When it comes to defending homeschool freedom from the specter of bad legislation, nothing bears more weight than being able to look a representative of the people in the eye and tell the truth.
That’s why, often with short notice and in the face of challenging logistics, HSLDA has been busy transporting members of our legal team to testify in legislatures across the country.
Our attorneys have much to say about why preserving homeschool freedom is not just good for families, but benefits society. However, getting our team members to where they need to be to make these in-person attestations sometimes develops into an adventure.
A last-minute trip by HSLDA Senior Counsel Tj Schmidt offers a good example.
The week of February 24, Schmidt learned that a bill we’ve been watching in Kentucky had been scheduled for a hearing in the House Standing Committee on Primary and Secondary Education—first thing Wednesday morning!
“That gave us about forty hours to respond,” Schmidt noted.
House Bill 621 proposed onerous new restrictions on families who decide to withdraw their children from public school in order to begin homeschooling. The measure would have been especially hard on families whose children accrue absences from public school while struggling with chronic health issues or trauma from being bullied.
“In my experience families in these situations choose homeschooling to provide their children a safer and more stress-free environment,” Schmidt said. “H.B. 621 would have made it a lot more difficult for these parents to do what’s best for their kids.”
The bill also sought to prevent any family facing a CPS investigation from beginning to homeschool.
“This was really unreasonable, considering that in Kentucky nearly 74 percent of all children who were the subjects of an abuse or neglect investigation were ultimately determined not to have been abused,” he added.
Even as he planned to convey this crucial insight to lawmakers, Schmidt laid the groundwork for making his in-person presentation in Frankfort as effective as possible.
That Monday, he contacted state Representative Josh Calloway, a strong supporter of homeschool freedom and a member of the Committee. State Representative Savannah Maddox, who homeschooled her own children and maintains close ties to the home education community, was also quick to jump into action.
By Monday evening she posted information about H.B. 621 on a Facebook group with some 19,000 Kentucky homeschoolers as members. Schmidt confirmed the opposition to the bill and engaged in the Facebook conversations until late into the evening.
Schmidt followed up Tuesday with an email to HSLDA members and allies, asking them to contact state legislators in opposition to the bill. That evening he boarded a plane bound for Lexington, and landed at midnight. He drove a rental car to Frankfort, snatched a few hours of sleep, and was in the capitol to address committee members by 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.
He wasn’t alone. Several Kentucky homeschool parents had also risen early to make the trip. Their testimony followed a flood of messages in opposition to the bill sent to legislators the previous 24 hours.
The combined voices of homeschool advocates had an effect. One of the first business items the committee addressed was to accept a substitute version of H.B. 621 that removed all language dealing with homeschooling.
Schmidt said he’s counting this as a victory, though HSLDA is keeping an eye on the bill to see if it changes.
“In these situations,” he observed, “you trust but verify.”