Home Education Honored in Georgia

Governor Miller signs HB 1450, declaring the first week of February each year to be Home Education Week. Pictured from left to right are Sen. Terrell Starr (D-Forest Park), Cindy Sewell (Home Education Information Resource), Veronica Bowen (Harvest Home Educators), Sheila and Dennis Bayne - (Dekalb Christian Home Educators), Edith Finegold (Grant Park Homeschool Group), Ann Cline (LIFE Christian Home Educators), Hope Cline, Rep. Hinson Mosley (D-Jesup), Governor Miller, Kathy, Tommy, Jonathan, and Steve Canavan (Eagle's Nest Christian Homeschool Association), Joseph Echols, Janel Reid (aide to Rep. Tommy Smith), Leon McGinnis (Home Education Information Resource), Rep. Tommy Smith (D-Alma, sponsor of the bill), Ken and Mary Jo Patterson (Georgia Home Education Association), Tim Echols (Family Network Resource), Rep. James Mills (R-Gainesville)

To declare the first week in February of each year as "Home Education Week" in Georgia, HB1450 was passed by the 1997-1998 General Assembly and signed by Governor Zel Miller on 4/20/98:

• WHEREAS, the State of Georgia is committed to excellence in education; and
• WHEREAS, the State of Georgia recognizes the importance of family participation and parental choice in that pursuit of excellence; and
• WHEREAS, teaching children at home was the predominant form of education during most of America's early years; and
• WHEREAS, most children in the first two centuries of America's history received their pre-college training at home, and our young country enjoyed an extremely high literacy rate on its way to becoming the most educated on earth; and
• WHEREAS, many notable Americans were the product of home education, including George and Martha Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Abigail and John Quincy Adams, Thomas Edison, Helen Keller, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Douglas MacArthur, Pearl S. Buck, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Patrick Henry, John Marshall, Abraham Lincoln, Booker T. Washington, and Woodrow Wilson; and
• WHEREAS, the State of Georgia recognizes the critical importance of the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing and type of education for their children; and
• WHEREAS, the State of Georgia recognizes in its Official Code home education as a legitimate and viable educational alternative; and
• WHEREAS, home education parents, like all parents, have the final authority over and responsibility for the care and upbringing of their children as affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States; and
• WHEREAS, studies confirm that children who are educated at home exhibit self-confidence and good citizenship and are fully prepared academically to meet the challenges of today's society; and
• WHEREAS, Georgia home educators and home instructed students should be recognized and celebrated for their efforts to improve the quality of education

"The first week in February of each year is declared to be 'Home Education Week' in Georgia."

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