Our Response to the Make Homeschool Safe Act
Our Legislative session may be over for 2024, but this summer, we at Missouri Homeschool Alliance have been hard at work behind the scenes. One way in particular that we have been working hard this summer to ensure homeschool freedom for all Missouri families is that we are continuing to monitor upcoming potential state and federal legislation. We must remain ever vigilant to protect our rights as homeschoolers. In our quest to stay one step ahead of those who would seek to encroach on our rights, MHA has discovered potential legislation that many special interest groups are lobbying to bring to every state, including Missouri.
One such group is called the Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE). CRHE is a special interest group with a stated mission to protect homeschooled children from “extremists”. In their own words:
”For decades, Christian fundamentalists in the United States have worked to enact their regressive ideas about gender and race by using homeschooling to isolate and abuse their own children. Now, having honed their tactics, they are moving on to enact those ideas on society as a whole. As homeschool alumni who were raised in these regressive systems and persecuted for marginalized identities, we at the Coalition for Responsible Home Education want to share our deep understanding of parental-rights extremists. Our goal is to provide you – journalists, advocates, and leaders focused on children’s rights and related issues – with the background information and language needed to effectively understand and strategize against them.”
CRHE has published a document intended to be a guide for state lawmakers across the country to help them craft their proposed legislation, titled The Make Homeschool Safe Act. The Make Homeschool Safe Act, despite its seemingly innocuous name, seeks to usurp parents’ influence in the lives of their children. This act includes many provisions that would actually strip parental rights in almost all areas of a home educated child’s life. The Make Homeschool Safe Act seeks to require annual registration of all homeschool students with their local school district, to prescribe minimum qualifications for homeschool parents, to mandate the subjects taught and method of instruction, and to require yearly evaluations of student performance by outsiders. It advocates for forced enrollment in public school if a student isn’t meeting pre-determined standards, and even mandates immunizations and yearly health screenings. The act goes on further to detail the manner in which a parent may be disqualified from homeschooling their child for accusations of abuse or neglect, even if an abuse or neglect investigation ultimately finds those accusations are unfounded. The act ultimately places the care and supervision of a child in the hands of the State and imposes eerily similar restrictions upon homeschool students that are forced upon students in a public school.
Of course, the changes to homeschool law for which CRHE advocates are, in reality, the antithesis to responsible home education. Most homeschooled children, as we know, grow up in loving homes and thrive both academically and socially. A cursory reading of the CRHE website shows that these activists have a political agenda that seeks to use the extreme outlying cases to justify increasing the role of government in all homeschool families lives. We at MHA value freedom and autonomy and are adamantly opposed to increased regulations for homeschool families in Missouri.
Missouri Homeschool Alliance is in high gear, watching and ready. We are meeting with candidates during this election season and educating them about homeschool issues, as well as maintaining relationships with incumbent legislators. Our goal is to help each of them understand why legislation such as this is anti-freedom, anti-parental rights, anti-child rights, and bad for Missouri.
What can you do now?
Pray.
As your Christian State organization, we prioritize prayer for homeschoolers in our state, and we humbly invite you to join us. Pray that as this school year begins and more and more parents are feeling the call from the Lord to remove their children from the government school system, they will be surrounded by a supportive community, no matter where they live in the state. Pray that families will be strengthened in their resolve to create a loving, enriching, educational environment for their children. Pray for family relationships, marriages, relationships between homeschool parents and their children, and relationships between siblings. Pray for co-op teachers and support group leaders, that they will be encouraged and excited as the Lord gives them fresh ideas for the coming year. And pray that righteous men and women of God will be elected to office at every level of government.
Volunteer.
As a homeschool community, we are better when we stand together. Lend a hand to an overwhelmed new mom in your church. Bring a meal. Take her kids with you to the zoo. Throw in a load of laundry for her. Ask your co-op director what she needs this year. Consider taking on an extra task or two, above the minimum required volunteer hours. If you hear of a need in your support group, step up. Volunteer to coordinate some field trips, or use the administrative gifts God has given you to manage social media posts or serve on the board. The very best way that we as homeschoolers can be successful is when we work together toward a common goal and create excellent opportunities for our children.
Support the work of Missouri Homeschool Alliance.
Consider joining MHA as a paid member today. Your membership is just $5 a month, and your generous support will help to further the work of MHA and equip us to provide even more exciting opportunities and benefits to our members in the very near future. When we speak to our legislators, it helps to have numbers behind our organization! We are stronger when we stand together! Your membership will give you access to our video library (coming soon), will help us in the development of our benevolence fund, and will ensure that you are up to date on the latest news and action items related to homeschool freedom in Missouri.
Rest assured, we at Missouri Homeschool Alliance are fighting hard every day to protect your rights!
