Law unfair to home schooling

State Sen. Edward Maloney, a Chicago Democrat, has introduced SB136, which would require non-public school students to register annually with the state. This would affect private and home-school students.

When interviewed, Sen. Maloney said, “We’re not going for the private school students. We’re going to change that [in the proposal]. What we want to know is where the home-schoolers are. It’s as simple as that,”

Ÿ Home-schoolers average 2009 ACT scores, 22.5, beating the national average of 21.1.

Ÿ Home-schoolers are already required to comply with significant substantive state mandates.

Ÿ Parents who choose to home-school are taking the ultimate responsibility to educate their children.

Ÿ Sen. Mahoney should be focused on fixing the Chicago Public Schools, which had a 2010 graduation rate of only 55.8 percent and spent over $11,000/student.

Ÿ Requiring home-school parents to register with the state will do nothing to positively impact their children’s education.

Ÿ Annual reporting will add another opportunity for the state to unreasonably burden responsible parents. And as the bill is written has the potential to give the State Board of Education unnecessary overreaching “carte blanche” power over what the registration process can require.

Ÿ Creation of any new registration mandate process will require more taxpayer money at a time when taxes are already being increased and Illinois is facing a potential billion-dollar budget shortfall.

Please help to insist that Sen. Mahoney withdraw this unnecessary government overreach.

Joseph Richter

Beach Park