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THSC Association

Reply to Melba Knowles

October 21, 2009

Ms. Melba Knowles

4212 W. Farmers Ave. #4

Amarillo, TX 79110

Ms. Knowles,

In response to your letter of October 6, we too support the premise that every child should be given the opportunity for an education that will enable them to succeed in life. However, we strongly disagree with your opposition to the Texas Supreme Court ruling in the Leeper decision and your opinion that it “gives every parent, however inept, irresponsible, or irrational they might be, the right to throw their children under the school bus instead of in it.”

Texas has a long history dating before statehood of not regulating or monitoring private schools.  The compulsory attendance statute first adopted in 1915 excludes private schools, which included then and today home schools.  In the early 1980s the Texas Education Agency (TEA) unilaterally violated this approach and ruled that home schools were not private schools and encouraged local school districts to prosecute families who were teaching their children regardless of the education those families were imparting to their children.  This action by the state agency with authority over only public education resulted in the prosecution of over 100 innocent families over the next few years.  Texas home school families responded with a lawsuit against TEA and school districts. The Texas Supreme Court upheld the lower court decision, which ruled that home schools are and have historically been private schools in Texas and since the Texas legislature had refused to regulate private and home schools, home school students are exempt from the compulsory attendance statute.

In spite of this clear and convincing legal victory, home schoolers in Texas continue to suffer harassment and intimidation by some school officials and social service workers who believe as, you do, that state should control which parents are allowed to teach their children and which should be denied that right.  This history of abuse of power by state and local officials is an important reason that the home school community in Texas strongly opposes giving the state any authority over private and home schools.

Numerous studies over the years continue to show that home school students do very well academically.  The National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI.org) cites volumes of evidence that home school students as a group score 20-30% above the national average. SAT and ACT test scores of home schoolers as a group are above the averages as well. In fact, studies that compare the test scores of home school students in states that are highly regulated as you suggest and states like Texas that have little regulation find insignificant differences.

You argue that because some home school students may not be achieving as they should, Texas should establish “a state assessment program … that would hold parents accountable or some standard certification required to demonstrate the ability of a parent to adequately educate a child … to protect innocent children from getting so little education it cripples them for life.” The assumption that you make is that the state can, as a result of oversight and regulation, ensure that “innocent children can be protected from getting so little education it cripples them for life.” This assumption is demonstrably incorrect. The state currently sets certification requirements for teachers in public schools and education standards for students in those schools. Yet students in many public schools in Texas are not receiving “sufficient education” in spite of the very requirements that you assert would ensure the successful education of every child.

We believe that most parents have the best interest of their child at heart and do what is best for them. The vast body of evidence showing the academic success of home schooling supports this premise. Our experience from the 1980s demonstrates that should the state adopt the regulation you suggest it will not ensure the successful education of every child but will result in the harassment of innocent home school families. In our opinion, state regulation of home schooling would not only be bad public policy it would be detrimental to home school families. Therefore, the home school community in Texas will vigorously oppose any effort to regulate home schools.

Sincerely,

Tim Lambert,