In Focus: The Uncompromising Lobby Blocking Laws to Protect Homeschooled Kids
Part 5 of Capitol Dispatch's ongoing 'In Focus' series on Homeschool Regulation
Across the country, a powerful network of homeschool advocacy groups utilize a well-worn playbook to defeat oversight of an often-hidden population of children: mobilize families to project non-negotiable opposition. The strategy has successfully blocked even modest laws intended to ensure students are safe and learning.
This absolute opposition to regulation was evident last May when families convened at the Capitol to protest an informational hearing on Connecticut’s absence of state oversight. Legislators organized the review following the shocking discovery of a Waterbury man held captive for decades after being withdrawn for homeschooling in the fourth grade.
The turnout was organized in part by a network of homeschool advocacy groups, including The Education Association of Christian Homeschoolers (TEACH CT), which sent its members an urgently worded “call to action.” The call provided specific talking points for families to deliver to state legislators. Their message was uncompromising.
“We reject any form of homeschool regulation. Period. Nothing to discuss,” TEACH CT instructed its members to tell Connecticut legislators.
“If we find that you voted yes on any form of homeschool regulation, even if tucked into another bill, we WILL make sure you are voted out of office. No excuses,” the group’s talking points read.
TEACH-CT’s hardline stance against any form of oversight mirrors a familiar pattern seen in legislative battles across the country. Often, these debates involve the lobbying efforts of the Home School Legal Defense Association.
The HSLDA is a Virginia-based group founded by Baptist minister and attorney Michael Farris that, according to a 2015 ProPublica report, has involved itself in “virtually all” legislative efforts to regulate homeschooling over the preceding 20 years.
Farris has been an outspoken critic of same-sex marriage (he once wrote, “The only way that we can stop same-sex marriage from infecting every state in the nation is to amend the U.S. Constitution.”) abortion rights, and public schools (according to the New York Times, Farris has called public schools a “godless monstrosity,” “values-indoctrination centers” and “a multibillion-dollar inculcation machine.”).
ProPublica found that HSLDA’s efforts have successfully “doomed” proposed homeschool bills or rolled back oversight in states around the country. The group’s approach typically involves mobilizing large groups of people to express uncompromising opposition to any oversight.
“Somebody who wants to file a bill, they should expect to hear from every homeschooler in their state,” Farris said, according to ProPublica.
The rigidity of this advocacy often stifles any attempt at legislative compromise. ProPublica detailed how former Arkansas State Representative David Cook sought common ground with advocates on a 2009 bill that would have required parents to obtain approval from local education officials before withdrawing their children from school.
“They told me the only legislation they wanted was what Alaska had, which was nothing,” Cook told ProPublica.
The group’s aggressive and uncompromising approach led Last Week Tonight host John Oliver to compare the HSLDA to the National Rifle Association in a 2023 segment on homeschooling.
“It starts to feel like the HSLDA is basically the homeschooling equivalent of the NRA: an extremely powerful organization that -- while it represents a large number of people -- pursues an outer-most fringe version of their agenda,” Oliver said.
While that agenda may dominate the homeschool regulation debate, other voices advocate for oversight. During last May’s informational hearing before Connecticut legislators, Beau Triba, a member of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, recounted a difficult homeschooling experience and expressed optimism that oversight may spare future students similar hardships.
“Right now, Connecticut trails behind other states in its protections but it doesn’t have to stay that way,” Triba said. “Common sense homeschool oversight protects children’s rights to safety and an education while also preserving what is good about homeschooling.”
By Hugh McQuaid
Check out our previous entries in Capitol Dispatch’s ongoing ‘In Focus’ series on Homeschool Regulation.
-Part 1: CT Has Among the Weakest Homeschool Oversight in New England
-Part 2: How School Employees Help Alert Authorities to Child Abuse
-Part 3: High Rate of DCF Involvement Found Among Homeschooled CT Children
-Part 4: Tragic Examples of Connecticut’s Homeschooling Oversight Failures