HSLDA News	October 17, 2002

Dept. of Ed. Adds Office of Innovation and Improvement

U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige recently announced the formation of the Office of Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education.

This new office is intended to "be an entrepreneurial arm of the department, making strategic investments in promising practices and widely disseminating their results." Included in the new department will be the existing Office of Non-Public Education, which has had significant jurisdiction over matters concerning homeschooling. Previously, the Office on Non-Public Education had been under the Office of Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs.

So . . . can it now be said that the U.S. Department of Education considers home education to be a matter of "innovation and improvement"? Only time will tell!