Senate Bill 412 - Help or Hindrance?

Fellow Heir Members -

(Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 13:56:05 -0500)

SB 412 will be discussed in a Senate Committee meeting today, Feb. 26th at
3:00 PM. Earlier today Ken Patterson sent an alert asking for homeschoolers
to support this bill, to call senators who might be in opposition, and to
go to the Capitol today if available. The alert also stated that Tim Echols
plans a press conference at 2:45 today to call for support of this bill.
Many of us, however, have some concerns about this bill. For your
information, these concerns are expressed below in the following copy of a
letter that Leon McGinnis, Chair of Home Education Information Resource
sent to Senator Boshears. Other authors listed for the bill are Balfour at
ss9balfour@aol.com and Ralston.

Sincerely,
Cindy Sewell
Treasurer,
Home Education Information Resource
info@heir.org

From Leon F. McGinnis -
(February 26, 1998 - Around 7:00am)

Dear Senator Boshears:
On behalf of homeschoolers in GA, I applaud your effort to protect the
rights of homeschooling parents. There are agencies, such as the Board of
Regents, that we have been talking to where more legal support might be
needed. However, I am concerned about the language of SB412, specifically,
that it opens the door for such state
agencies to insist that homeschoolers do exactly the same as public
schools. Such an interpretation of the bill would effectively destroy many
home study programs, which, while very successful in educating children,
bear almost no resemblance to a traditional "school room."

I urge you to add some language to the bill that would protect the
diversity of home study programs by spelling out that different methods of
accomplishing educational goals are acceptable, and that the requirements
of state agencies should focus on results, not method. For example, my
concerns would be met by replacing paragraph (b) by the following:

(b) State agencies establishing qualifications and requirements for any
purposes, including purposes of employment and the granting of
benefits and entitlements shall not specify such qualifications and
requirements in a manner that excludes graduates of home study
programs or non-accredited private schools, or imposes greater
requirements upon them than upon graduates of accredited public
or private schools.

(c) The qualifications and requirements for graduates of home
study programs and non-accredited private schools shall be
specified in a manner that does not dictate the method, content,
curriculum, materials, tests, or methods of education in the
home study program or non-accredited private school.

Thank you again for your efforts on behalf of GA homeschoolers.

Leon McGinnis
Chair
Home Education Information Resource

From: Ken Patterson ghea@mindspring.com
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 98 22:39:51 -0500 (10:39pm, EST)

Senate Bill 412 has been favorably passed out of sub-committee and will
be heard by the full education committee on Thursday at 3:00. This is
Senator Boshears' bill that could go a long way toward eliminating the
requirement for home schoolers to take SAT II tests to enter Georgia
State Colleges. The bill would prohibit adding requirements for home
schoolers that are not required of public school students.

Tim Echols of TeenPact has scheduled a press conference in the Rotunda
for Thursday at 2:45 just before the committee meeting. The bill has a
fair chance of being passed out of committee. Any home school parents
that are available should try to attend the press conference and
committee meeting. The Senators that may vote against this bill should be
called prior to the meeting. The calls should come from their district:

Senator Marable - 52nd district, Floyd Co., Rome 404 656 5120
Senator Middleton - 50th district, Dawson, Habersham, Lumpkin, Rabun,
Stephens, Towns, Union, & White 404 656 5913
Senator Ragan - 11th district, Decator Co., Early, Grady, Miller,
Mitchell, Seminole, Thomas, 404 656 0083
Senator Scott - 36th district, Wendall Drive SE, Fulton Co. 404 656 0090
Senator Starr - 44th district, Clayton Co. (Forest Park) 404 656 7586