Wyoming Victory a Bright Spot in Tough Legislative Season

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

If ever any passage from literature could encapsulate this legislative season, it would be those words from Dickens.

Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon signed House Bill 46, simply titled, “Homeschool Freedom Act,” into law Thursday. This bill was championed by HSLDA and Homeschool Wyoming, introduced in the House by Representative Tomi Strock, a legislator who homeschooled her kids, and championed in the Senate by Senator Evie Brennan, a homeschool graduate and homeschool mom.

It sailed through the Wyoming legislature, passing the Wyoming House in January by a 54-6 vote, and passing the Wyoming Senate in a similarly lopsided 28-2 vote. Wyoming is now the 12th state in the nation—and the first to do so via legislation—to have no requirements that homeschool families notify the government, check in with the government, or otherwise answer to the government in order to educate their children at home.

It is the best of times—Freedom is on the move! But it is also the worst of times.

Earlier this year, HSLDA and our friends at Home Educators Association of Virginia (HEAV) and in the Virginia homeschool community fought to protect homeschool freedom in the state. Senate Bill 1031 was championed by Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), the pro-authoritarian, pro-government control organization. The bill would have eliminated the religious exemption, which is the second most popular way Virginia families homeschool their children, including many of our team here at HSLDA.

Virginia’s religious exemption option for home education was introduced by Virginia’s first Black governor, Doug Wilder, when he served in the Virginia Senate, soon after the US Supreme Court issued the landmark parental-rights decision in Wisconsin v. Yoder. The religious exemption has remained virtually unchanged since it became law in 1976.

S.B. 1031 represented one of the boldest attempts to roll back homeschool freedom that we have seen in Virginia in recent memory. Numerous CRHE staff and volunteers testified in support of S.B. 1031, but Virginia homeschooling families stood together, flooding Richmond with calls, emails, and personal visits.

HSLDA Director of Legal and Legislative Advocacy Scott Woodruff was in Richmond multiple times, working against this bill and joining our friends at HEAV and in the Virginia homeschool community in testifying against the bill. Governor Glenn Youngkin and Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears agreed with homeschoolers, and S.B. 1031 was defeated in a 13-2 bipartisan vote in committee.

Virginia is not the only state where homeschooling faces legislative challenges this year. On February 6, H.B. 2827 was introduced in the Illinois House of Representatives. Illinois homeschoolers have some of the most freedom in the nation, thanks to the landmark 1950 decision by the Illinois Supreme Court in People v. Levisen, but H.B. 2827 seeks to reverse that. The bill would establish significant regulations and provide a framework for future, even more draconian restrictions on homeschooling.

As of today, H.B. 2827 has not yet been scheduled for a committee hearing, but CRHE is urging legislators to pass it into law, and co-sponsors are joining. We have our work cut out for us to preserve home education freedom in Illinois.

And so, it is truly the best of times and the worst of times. But sometimes when it seems like the winter of despair, the spring of hope is just out of sight. I want to share with you a story from Wyoming that illustrates this. 

As our team was working with our legislative allies and Homeschool Wyoming to pass H.B. 46 into law, we knew that our chances were very good in the Wyoming House, but would be more difficult in the Wyoming Senate. H.B. 46 cleared the House Education Committee 8-1 and then sailed through the House.

When it was scheduled for the Senate Education Committee hearing on February 19, HSLDA Senior Counsel Will Estrada flew out to Cheyenne to join Brenna Lowry and her team with Homeschool Wyoming in testifying in favor of the bill. They braved a significant snowstorm to make it to the 8 a.m. hearing.

After talking with Senator Brennan—who as we mentioned, is a homeschool graduate and homeschool mom—they felt cautiously optimistic that H.B. 46 would pass the Wyoming Senate Education Committee by a 3-2 vote. But then things took a turn for the worse, as in, “It was the worst of times.” One senator we were counting on was not present.

Our updated count put us at a 2-2 tie, which would have meant the end of the road for H.B. 46. But then God intervened. Parent after parent got up to testify in support of H.B. 46. As it turned out, one mom who testified had spent a significant amount of time helping the family of one of the senators on the Senate Education Committee. They exchanged conversation and pleasantries, and the senator sat up with interest as this mom spoke in favor of H.B. 46.

A few minutes later, something none of us expected happened. The Senate Education Committee voted unanimously in support of H.B. 46.