Ohio Watchdog‘s Maggie Thurber reports Senate sponsor Kris Jordan presented a state bill in May - SB 127  - offering “property tax reduction for parents of home- schooled children.”  From the Watchdog:

Since the beginning of the home-schooling trend, parents have noted that they pay double to educate their children — once for the education they’re providing at home and again in the property and other taxes they pay to the local school district for public education.

It might be noted, but the fact doesn’t necessarily mean all homeschoolers support the slippery slope of tax credits.  But the Christian Home Educators of Ohio (CHEO) government liasion said the “group supports the idea of a property tax reduction, but has some concerns about how the language is constructed.”  One can’t help but ask whether Senator Jordan was a lone wolf presenting a bill without backup, as it’s reported CHEO has concerns that Virginia-based HSLDA is addressing with the Ohio Senator. (more…)

Kingsport’s Times News covered Tuesday’s forum hosted by the bill’s sponsors Representatives Timothy Hill and Roger Kane, along with the Sullivan County school administrators. (more…)

The Hastings KHAS TV station posted an article and video following up on last week’s Nebraska Supreme Court ruling.
A couple of homeschool moms shared their experiences.
Families enjoy freedom of home schooling by Shelby Fenster

“We enjoy being able to have our education and our life intermixed,” said Diana Berg. “And to have a reasonable amount of family time.”

“We want to be able to choose the curriculum that our kids are using and make sure that it meets our standards,” said Kelly LuVaas.

And the freedom to set their own schedules is something they both enjoy.

“That has shifted and adjusted and changed each year and each season depending on the needs,” Berg said.

Among other statistics, the article pointed out “across the state, 19 percent of the families filing for homeschooling last year were doing so for the first time adding to the number of families that will benefit from the Nebraska Supreme Court’s ruling.“

In April, Arkansas’ House Bill 1789 became Act 1469 with Governor Beebe’s signature.  Northwest Arkansas Times reports on the ‘Time Tebow Law’ passage. In The Examiner, an Arkansas homeschooler, Linda Altman, also reports on the bill’s progress on the way to becoming law.

(more…)

Reports of a significant ruling on Nebraska homeschools and their educational calendar schedule are out.  Eric and Gail Thacker were charged and convicted of violating the compulsory attendance statute in County Court.  Upon appeal,  the decision was reversed by a Dawson County District Court judge.  The Dawson County prosecutors followed that decision by appeal which culminated with the Nebraska Supreme Court taking the case on.  Last Friday, the county prosecutors didn’t get what they hoped, as the Supreme Court released their decision about public school calendars vs private school – in this case, homeschool – calendar hours. It appears to be a victory for Nebraska homeschooling freedoms loosening up the time frame of their educational schedules a bit.

(more…)

Our current day and age reveals public school students boycotting standardized testing while federal Common Core invasions are occurring on a local level.  Controversial profits are made off children’s backs, who must steadfastly fill in the tedious dots in the classroom. Actual learning seems to be increasingly irrelevant, even as “mid-course corrections” are requested. Even so,  The Daily Iowan wanted homeschoolers to stay in middle of that messy business with continued standardized testing.

My solution would be to follow the revolt against the No Child Left Behind federal initiation of standardized testing and stop the onslaught for all children.  But even more radical than the currently proposed change of allowing homeschooling parents to administer required tests – stop this testing craziness for privately and public educated children.  Since Iowa legislators want education reform, they should be in the forefront of getting back to the basics of learning and not teaching to the test.

Editorial: Regulation of homeschooling should not be removed (more…)

Iowa Republican‘a Kevin Hall reports:

Iowa Legislature Passes Education Reform

An education reform package passed 91-0 in the Iowa House and 40-10 in the senate. It included a handful of reforms that provide more freedom for homeschool educators. That includes eliminating annual reporting to the state, eliminating requirements for homeschooling educators to assessment reforms to their local school district and allowing parent-taught drivers education.

More particulars were provided in Caffeinated Thoughts - by Shane Vander Hart (more…)

South Carolina’s The State reports School choice fails in SC Senate

COLUMBIA — A proposal that would give tax breaks to parents of home-schooled and private-school students was defeated in the Senate Wednesday.

The Senate debated the proposal, offered by Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley, as an amendment to the state budget starting July 1.

The article said the state would lose $39.1 million in tax revenues, but I think that’s consideration relative to whether it stays in the taxpayers/users’ pocket directly or not.

The proposal would give tax deductions of $4,000 for private-school students, $2,000 for home-schooled children, and $1,000 for students attending a school in another district.

The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reports on a Tim Tebow bill and another bill the Texas Home School Coalition (THSC) also proposed calling for restricting a current law allowing grandparents to sue parents for access to or custody of school-age children.  

Home-school legislation seems to be dead this session
Key legislation a coalition supported appears to be dead in the current session that ends May 27  (more…)

These are homeschooling articles I enjoy reading.  Virginia Commonwealth University‘s  Capitol News Service posted a lengthy article: Home Schooling on the Rise in Virginia by Allison Landry and Amber Shiflett.  Homeschoolers were the homeschooling experts in this article, rather than people who like to study homeschoolers. (more…)