Wednesday, January 6, 2010

New Hampshire Attacks Home Schooling

New Hampshire lawmakers are set to vote on landmark legislation that would negatively affect home schoolers in the Granite State.

An amendment to New Hampshire House Bill 368 is set for a vote today. If the amendment passes, it will start the ball rolling on some of the strictest home school regulations in America. Although New Hampshire lacks the ability to kill bills in committee, the House Education Committee has recommended voting down the bill.

Mike Donnelly, staff attorney with the Home School Legal Defense Association, has described the measure as "the most anti-home school legislation ever conceived" in New Hampshire. He explains the dangers of the amendment that is up for a vote.

"It would require both a portfolio evaluation and standardized testing every year for every student," he notes. "Right now you have a choice in New Hampshire among a variety of different ways that you can satisfy an annual assessment requirement.

"It would also require that scores of the standardized test be sent to the [New Hampshire] Department of Education, something that isn't being done now," he adds. "And also, the Department of Education would be granted sweeping new regulatory powers under this law to define a variety of things."

The last thing home educators and taxpayers need, the attorney concludes, is "another bureaucracy wasting their time and money."

Donnelly urges concerned citizens to voice their opposition to H.B. 368 in a planned demonstration being held at the state capitol in Concord this morning. If the bill passes the State House, it will still need to pass the Senate.

From here.

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