A Positive Day at the General Assembly: VaHomeschoolers' Lobbying on HJ 92 and Updates on Other Bills
By Parrish Mort
VaHomeschoolers Executive Director
Acting Director of Government Affairs
Yesterday morning Scott Price, VaHomeschoolers' lobbyist, and Parrish Mort, Executive Director and Government Affairs Director, were walking the floors of the General Assembly by 7:30 a.m.
VaHomeschoolers Meeting with Del. Rust
VaHomeschoolers' met first with Delegate Thomas Rust, patron of HJ92, the religious exemption study. They hoped to help Del. Rust understand why this bill was unnecessary and to provide him with answers to the questions he posed in the bill.
Del. Rust began the meeting by re-iterating that his intention was not to harm or eliminate the RE. VaHomeschoolers explained that the wording of the bill naturally led to a conclusion counter to his statement: the bill appears to be intended to lead to the imposition of more government regulations which would ultimately result in the dissolution of religious exemption.
VaHomeschoolers stated that there was no need for a study as we already knew the answers to the questions in HJ92 and would be happy to provide them. The Delegate’s response was that he did not know them and did not want to hear the answers from homeschoolers, but from an official authority such as the Virginia Department of Education.
VaHomeschoolers persisted, explaining that Virginia's RE has never allowed for the monitoring of educational progress and that by asking for a study of educational progress, it appeared the Delegate was hoping for a change in this area. We asked what it was he was hoping for. He said he did expect that a recommendation of the study would be for some accountability, which he feels is needed.
VaHomeschoolers emphasized that in our view, adding oversight or accountability would equate to eliminating the religious exemption, because it would remove the distinction between the RE and the home instruction statute. This would clearly infringe on the religious rights of families.
To demonstrate a specific way in which the home instruction statute would not work for some RE families, VaHomeschoolers mentioned the Amish community's practice of providing formal education only through the eighth grade (followed by apprenticeships). As part of the compulsory attendance code, the home instruction statute requires education through the 18th birthday. Amish belief and practice would clearly be in conflict with this law.
Del. Rust’s response was a bit shocking. He assured VaHomeschoolers that the Amish would not be impacted by any changes because the Amish religion is a “real” religion, which would be provided for in law. VaHomeschoolers could only interpret this to mean that Del. Rust believes it is the job of the state to determine which religions are “real.”
In the end, Del. Rust stated that he would not be willing to withdraw or amend his bill.
Positive Meetings with Rules Committee members and the Speaker of the House
VaHomeschoolers spent the next hour meeting with other Delegates including some members (or their aides) of the House Rules committee. Here we found understanding of the need for religious exemption and a view that HJ92 is not necessary.
Our most encouraging meeting of the morning was our audience with the Speaker of the House, William Howell. It is difficult to see the Speaker without a prior appointment scheduled many days in advance, so VaHomeschoolers left talking points with the Speaker’s Executive Secretary, who shared them with him and then called to say the Speaker would see us. Speaker Howell was welcoming to us and expressed agreement with VaHomeschoolers' talking points regarding HJ 92. We shared that we knew he would be hearing from the other homeschooling associations in Virginia, which also oppose the bill.
The Speaker was also able to tell us that the bill will be referred to the Subcommittee on Studies and that the soonest it might come before the full Rules committee would be a week from Friday. (January 24 or later)
After visiting many key members of the House Rules committee, as well as the Speaker of the House, VaHomeschoolers is optimistic about the possibility of the bill dying in committee. We realize that it is never over until the vote is taken so will be present to testify against the bill in subcommittee and, if necessary, in committee.
Other Visits
VaHomeschoolers met with Del. Richard Bell's aide regarding his bill HB 221, dealing with children's residential facilities. We presented our talking points detailing the problems with the bill and also provided substitute language that would resolve the issues. Del. Bell's aide was very receptive to our concerns and appreciative of our proposed language, and said that she will get back to us after sharing it with the Delegate. We are hopeful that appropriate substitute language, whether ours or not, will be found to suit all parties involved.
Del. Rob Bell, the many-year patron of the homeschool sports access ("Tebow") bills, chatted with us in his new corner office. What a view! We all agreed that there is renewed hope that this might be the year the bill (HB 63) reaches the Senate floor, since some changes will be occurring in the make-up of the Senate Education committee. He said that it was his understanding that Governor McAuliffe does not currently have a position on homeschool sports access so VaHomeschoolers intends to share our research and talking points with the Governor’s office.
Finally, we also made a courtesy call to Del. David Ramadan’s office to thank him for his support through co-patronage of HB63 and his patronage of HB239, a homeschool tax credit bill.
The General Assembly makes for early mornings and long days, but both Scott Price and Parrish Mort felt yesterday was a very productive and positive day for VaHomeschoolers and Virginia's homeschooling families.
