Did You Know: There is a bill being considered at this time in Congress
regarding the military, and section #522 mentions home education. It is HR
1815 and here is the text of section #522:
RECRUITMENT AND ENLISTMENT OF HOME SCHOOLED STUDENTS IN THE ARMED
FORCES
(a) Policy on Recruitment and Enlistment-
(1) POLICY REQUIRED- The Secretary of Defense shall prescribe a policy on the
recruitment and enlistment of home schooled students in the Armed Forces.
(2) UNIFORMITY ACROSS THE ARMED FORCES- The Secretary
shall ensure that the policy prescribed under paragraph (1) applies, to the
extent practicable, uniformly across the Armed Forces.
(b) Elements- The policy under subsection (a) shall include the following:
(1) An identification of a graduate of home schooling for purposes of
recruitment and enlistment in the Armed Forces that is in accordance with the
requirements described in subsection (c).
(2) Provision for the treatment of graduates of home schooling with no
practical limit with regard to enlistment eligibility.
(3) An exemption of graduates of home schooling from the requirement for a
secondary school diploma or an equivalent (GED) as a precondition for
enlistment in the Armed Forces.
(c)
(d) Secretary Concerned Defined- In this section, the term `Secretary
concerned' has the meaning given such term in section 101(a)(9) of title 10,
United States Code.
NHELD has examined this legislation and offers these arguments against it:
The problem with Section (1) of this section:
“The Secretary of Defense shall prescribe a
policy on the recruitment and enlistment of home schooled students in the Armed
Forces.”
This section is problematic in
that Congress is delegating its so-called authority to “regulate” to the
Secretary of Defense who can adopt whatever “policy” he desires with little
effective ability of the public to influence what that “policy” is.
When the Secretary of Defense
“prescribes a policy”, the policy that results is an “administrative
regulation” that will have the full force and effect of law. On the federal level, the process for
adopting regulations is particularly cumbersome and not very open to public
participation and persuasion.
The process is called
“rulemaking”. The “rules” made
effectively implement the federal statutes adopted by Congress. Unlike at the
state level where there are public hearings held in which members of the public
can personally address those agency heads who are proposing the “rules”, on the
federal level, there is only a provision for “public comment” through written
communication. The agency presents
“rules” that are “open for comment” for a particular period of time, usually
30-90 days. During that time, the public
submits the written communication, but never receives any reply, and seldom has
confirmation that the written communication was received.
The Federal Register ( http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html ) is the official
daily publication for final regulations, proposed regulations, and other
notices of Federal Departments and Agencies and organizations.
The agencies are required to “consider” the public comment, but are not required to change the proposed rule based on the public comment. Once the proposed regulations are adopted, they are then codified in the CFR, or Code of Federal Regulations. Publications of the CFR are available through www.gpoaccess.gov
The best way to deal with this section, is to act now to defeat this part of the
bill in its entirety. If we wait, it
will be too late.
The other sections of this portion
of the bill are equally problematic because of the words, “home school”. As NHELD often has repeated, currently there
are up to fifty different definitions of “home school” because each state has
defined it in its own unique way. With
the addition of increasing numbers of federal statutes referring to “home
school”, eventually either the Congress or a federal judge will define that
term and, due to the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution and the way that has
been “interpreted” in the federal courts, the federal definition will supercede each state’s definition and effectively void each
state’s laws.
If the issue of the definition of
“home school” were put forth squarely on the floor of Congress and parents had
the opportunity to lobby and persuade each Congressman and Senator, that, at
least, would be a fair battle. As this
bill is written, parents will not get that opportunity because Congress is
giving the authority to the “Secretary” to come up with a “policy”, i.e., “rule”, that will define the term “home school.”
As you can
see, it becomes exceedingly difficult to influence the Secretary regarding any
rule he proposes. All he has to do is
“consider” the comments made, and then go ahead an issue what he was going to
issue anyway. The public also has no
recourse to “vote” him out of office upon disagreeing with the policy. The Secretary is appointed by the President.
