From parents in one blue state to another, California activists have warned Illinois families about a bill moving forward through the state legislature that will create more regulations and penalties for homeschooling parents. It’s the latest famous battle that deals with school choices, a problem with the campaign that President Donald Trump ran.
“In Illinois, California, Colorado, they’re all competing against each other. They’re coming after homeschooling like they’re coming after public school,” California parents’ rights activist Sonja Shaw said in a video posted on X on Wednesday. “They attack families, disenfranchise their parents’ rights and promote their radical agenda while our children fail to read, write and mathematics.”
The problem is the HB2827 homeschool law. This causes parents to charge a misdemeanor if they are unable to register their child on the “homeschool declaration form” with the nearest public school that they otherwise participate in. Otherwise, they could be considered a truancy and parents could face up to 30 days of prison where they would be fined.
The bill passed a massive hurdle for the Democratic-controlled House Education Committee in Wednesday’s partisan vote despite over 50,000 witnesses opposed and supporting only 1,000 people.
Illinois parents, lawmakers, alarms sound their alarm about the proposed homeschooling bill: “Direct attack on family members.”
House Bill 2827, which protested by hundreds of people known as the “Homeschool Act.” At the Illinois State Capitol. (Fox News)
California parents only opposed a similar bill that failed to leave the committee in 2018 from the state legislature committee, only after hearing three hours of testimony from their parents and their homeschoolers. Opponents say the Democratic-led bill required all homeschooling families in the state to comply with inadvertent home inspections after the Turpin family’s child abuse incident.
“This is calculated. This is how they do it. They increase it, slowly take control, and slowly control while the children are sitting down thinking that it will not affect them.” “All parents need to take part in this fight. If we don’t stand up together now, there’s nothing left to fight for our children in their future. Please get involved. Tell us. Please show up because our children are worth this fight.”
Caroline Leavitt vows to keep men out of girls’ locker rooms amidst the controversy at Illinois schools
Homeschooling families say they are under attack in Illinois. (istock via Getty Images)
Will Estrada, senior advisor to the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, told Fox News on Wednesday that the bill’s language was “left open-ended to allow unelected and unexplained bureaucrats to write a variety of regulations.”
“If this bill is passed to the law, it will expand further restrictions on homeschool and private school families in the future,” Estrada said after testifying at a hearing on Wednesday. “The homeschooler records show us that we do well academically, socially and emotionally, so why are we messing around with them? That’s the question. This bill is a solution for the problem.”
HHS’ Civil Rights Bureau found a main violating Title IX to allow biological men in women’s sports
Democrats say the bill will increase homeschooling oversight, including parts that require parents to pass on educational materials if the child is suspected of not being properly educated.
Democrat State Rep. Terra Costa Howard introduced the bill following the investigation story by Pro Pavluna. It has a left-leaning bias following nonpartisan news rating agency Allsides, entitled “A hands-off approach to homeschooling in Illinois puts children at risk.” The report included cases of abuse that were not noticed because the children were not present in school.
Conservatives in the Illinois Legislature, as seen here, opposed the bill. (istock)
However, opponents of the bill pushed back at the hearing that there was no correlation between homeschooling students who are at risk of abuse than students in the public school system.
“We believe this bill will help us leave parental freedom to protect abused and neglected children and decide how to best meet their children’s educational needs,” said Tanner Lovett, an opponent of the bill.
Click here to get the Fox News app
Illinois’ homeschool bill heads to the National House of Representatives for floor votes. Passing past the House and Senate, we land at the desk of Illinois Governor J.B. Pretzker.
The bill was handed over from the committee as President Trump is expected to sign an executive order to dismantle the federal department of education on Thursday.
Jamie Joseph is a US political reporter for Fox News Digital, covering transgender and cultural issues, the departments of education, health and welfare, and state legislative development.
Source link
