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Taking a Stand in Texas:

The Battle for Home School Freedom

A Documentary

A nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it.  Winston Churchill

Taking a Stand in Texas is a captivating documentary that depicts the hardships and struggles of Texas families in the early days of the home school movement.  The film describes home school pioneers’ battles, both in the courts and in the public arena, which ultimately led to legal victory and the freedom Texans now enjoy. Hear this story directly from the people who were there and who helped to make it happen.

Click here to see a clip of the documentary.

Own your own DVD for $20 and teach your children about the modern day battle for the freedom they now benefit from.  Order your copy now!  Call 888-200-4903 today!

You might also want to get the companion DVD, The Miracle in Texas ($20).

Shelby Sharpe, legal counsel for THSC Association and lead attorney in the Leeper v. Arlington ISD case (which clarified that home schooling in Texas is legal), shares his moving story of that saga, detailing God’s hand in the legal battle surrounding home schooling in Texas. As he shares the many ways that God directed and guided in the development of that legal case, he explains that though these events took place over ten years ago, he is still often overcome with emotion as he contemplates the divine provision and intervention that ultimately resulted in a unanimous decision by the Texas Supreme Court, moving the state of Texas from one of the most difficult states in which to homeschool into a small group of states that allow parents a great amount of freedom.

Unit Study: A Texas Home School History

Want to have a fun history class while teaching your children about some modern day history that directly impacts their lives?  There’s nothing like a little role-playing to help our students understand what the home schooling pioneers went through and what a special privilege it is to home school in Texas.

Executive Producers

Laurel Wilson, an independent filmmaker in Dallas, Texas, owns and operates Laurel Wilson Productions. Over the past twenty years, Ms. Wilson has produced and directed award-winning corporate and marketing programs, documentaries and broadcast television projects. She has won five prestigious Telly Awards and serves as the Vice President of the Dallas Producers Association. In her spare time she enjoys helping her home schooled nephew with his own film projects.

Tim Lambert, president of the Texas Home School Coalition, has been involved in home school leadership in Texas for over twenty years.  He and his wife Lyndsay taught their four now-grown children at home for sixteen years, graduating the last two in 2000. 

As the head of the state home school organization for the leading home school state in the country, he is recognized as an authority on home education issues in Texas.  In this capacity, he has testified before numerous Texas legislative

                             committees on issues related to home schooling. He often

deals with state government agencies, including the Texas Education Agency and Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, on home education issues and has served as an expert witness on home education in a number of court cases.  He has often addressed such conferences as the Texas Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers on the topic.

Tim holds a BA in political science from Texas Tech University and is active in the political arena, having served eight years as Republican National Committeeman for Texas.  He is committed to serving the home school community and protecting parents' right to choose the education of their children.    

Documentary Stars

Shelby Sharpe

Shelby Sharpe was the lead attorney in the Leeper v. Arlington class action suit, the landmark case that settled the question of home schools in Texas being private schools.  This case was heard at the District and Appellate court levels and by the Texas Supreme Court; it confirmed the freedoms that parents now enjoy in Texas, one of the best states in which people can home school.  (See the decisions.)

Shelby Sharpe is now the general legal counsel for THSC Association and is ready and able to respond to legal issues related to home education in the state of Texas.      

Virginia Birt Baker and her husband, Charles ("Ginny" and "Chet") taught their four children at home for fifteen years, from 1972 to 1987.  Ginny graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas with a Bachelor of Arts degree in interior design and a triple minor.  The Bakers have lived and homeschooled in four states, and all of their four children attended or graduated from college.

Known in home education circles as a modern "pioneer home schooling mom," Ginny Baker was the second home schooling mother in the nation, as far as is known, and the first in Texas. She has spoken at various home school seminars and other conferences in many states and at several national and regional home schooling conferences.  After many years of active involvement in the home schooling movement, both in the United States and abroad, Mrs. Baker and her husband are now semi-retired in rural Texas. They have sixteen grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, with two more on the way. Mrs. Baker continues to work with other researchers concerned with the events that continue to restructure education and transform our nation.

Dave Haigler, a judge who hears disability cases from Marshall, Texas to Monroe, Louisiana, has been a friend to home schoolers for over twenty years. During the period from 1982-1986, he defended about three dozen home school cases. Eventually he published a lawyer’s manual on home school defense. In 1995, he was selected as a member of Who’s Who in Executives and Professionals.

Judge Haigler was sworn in as a judge in April, 2006. He

and his wife, Becky, have four grown children and three grandchildren. They homeschooled their two youngest children for four years.

Kirk and Beverly McCord are Christian attorneys who have been involved in the Texas home school movement since 1982, when they began home schooling their four children. With no home school curricula at the time and a widespread assumption that home schooling was illegal, the McCords took up the double challenge of equipping families to home school and defending their right to do so.

The McCords lobbied the Texas legislature and appeared on radio and television in support of home schooling. They traveled the state training new home schoolers. Kirk defended home school families taken to court and testified as an expert witness in the landmark Leeper vs. Arlington ISD case. The McCords published the first home school newsletter and handbook for Texas. They helped found their local support group and the Texas Home School Coalition.

Today they are best known for the Home School Book Fair in Arlington, Texas, which their family ministry has sponsored every year since its inception in 1985. More than 30,000 families have attended this event over the years.

    Gary and Cheryl Leeper            Wade and Jessica Hulcy