I'm a homeschooling mom of 2 great kids. I've been married to my wonderful husband since 1997. I love to crochet, knit, and digi scrap. So, you never know what I might post about!
Talk about scary!! 78(R) SB 586 - Introduced version - Bill Text I wrote a letter to Senator Barrientos before I read the bill for myself. It seems to answer all of my questions! Here's the letter I sent:
Honorable Senator Barrientos:
Thank you for your concern for public school dropouts. However,
registering law-abiding homeschoolers is not the solution. More
serious enforcement of the existing truancy laws is all that is
necessary. We ask you to withdraw S.B. 586 and keep homeschooling in
Texas free. Punishing private schools (for that is what
homeschoolers are) for the actions of public schools is no way to
solve misrepresentation of dropout data or truancy. If public school
officials are falsifying documents, it should be the public school
officials who pay for those actions.
I homeschool my 4-year-old daughter. If this bill passes and I fail
to register her as a homeschool student, will she be considered
truant? How about when she's 5 years old, or 6, or 10, or 16? Even
though she's never stepped foot inside a public school, will she then
be considered truant if she isn't registered as a homeschooler? Will
my husband and I go to jail? Will she be removed from our home? If
so, how will this help the TEA track public school dropouts? The
above scenerio is exactly what would happen if this bill were to
pass.
I hope you can see that it is very wrong to require registration of
homeschoolers in order to fix the error in the public schools of
misrepresentation of data.
