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Home Educators Association of Virginia (HEAV)

To: Home Educators of Virginia
From: Joe Guarino, Director of Government Affairs

Monday, March 1, 2004

Praise and Victory Update: DIPLOMA BILL PASSES FULL SENATE!

After nearly 40 minutes of debate on the floor, the Senate voted 25-15 to pass HB 675, the Homeschool High School Diploma bill. Thanks to your efforts, six of the eight senators we targeted for support over the weekend voted for the bill.
This made the difference for victory! The bill will now go to the governor, who we hope will sign it into law.
 
The importance of this bill was certainly felt as debate ensued. Fifteen senators weighed in on the bill, nine in favor, six opposed. Several Republican senators who had not planned to speak, when hearing the diatribe from the opposition, felt compelled to stand and defend homeschoolers. By the end, as Senator Bill Mims (R-Leesburg) was wrapping up the debate, he commented, “This was one of the best debates this session.”

As Senator Bill Bolling (R-Hanover) noted, “This debate has been revealing.” He was referring to the obvious difference of opinion regarding the ability of parents with a high-school diploma to teach their own children. Supporters of the bill thought parents could do so and should have the right to choose this option. Opponents of the bill thought otherwise. For example, Senator Janet Howell (D-Reston) said, “If you are a proponent of children, then you must be repulsed by this bill.” She voiced utter fear as she continued, “Parents will have total control of the education of their child.” Senator Patsy Ticer (D-Alexandria) thought this bill “defies common sense” because it “dumbs down” our children. She thought only professionals should teach children and that parents do not qualify. Mims referred to several opponents’ comments as “somewhat elitist.” Senator Richard Saslaw (D-Springfield) commented: “I wouldn’t want a parent with a high school diploma teaching my kid!” He also
stated that it was “absurd” for anyone to think that a homeschool education was as good as a public education.

Rebutting some opponents’ comments, Senator Bolling set the record straight with opponents who thought this bill would provide no oversight. He asked them to “read the existing law…[with] annual assessments…probation…and remediation.” He also stated that “the greatest proponents of children are their parents,” not the government. Senator Ken Cuccinelli (R-Centreville) pronounced, “The most critical element for success is not the educational level of the parents, but their level of commitment.”

Probably the most convincing testimony against opponents came from Democrat Senator Ed Houck (D-Spottsylvania). He said he had three reasons for supporting the bill: “Political, personal, and professional.” He lashed out against proponents of public education whom he said tend to have “an immediate backlash” against homeschooling. He exhorted them that they “don’t need to have a knee-jerk reaction” against homeschooling. Having been in public education for 31 years, he said he had seen “substitutes and paraprofessionals who have done outstanding jobs teaching” without a degree. As far as he was concerned, having a baccalaureate degree was “not the know-all and end-all” for qualifying to teach. On a personal level, he shared how he and his wife taught their daughter at home during the high-school years. During that experience, he “had the
blinders removed,” “got an education about homeschooling,” and “got over being bigoted” about homeschooling. He concluded with this challenge to his colleagues: “Don’t get bent out of shape about having a baccalaureate degree to teach.”

Senator Fred Quayle (R-Chesapeake) had just come from a forum on the federal No-Child-Left-Behind law. One of the biggest problems in public education, he said, was parental involvement. He then advocated homeschooling for its high
level of parental involvement. Senator Nick Rerras (R-Norfolk) concurred:  “Homeschooling maximizes parental involvement.” Senator Jeannemarie Devolites (R-Vienna) added that another problem in public education was class size with
many classes having 30 or more children. She supported homeschooling in part because it offered “a better classroom.”

Mims, in closing the debate, asked his colleagues to stop making the distinction of whether homeschooling parents could teach their children “based on a piece of paper.” He noted that “seventy percent of adults in rural Virginia do not have a degree.” He then asked, “Does that mean they are not capable to teach under the law?” He recounted how his grandmother taught him more than anyone else. And when she “got a degree” at 64, it made “no difference in her ability to teach.”  He concluded, “Parents do not have to have a degree to teach their own children.”

The vote was almost along party lines. All Republicans except Senator Harry Blevins (R-Chesapeake) voted for the bill. All Democrats except Senators Phil Puckett (D-Tazewell) and Houck voted against the bill. If your senator voted for the bill, please contact and thank them for their vote.

ACTION: No action is requested at this time. The bill will take at least a week to be enrolled. Then the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House will have three days in which to sign the bill, a perfunctory step. The governor will have the six weeks between the end of the regular session, scheduled for March 13, and the Reconvened Session, scheduled for April 21, to sign the bill. As soon as we know the bill is headed for the governor’s desk, we will inform you so that you can contact him and ask him to sign the bill--this way the communication will be fresh.

Again, thank you for working with us in gaining the victory in this important change in the homeschool statute!