A Homeschool Mother's Plea

A letter from a homeschool family: An Election Warning! This week I have been in the Dallas/Fort Worth area at several events. THSC PAC has been trying to get home school families involved in campaigns for Texas house candidates that have been endorsed by THSC PAC because of their support for parental rights and home school freedom. The results have not been encouraging. We have seen small groups of home school students and families at these events, while we had almost eighty families at a meeting to discuss cities adopting daytime curfews for the purpose of enforcing the compulsory attendance laws. The discussion of the daytime curfews, which have already been adopted by two cities, included potential violations of home school families' freedom and how to defeat these measures or reverse the decisions of these city councils. Unfortunately this scenario is all too familiar. Home school families who believe they are too busy to be involved in campaigns and don't have time to vote may find their freedom threatened or actually taken away. Then they must desperately try to find out after the fact how to keep their freedom. I was asked last night what the greatest threat to our home school freedom in Texas is. My response was apathy. Too often we are too busy to be involved until it's too late. Texas home school families are facing the potential of the same kind of threat at the state level. Democratic voters are flush with excitement of the opportunity not only to elect a President and veto-proof majority in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives but also to have the potential to take control of the Texas House. Why should that matter to home schoolers? It matters because the Democratic Party supports the position of the National Education Association (NEA) that home schooling should be regulated at the same level as public schools. If they take control of the Texas House (which only requires that they win five seats), they will set the agenda for the coming legislative session. Let me explain what that could mean. Prior to the Republican takeover of the Texas House, we had pushed for the passage of a law to require state colleges and universities to treat home school graduates the same as public high school graduates for college admission. While that seems like a common sense measure to us, the Democratic chairman of the House Higher Education Committee would not even allow us to have a hearing on that bill, much less a vote. When Republicans took control in 2002, a new chairman not only allowed a hearing but also enthusiastically supported the measure, and it became law. This is indicative of the kind of opposition our legislative agenda of parental rights and home school freedom could face if Democrats take control of the Texas House. It could be worse. Democratic legislators in other states have filed bills to require regulation of home schooling, and it could happen in Texas as well. The time to be proactive in the protection of our freedoms is now! Early voting is going on now, and voter turnout will make the difference in many of these races. I am pleading with you not to ignore the potential threat to our freedom! Please go to the THSC PAC Web site, find out which candidates are supportive of home school freedom, and vote NOW. Get your friends and family members to vote as well. Please consider taking some time these next two weeks to work for some of these candidates. Many of these races are very close and will be decided not by money but by volunteers who walk-door-to door or make phone calls. You could make the difference between victory and defeat for some of these candidates, and they could make the difference between us working to expand our freedom in Texas and being on the defensive to defend it. Please pray for these elections and do what you can to make a difference. It would be very disheartening to wake up the day after the election and see that only a few votes could have made a difference for our freedom. A few hundred home school families could turn defeat into victory in campaigns, and those legislators could make the votes we need next session.