Meeting with Steve White?

Hi, everyone! I've been corresponding w/ Steve White a bit and asked him if he'd come and speak to our group to share some of his expertise from 20 years of working for homeschooling freedoms. I'd like to know what we can do to foster a better understanding of homeschooling among the legislators and to get rid of the stereotype that homeschoolers are always political conservatives.

Anyone else interested? What would you like to hear him discuss? Let me know. Here's his email to me about this.
cherilyn


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Steve White
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 21:32:22 -0700


Hi Cherilyn,

Thanks for your letter.

(This is from a previous email I sent him.)
>My next question is, how can we prevent this dance from going on every
>two years? As a person who generally votes Democrat, I feel a
>responsibility be an example to the legislators of how people can get
>beyond partisanship and work side by side on an issue. How can I talk
>to the progessive legislators to let them know that homeschooling
>isn't a partisan and/or religious issue?

The greatest thing we do is let them judge us by the fruit. Sen Ryan
assembled a committee that he planned on their support. For many reasons,
the committee turned on him. Sen Kitzenburg, a Republican is not a fan of
homeschools. He is a teacher and would have supported the bill. So it does
cross lines. But the chair put Sen Kit on the committee to vote for the
bill. There are those that are against the freedoms we have. Typically the
Ed committee is mainly teachers. And those in the public sector are
sometimes resentful of the success of homeschools.
>
>Would you be willing to come and speak to our homeschool group in the
>future to educate us on how the system works and how we can be
>proactive within it?
>

I would welcome the opportunity to speak to your group. Set up a time and
place and let's see if what the calendar looks like.

>Thanks again for all you've done and all you continue to do.

Thank you for all your dialog. I have enjoyed it greatly.

Steve

insist on answers

Hey, everyone!
This is a letter I sent to Bob Hawks and the other members of the committee (I altered it for them) concerning SB 291 after much thought. I felt like all of the discussions we were having were spinning in circles. We knew the issues and the data, but we were trying to figure out how to convince the senators to see it our way.

I decided to change the paradigm. If they're saying that the system is broken, then they need
to demonstrate that their "solutions" are really effective. I can't find any evidence that increased regulations improves safety or education, so I decided to ask them to show me why legislation is necessary--using research.

cherilyn

Bob,

Thanks for your email. and your continued interest in children's education.

I would like to suggest that the questions before you concerning SB 291 are the following.

1. Are the regulations proposed in SB 291 really going to improve home schoolers' educations? The bill in its present form is far too extreme, and it is based on assumptions. For example, it appears that there is a belief that state assessments will help prevent child abuse, which is a leap of logic.

2. Is there proof that increased home school regulations increase the quality of home schoolers' educations? I am seeing evidence that there is no significant difference in test scores when comparing home schooled children from highly regulated states with home schooled children from minimally regulated states.

3. It seems that several senators are committed to the idea that more "parent accountability" is needed for home schoolers' education. How is the State going accurately assess these children, who are learning under a wonderfully diverse array of educational tools and philosophies?

4. How are the results of any proposed home schooling assessments going to be used? How will the State determine if a child's education is substandard or if the child is just a poor test-taker?

5. Are home schooling parents going to be held more accountable for any perceived problems with their children's education than teachers or parents in the public schools are for those children's education? In other words, we don't insist that public school children with low test scores should be removed from the public schools, so why would we legislate that home schooled children with low test scores be removed from home schooling situations?

6. Are the horror stories of abuse in the home schooling environment truly taking place in a home school environment? This may seem like a silly question, but the story of abuse that Senator Ryan put forth two years ago to support his case for standardized testing legislation did not involve a home schooled child. The girl was in public school, and, if I heard the story correctly, the schools didn't discover the abusive situation, an animal control officer did.

I would suggest that you look carefully to see if other cases being called home school abuse involved children who were actually registered as home schoolers with their county school district. If they weren't, then I believe we have cases where abusive parents, when confronted, are attempting to hide behind home schooling laws.

One detail jumped out at me as I reviewed child abuse cases that the media connected to home schooling. In many of the cases, the family involved was already being monitored by an agency (foster care, public schools, department of corrections, mental health services) which had failed to pick up on the abuse. This points to failures of systems that support people on the margins of society, not a need for home schooling legislation.

I would propose that before the members Education Committee amend SB 291 and/or submit similar legislation, additional study needs to be done. If the current system is going to be changed, there needs to be proof that it will produce the intended outcomes (improved education and reduced child abuse).

I fully realize that your spare time is at a premium right now, but an excellent, thorough, quick study of the ins and outs home schooling (including legal issues) is the book Family Matters: Why Home Schooling Makes Sense by David Guterson.

I am in full support of informed, effective legislation concerning home schooling. If there is evidence that certain legislation results in a higher quality education and fewer cases of child abuse in the home schooling community, I will be glad to see that instituted in Montana.

Please be aware that I cannot find any research that shows that regulation improves children's safety and education. However, I am finding an impressive body of work from many different studies and sources that show that home schooling, from every angle, provides a very high quality education.

Thanks again for all of the time and energy you have invested in this issue.

Cherilyn