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Home Educators Association of Virginia (HEAV)

To: Home Educators of Virginia
From: Joe Guarino, director of government affairs
Date: Tuesday, March 1, 2005

2005 GENERAL ASSEMBLY UPDATE: Testing Freedom Remains Intact

On Friday the Virginia House of Delegates rejected a conference report on HB 1770 by a vote of 34-64, thus killing the bill for the session. Our thanks go to everyone who called or e-mailed their legislators on such short notice. Thank you for working with us in maintaining testing freedoms.

TESTING BILL HISTORY
The 2005 General Assembly session began with a well-intentioned bill that was initiated by the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers, and designed to remedy a problem with option (i) testing.

Unfortunately, HB 1770 went awry as soon as it came out of Legislative Services where all bills are first drafted. Even the patron, Delegate James Dillard, did not like it. As the bill went into the House Education Committee, the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers and Delegate Dillard drafted some amendments to “fix” the bill. However, the bill passed the House without a change due to a committee clerk’s mistake. HEAV still objected to the language Dillard intended to use.

After consulting with the Home School Legal Defense Association, HEAV lobbyist Joe Guarino submitted a draft to Dillard to modify the language to include “ANY nationally norm-standardized achievement test.” Joe discussed our concerns with Delegate Dillard and the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers. We objected to the Superintendent of Public Instruction having new control over option (i) tests. At one point, Delegate Dillard agreed to change the language.

When the bill was heard in the Senate Education and Health Committee on February 10, Delegate Dillard offered his original amendments. During the discussion of the bill, a representative from HSLDA offered the language we had discussed with them. The Senate Education and Health Committee then amended HB 1770 with favorable language that allowed “ANY nationally normed standardized achievement test” for option (i) without any approval of the Superintendent of Public Instruction or the State Board of Education. Even Senator Steve Martin commented that this was now a very good bill. HB 1770 passed the Senate unanimously February 15.

Because the Senate had amended the bill, it had to go back to the House of Delegates for their approval. On Wednesday, February 16, in an extremely surprising move, Delegate Dillard asked the House to reject the Senate amendments. He was asking the House to reject the amendments to which he had agreed to just six days before. The House, not knowing anything different, and deferring to Dillard as chairman of the House Education Committee, agreed overwhelmingly, 95-3, to reject the Senate amendments.

After the vote, Joe Guarino, shocked by the turn of events, immediately called the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers’ lobbyist to ascertain what he knew. The lobbyist was not at the Capitol that day because, as he told Joe, he already knew Dillard was going to have the amendments rejected. The lobbyist told Joe that, between the Senate hearing and Dillard’s call for rejection, several people had gathered to discuss how they, in fact, did not like the Senate language. This private group included the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers’ lobbyist, Delegate Dillard, and Deputy Secretary of Education Sarah Finley. This group then crafted new language without advising or consulting HEAV or HSLDA.

Because the House and Senate passed different versions, the bill had to be reconciled through a conference committee. The private group knew the conference committee would consider their language rather than the Senate language. Because the rules for conference committees are rather lax, they knew their conference language had a good chance of never being heard at a public hearing.

Conference committees are made up of three members from the House and three members from the Senate. Joe wrote letters to Senator Russ Potts and Speaker of the House William Howell recommending the appointment of legislators who understood homeschool issues. We were very disappointed in the conferees that were chosen. In fact, Senator Potts went against conference protocol for the majority party and chose two Democrats and one Republican rather than vice versa. His choices did not bode well for homeschoolers.

Next, Joe focused his efforts on lobbying the conference committee members and their legislative aides. Joe gave each of them an HEAV issues brief explaining the reasons we opposed HB 1770. He informed Delegate Dillard and the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers’ lobbyist that HEAV would oppose the bill if the final conference language included the clause giving authority to the State Superintendent to approve the tests homeschoolers could use. (For an explanation of our opposition see http://www.heav.org/thelaw/legislative/lu/2005/lu20050225.htm) 

Joe asked Delegate Dillard’s aide to inform him if and when a conference committee would be called or what the results were if Dillard decided only to poll the conferees. Although Joe kept in frequent contact with the aide, Joe did not find out about the polling outcome until 9:45 p.m. the night before the final session where the conference reports would be considered. The conference committee supported the objectionable language 5 to 1 -- the lone dissenter was Delegate Steve Landes.

From 11 p.m. to 2 a.m., Joe e-mailed the issue brief to all 140 legislators in the House and Senate. He also sent personal notes to about 15 legislators with whom he has the closest contact. Then he sent out an appeal for you to call your legislators. (We are sorry we did not have more time to notify you, but events were happening very quickly.)

On the final morning of the session, Joe was speaking with Senator Steve Newman who encouraged him to lobby on the House side where more of the legislators understand homeschool issues. Joe took his counsel and went right over to the House.

With only 45 minutes before the beginning of the final session, Joe spoke with Delegate Bob McDonnell. He graciously listened to our concerns, was very attentive, asked questions, took notes, and said he would address the bill on the floor on behalf of homeschoolers. (This was one of Delegate McDonnell’s final legislative acts on the floor of the House of Delegates. As a 14-year veteran of the House, he is not running for re-election in order to pursue the position of Attorney General.)

