‘Land of Lincoln’ Looks to Bully Homeschool Families
Homeschool families in Illinois are currently pushing back on a bill that threatens their parental autonomy and rights.
As currently proposed, the “Homeschool Act” or HB 2827, requires parents who want to educate their children outside of the traditional system to sign a “homeschool declaration form” – or face jail time. It would also demand that parents doing the teaching have a high school diploma or GED. State officials would reserve the right to inspect and critique curriculum.
The “Land of Lincoln” is one of a dozen states known for steering clear of any meddling with homeschool families. While 38 other states do require parents to sign a declaration to educate in their homes, none of them have criminalized those who do not. Illinois would be the first.
Those behind the bill claim oversight is necessary to ensure the proper education and personal protection of the state’s students.
“It is an empirical reality that abuse and neglect occurs in homeschool settings, and that abusive caregivers can deliberately exploit the cover of homeschooling to isolate children — not educate them,” claimed Jonah Stewart, interim executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CFRHE).
“While research has yet to settle the question in terms of rates of abuse by school status, all children deserve protections from abuse,” he added.
There is actually no evidence that children being homeschooled are at any elevated risk of abuse.
And if homeschooling is so detrimental to a student’s academic success, why do studies show that those who are educated at home regularly achieve higher scores and outperform their traditionally schooled counterparts?
The Illinois legislation is either an ignorant attempt to solve a problem that doesn’t exist or an aggressive power grab by government officials to control what students, who are otherwise outside their reach, are being taught.
Illinois state Representative Travis Weaver strongly opposes the onerous and invasive legislation.
“My colleagues on the other side of the aisle that would say homeschooling is growing, and that’s how we need to regulate it. I totally reject that,” Weaver said. “That’s a false, misnomer of a lot of Illinois politicians that when things are good, it’s time for the government to step in. Homeschooling is a massive success.”
While educating children in the home dates back thousands of years, the modern-day movement took off in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In fact, Focus on the Family founder Dr. James Dobson is often credited for popularizing and normalizing the practice in Christian families by talking with advocates for it on the Focus daily radio program.
Like many Christian parents then and now, Dr. Dobson believed that mothers and fathers were best equipped to teach their children, and also equipped to pass along the values and principles of their faith, especially if a local school system was hostile to fundamental truths being shared in the home.
Homeschooling exploded during the COVID pandemic, and while many of those children have returned to traditional classrooms, it’s estimated that 3.7 million students (or 6.7%) are currently being educated at home.
Will Estrada, who serves as senior counsel with the Home School Legal Defense Association, calls the Illinois legislation a form of harassment.
“Our single goal is to defeat this bill,” Estrada told National Review.
“It would be the first state where homeschool freedom has gone backwards. It would disproportionately harm vulnerable communities, low-income families, single parents who are homeschooling their children, minority communities.”
Because of Illinois’ liberal legislature, opponents of the bill face an uphill climb to defeat it. But last month, over 8,000 homeschool supporters descended on the state capitol to protest the proposal. Despite the avalanche of opposition, HB 2827 was voted out of committee by an 8-4 margin.
Abraham Lincoln, who lived in Illinois for 31 years beginning in 1830 right up until the presidency, attended formal school for only a year. The rest of his education was self-directed and based in the home. It’s a shame that many of the same legislators who rightly hail the 16th president are failing to acknowledge that his greatness was fueled by the very type of education they now seem to want to discourage and make more difficult for families and their children.