The last problematic section of this portion of the bill
states, “the Secretary of
Defense shall prescribe a single set of criteria to be utilized by the Armed
Forces in determining whether an individual is a graduate of home schooling.
The Secretary concerned shall ensure compliance with education credential
coding requirements.” By this, Congress
is delegating to the Secretary its non-existent authority to determine “whether
an individual is a graduate of home schooling.”
Aside from the Tenth Amendment state’s rights issue,
and the issue of the definition of “home schooling”, parents, tutors, and/or
correspondence/distance learning schools are not to be accepted as are
principals of public and private schools in their ability to “determine whether
an individual is a graduate of home schooling.”
Now, only the Secretary of Defense will be able to make that
determination.
While NHELD agrees that there are
good reasons for the military to determine who is qualified to enter as a
recruit, this bill is wholly unconstitutional, and creates more problems for
home schoolers than it purports to solve. Furthermore, NHELD strongly objects to HSLDA
proposing legislation that negatively affects home schoolers
for generations to come without even attempting to offer its “proposals” to the
home schooling community in general for debate and possible consensus before
seeking the submission of a multitude of bills for immediate action by
Congress.
NHELD is firmly of the opinion that HSLDA’s actions are inimical to homeschoolers now and in the future, and are undermining the foundations of our society and our state and federal constitutions. NHELD is calling on all parents to (1) tell HSLDA to withdraw its support for all of the federal legislation it has proposed; (2) tell Congress that it must reject this bill and all the other bills currently before it having anything to do with home schooling; and (3) tell Congress that HSLDA did not and does not speak for all home schoolers such that Congress should seek out and listen to opposing points of view before voting on any legislation that affects home schoolers.
NHELD is calling on all home school organizations throughout the country to stand up and act as organizations in the name of their organization, to contact Congress and their State Representatives and let Congress know that there are a myriad of organizations that are opposed to this federal legislation and any other federal legislation having to do with home schooling. They should let Congress know that they cannot take the word of just one organization before they act on anything having to do with home schooling. For too long one organization, HSLDA, has had the ear of Congress. Other home school organizations must now make their voices heard loudly and clearly in Congress, telling them that HSLDA does not speak for, or represent, all home schoolers nationwide. We have to tell Congress and our State Representatives that they must seek out and listen to more than just HSLDA. It is crucial that organizations act now and send this message to Congress.
In addition as an alternative to
the above actions, NHELD is proposing that parents and organizations may also
want to make their own copies of the petition
below and sign it and sent to Congress immediately. We also have a copy of
this online that you can sign as an individual http://www.petitiononline.com/hr1815/petition.html
PETITION
We, the people, as represented by
our signatures below, are hereby calling on all members of Congress to REJECT
adoption of any proposed bill that purports to affect the rights of parents and
students who home school, and to REPEAL any such bills already adopted for the
following reasons: (1) because parents
and students who home school do not receive any federal funding, Congress has
no authority under the United States Constitution to adopt any bill affecting
the education of students who home school because under the Tenth Amendment to
the United States Constitution education is a power that is not
delegated to the Congress and is therefore a power that remains in the States
and the people; (2) because Congress is being led to believe that one well
funded and politically connected organization, Home School Legal Defense
Association, otherwise known as HSLDA, represents the majority of parents and students
who homeschool when, in fact, it represents only approximately 80,000 out of an
estimated
2 MILLION parents
and students who home school who have different opinions regarding the proposed
legislation and whose opinions should and must be heard before Congress votes
on legislation affecting them. We, the
undersigned, are urging the members of Congress to REJECT Section #522 of
HR1815 now, as well as other proposed legislation which contain any reference
to home schooling, and to REPEAL any bills already adopted which contain any
reference to home schooling.
Names and addresses
Signing as Organizations
____________________________________________________________________
Names and addresses Signing
as Individuals
_________________________________________________________________
For more information on this bill
and other legislation please visit www.nheld.com
Attorney Deborah Stevenson - Executive Director of National Home Education Legal Defense. – www.nheld.com or email : info@nheld.com
Judy Aron - Director of Research, NHELD – imjfaron@sbcglobal.net