UPDATE ON SHB 2704

by the Christian Homeschool Network

SHB2704- An act relating to alternative learning programs. This bill has proved to be very controversial within the homeschool community. Some homeschool organizations support this bill due to the part-time and distance learning language. These are not issues to us since we do not encourage involvement with the public schools. We have other concerns which we will attempt to explain.

Our main concern is how these programs exploit homeschooling and tax dollars. This is why we opposed this bill and have worked to stop it.. Along the way, we made suggestions just in case it passed into law. We were able to suggest several changes, many of which were included in the amendments added by the senate committees. The Senate Ways and Means committee responded to some of our concerns by a striker amendment that would have put in place a study of the programs before passing any legislation. We had requested that a joint committee, called JLARC, investigate the programs and work with the State Auditors Office in working towards better legislation. We fully support these amendments, but not the bill.

Exploiting homeschooling:

Homeschooling has always been viewed as separate from the government school system. Many in the alternative learning programs (specifically the parent partnership programs) refer to themselves as homeschoolers, since most of the school work is done off-site. Alternative Learning Programs have been around for twenty plus years and has always included students working off-site. It was not until parent partnership programs started that anyone would have considered this homeschooling. Many sites insist on using the term homeschooling in name or literature, even though they know the difference. This has caused some confusion within the legislature, the media, and the homeschool community.

This is evident in the recent Seattle Times school guide, that listed homeschooling under public school programs. Actually, they listed parent partnership programs which they had confused as homeschooling under the home-based instruction law. Note, the editor had spoken with the State Superintendent’s Office and local school districts which worked with her on the language of this article.

Another way that homeschooling is exploited, is a school district can claim full funding and credit for the work done by the parent/child. By simply writing a student learning plan an alternative learning program can claim these students as full time students, even thought much of the teaching is done off-site by the parent.

A school district can claim full funding for a student who is on site as little as one hour a week. Usually the programs offer incentives to the parents, like $300 - $1500 stipend/allotment money that can be spent on private lessons, school supplies, equipment, memberships, etc. Since the average homeschoolers spends $500 per child, why so much money? Why is this not offered to other public school students.

We felt it was irresponsible to stand back and say nothing. As tax payers, citizens, and homeschool advocates we needed to take a stand against this abuse. We testified in the house and the senate and shared our concerns, our research and knowledge of these programs. Several other groups, such as WERG, Eagle Forum, CURE, and Family Academy joined us at the hearing to show their opposition of the bill. As a matter of fact at the senate hearing more sign in opposing the bill than supporting the bill.

What does this bill change?

With amendments, it would add more clarity between independent homeschooling and alternative learning programs. A school district would need to notify a parent in writing of the differences.

It would clarify part-time enrollment in the programs and the funding apportionments. Since only 9% of homeschoolers access the public school on a part-time basis and several sites already allow part-time attendance we did not feel this was a significant reason to support the bill. Keep in the mind, the goal of most education reformers and educrats is to bring all homeschooler under their umbrella.

The State Superintendent’s Office has complained that they need better rules to govern the alternative learning programs to reduce some of the abuses. Since they wrote this bill, why did they add only the bare bones? This gets us to the real reason they want this bill, looser regulation on the definition of a FTE (full time equivalent), and distance learning. This brings us full circle to the main issue of fiscal accountability and exploitation of homeschooling.

What is a contract? In this case it is a learning contract between the student and the program. This means a homeschool student could enroll with a school district under a distance learning program and be counted as a full-time public school student.. This would result in the loss of homeschool freedoms. One of our concerns with distance learning programs is the lack of accountability of the program, which is not even addressed by this bill.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee did not pass this bill out of committee because some of them share our concerns. We praise them for their wisdom. It is best to wait until the State Auditor is done with their audit, only than can we know what is the best solution for these programs.

The sponsor of this bill, representative Talcott, is currently trying to add this bill to the budget. Which could re-activate this bill. There are only days left in this session so please check our web site to keep updated on the status of this bill www.chnow.org.

Contact your legislators and encourage them to not add this bill to the budget.  Call 1-800-562-6000