Homeschool parents, kids oppose bill - HB 337
April 16, 2008
Nashua Telegraph
CONCORD – For the second time in two weeks, homeschool parents and their children turned out in droves to oppose a bill that would require parents to submit a curriculum plan to the state.
“I think that the people who are supporting this are really grasping for straws and trying to make the most out of their arguments,” said Nikki Powers, a Barrington parent who homeschools her two children.
The Senate has already approved SB337.
Parents and their children packed the 400-seat Representatives Hall at the Statehouse on Tuesday for the continuation of a hearing before the House education committee that began April 2.
The bill would require parents who are new to homeschooling to submit a plan outlining their curriculum before they start to educate their child. The legislature passed a bill in 2006 that eliminated the requirement for parents to submit such a plan on an annual basis.
Opponents argued the change would do nothing to improve the state’s homeschool program and could even deter parents from exploring the homeschool option in the future.
The state Department of Education is supporting the bill. Roberta Tenney, an administrator for the department who oversees the homeschool program, said the bill would help get a dialogue going with parents who are looking to homeschool as an option.
“We want, as educators, to be part of that conversation,” she said.
Tenney said the department does not want to mandate what parents teach their children, but wants to be able to direct parents who are just starting out toward some available resources, such as the state’s grade level expectations.
Since the change in 2006, parents are now required only to notify their local school district that they intend to home school their children.
“It’s a precipitous change to go from every year planning to no planning at all,” Tenney said.
Some states have no regulations over homeschool programs, and others require approval of the programs. Tenney said the state is trying to strike a balance between the two ends of the spectrum. She cautioned that the state would not be looking to approve the plans, only making sure they are submitted.
“We are looking for that middle road of communication,” she said.
One of the arguments in support of the bill is that it would help children in neglectful homes from falling through the cracks. Powers argued it’s easier for children to fall through the cracks in public schools.
“It’s a little insulting to a lot of us that the public school system wants to make suggestions,” she said. “We are already accountable.”
Dawn Lincoln, a Westmoreland home school parent, suggested that the bill would discourage parents from starting a home school program. She said the “added barriers” would do nothing to improve home education.
If the state wants to have more dialogue with home school parents, there is nothing stopping them, she said.
Lincoln said to expect home school parents to follow the same guidelines used in public school is unreasonable.
“If we’re going to be tied to the state’s grade level expectations, our flexibility and ability to meet the child’s needs . . . is gone,” she said.
Some parents went as far as to say that the bill discriminates against them.
Members of the education committee said they weren’t convinced the bill was necessary.
State law currently mandates specific subjects to be taught in a homeschool program: science, math, language, government, history, health, reading, writing, spelling, art, music and a history of both the state constitution and the U.S. Constitution.
The proposed bill would require parents, prior to starting a homeschool program, to outline their plans for implementing their curriculum.
The bill would also require parents to notify the school district each year if they intend on continuing to homeschool their child.
State law currently requires parents to maintain a portfolio, documenting reading materials used and samples of writing, among other things. Parents are also required to have their children evaluated each year, either by having a licensed evaluator review the child’s progress or by taking a standardized test.
Given the requirements currently in place, Rep. Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry, questioned whether the bill was necessary.
“After looking at this, I don’t see the need for this law,” she said.
Rep. Paul Ingbretson, R-Grafton, pointed out that recent test scores revealed that only one in four high school students are proficient in math.
“I wonder if you’re really the right people to be consulting with homeschool parents,” he said to Tenney.
In an overflow room outside the hall, some parents had set up a makeshift school. Some children were reading and others were gathered around a computer.
Jamie Hupfer, a homeschool parent from Deering, brought her two children – 4-year-old Xander and 11-month-old Zoe – to Tuesday’s hearing. Both of Hupfer’s children were wearing T-shirts with the message “Vote No on SB337″ printed on them.
Hupfer said she and other home school parents decided it would be a fun project to make the T-shirts. She decided to homeschool her children because she didn’t want them confined to a specific curriculum.
“I want to allow him to study what he’s interested in,” she said.
Tenney said there have been rare cases of neglect or abuse and said that if there had been some communication at the offset, they may have been avoided.
Opponents of the bill maintained nothing would change under the new requirements.
There are approximately 4,600 students currently being taught at home, according to the state Department of Education. However, the percentage of students in each district fluctuates, depending on where you look.
According to data from last year, Nashua had 109 homeschool students, which represents less than 1 percent of the students enrolled in public school. But in the Mascenic Regional School District, there were the exact same number of homeschool students as Nashua, which represents 7.8 percent of the enrollment in that district.
Laurie Johnson, assistant superintendent for the Milford School District, said she has regular correspondence with the district’s home school population. The district’s primary role is to make sure that the annual evaluation shows that progress is being made.
Sometimes parents need reminding to send in their paperwork, but “the large majority of them send everything in without any reminders,” she said.
Cases where parents who are unresponsive are forwarded to the state, she said.
Johnson said it’s unclear what the change the bill is proposing would add, considering that the plans aren’t approved, only submitted.
“I’m not sure it’s that much different from what we do now,” she said.
The education committee did not vote on the bill yesterday. The committee will likely vote at some point next week. If the committee approves it, the bill will move on to the full House.
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Additional Info: Here are the minutes of NH’s Home School Advisory Council of April 2008 which suggest the addition of a study commission.