[HSList] More (Oregon) legislative update

[Jody & Scott Arnold family]

Here's some more from Christine Webb of ORSIG:

>From: Christine Webb <RETR...@AOL.COM>
>Subject: [ORSIG] More legislative update
>To: OR...@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
>
>Once again, friends, from the political side of things:
>
> First off, I gave you all incomplete information with my last post. I
>wanted to make it very clear that there are actually two different amendments
>to HB 3080. The first is a complete deregulation of homeschooling. Basically,
>homeschools would be exempted from compulsory attendance, end of story. The
>second is the one I described before. Didn't mean to leave that out, just got
>caught up trying to get the synopsis of the second amendment as accurate as
>possible (it's 8 pages long and getting it into just a few lines is quite a
>challenge).
>
> About contacting your legislators:
>
>You can simply call or e-mail your legislators and register your support. It
>doesn't have to be anything fancy or even have a letter attached. You can
>just say you are for
> "EQUAL RIGHTS FOR HOMESCHOOLERS" and support HB (house bill) 3080. Equality
>has been a successful theme with the legislators with whom we've spoken so
>far. It's hard to argue against and it is a strong and truthful position. A
>few of the supporting statements that have been used successfully so far
>include:
>
>1) Home schools are a form of private education and should be treated as
>such.
>
>2) Private schools do not report to ESDs; they report to the Oregon
>Department of Education. Home schools should also report to the Department
>of Education and not to local ESD's who have an apparent, if not actual,
>conflict of interest.
>
>3) Private schooled students are not held to a standard of "satisfactory
>progress" nor are they remanded to public school for not achieving an
>arbitrary state benchmark. Home schooled students should be treated in an
>equal manner.
>
>4) The educators of private schooled students can choose an assessment tool
>appropriate to the needs of the child and the academic plan they are using.
> Home school educators should have the same choice (and should be encouraged
>to choose) a form of assessment that will be best for the education of their
>children, and not just a "hoop" to jump through - a hoop which has been shown
>to be educationally unsound for many children.
>
>5) Off-campus students of private and public schools are being mistakenly
>categorized as homeschoolers. Due to an increase in technology, more and
>more students are being educated off-campus in satellite and "schools without
>walls" programs. These students are not home schooled, and should have their
>own category of exemption from the compulsory school attendance laws.
>
>6) Home schooled students have an excellent record. Home schooled children
>consistently out-perform schooled children. The state has an interest in
>seeing that children are educated, but it has no reason to hold home schooled
>children to a higher standard than private or public schooled children.
>
>Those of you in leadership positions in your support groups or with numerous
>contacts among homeschoolers in your community -- there will be a written
>piece available, by Monday, which you can send out to your membership if you
>want to or distribute as you are able to other homeschoolers. It will outline
>information about the Bill & amendments and explain how to contact
>legislators.
>
>Christine
>retr...@aol.com
>
>