HOUSE FLOOR ACTION
After the bill’s patron, Delegate Dillard, presented the conference report on HB 1770 to the House, Delegate McDonnell immediately began asking pertinent questions. Here is a summary of the question-and-answer volley:

McDonnell: Why was there a change from the Board of Education to the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the approval process?

Dillard: There are two homeschool groups in Virginia. One asked for the approval language. I thought the superintendent would be better for efficiency, and the Board would not be interested.

McDonnell: Does the patron agree that, with the Board, hearings could be held to remove or add an achievement test, but with the superintendent there would not be hearings?

Dillard: I agree. …Look, there’s no nefarious plot here. In fact, the other homeschool group agreed to this language. [Incorrect: HEAV sent Delegate Dillard, as well as all the House members, an issues brief outlining HEAV’s opposition to the language.]

McDonnell: Does the delegate know that the Home Educators Association of Virginia is opposed to this language?

Dillard: They’re opposed to any kind of regulation of homeschooling. They want no control of homeschooling. On this issue, some tests are just not high quality.

McDonnell: In this bill, the tests to be used are defined as “nationally normed standardized tests.” Could the delegate explain why he would want further review?

Dillard: We’re looking to keep a list.

McDonnell: Half the states in America don’t require any testing of homeschoolers. Several with testing language have no approval of those tests. Is the delegate aware of that?

Dillard: Virginia has the best homeschooling laws for homeschoolers.

Next, Delegate Steve Landes addressed the conference report. He was the lone dissenting vote among the conferees. He said he had a problem with the approval language.

He pointed out the Board of Education is appointed and, with them, hearings could be held to remove or add tests. Under the State Superintendent, however, there would be no process for test approval. He commended the current superintendent, but pointed out that we had no certainty of the disposition of a future superintendent. At that point, Delegate Landes asked the House to reject the conference report.

The House voted and rejected the conference report 34 to 64.

Delegate Dillard then said before the whole body, “I could care less about this bill.” He then asked if he should strike the bill. The Speaker of the House suggested he just let it go (lay it on the table) because it would die anyway.

SENATE ACTION
A short while later, the Senate heard the same conference report. Unfortunately, no one spoke out against the report. Just when we thought the bill was dead, the Senate voted to accept the report 29-11. Then there was some confusion since the House rejected the conference committee’s recommendation, but the Senate accepted it. Joe immediately went to the Clerk of the House who verified that, regardless of the Senate’s vote, HB 1770 was dead.

BACKGROUND AND RESULTS
Option (i) of the current homeschool testing law allows homeschoolers to submit a composite score from a battery of achievement tests that have been approved by the Board of Education for use in the public schools. The 2003 General Assembly cancelled funds for the last achievement test used by the public schools because schools were now using the Standards of Learning tests (SOL tests).

Technically, for the 2003 and 2004 testing cycles, homeschoolers did not have any achievement tests under option (i). Yet, superintendents continued to accept achievement tests that were submitted. Homeschoolers have, de facto, been using a variety of nationally norm-standardized tests without any challenge.

Because HB 1770 failed, homeschoolers who desire to use achievement tests may do so under option (ii). In the mid 1980s, then-Attorney General Gerald Baliles issued an opinion that an achievement test may be considered an evaluation or assessment. Therefore, until next year when new language can be drafted,, we recommend homeschoolers submit their achievement tests under option (ii) of the homeschool testing statute.

Every year prior to the session, HEAV contacts the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers and HSLDA to discuss legislative initiatives. Regrettably, this session we did not see the language in the testing bill until it was made public. As Virginia's diverse homeschool population continues to grow, cooperation, collaboration, and carefully considered legislative strategy becomes more critical. Working together--whenever possible--will benefit all Virginia homeschoolers. HEAV will continue to work towards this goal in the future.

ACTIONS
1. Please send a special note of thanks to Del. Bob McDonnell at Del_McDonnell@house.state.va.us. Thank him for his penetrating questions which exposed the weaknesses of the conference report. Thank him for once again supporting homeschoolers. 2. Please thank the 64 delegates and 11 senators who voted against the conference report on HB 1770. Go to http://dela.state.va.us/dela/MemBios.nsf/MWebsiteEL?OpenView for the delegates’ e-mail addresses and http://sov.state.va.us/SenatorDB.nsf/$$Viewtemplate%2Bfor%2BWEmailList?OpenForm  for the senators’ e-mail addresses.


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HEAV—Serving the homeschoolers of Virginia through information, legislation, and resources since 1983! Be sure to sign up to receive the FREE Virginia Home Educator magazine at http://www.heav.org.

HEAV (Home Educators Association of Virginia)
2248-G Dabney Road
Richmond, VA 23230

Phone: 804-278-9200
Fax: 804-278-9202
Website: http://www.heav.org
E-mail: info@heav.org; for legislative matters, legislative@heav.org