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  • SIX OF ONE, A HALF-DOZEN OF THE OTHER

    Filed at 5:48 am under by dcobranchi

    NHELD seems to be following in the footsteps of that other national legal defense organization– they’re sending out missives telling folks to “Tell Congress to kill the bills!” I’m typically no fan of federal legislation, but Deborah Stevenson seems to be living in a dream world:

    NHELD believes in the United States Constitution. When it comes to the rights of parents to educate their own children, NHELD believes the tenth amendment is supreme.

    The tenth amendment states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

    The power of education is not one that is delegated to the United States by the Constitution. It is, therefore, reserved to the States or to the people.

    Yeah, but the federal Dept. of Education does exist, and there are hundreds if not thousands of federal laws governing education. I’m pretty sure that not one has been found by the SCOTUS to be unconstitutional under the 10th Amendment. Citing that as a reason to oppose all federal legislation seems kind of knee-jerkish. To wit:

    1.) HR130:
    Sponsor: Rep Kennedy, Mark R. [MN-6] (introduced 1/4/2005)
    Cosponsors (1)
    Committees: House Education and the Workforce
    Latest Major Action: 2/9/2005 Referred to House subcommittee.
    Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Education Reform.

    Amends the General Education Provisions Act (GEPA) to extend to families of home-schooled children certain educational and privacy rights currently available to families of public school students.

    Revises the definition of student for purposes of coverage regarding such family educational and privacy rights (under GEPA provisions which are also known as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974).

    Includes under such coverage any person educated at a home school (whether or not State law treats a home school as a home school or a private school), if an educational agency or institution maintains education records or personally identifiable information on such person (whether or not the home-schooled person is in attendance at the agency or institution). (Current law excludes all those who are not in attendance at the agency or institution.)

    In several states, home education “registration” and other required documents are currently considered public records. My (new) home of NC publishes our information on the web, freely available to any enterprising marketer (or worse). Extending FERPA protection to HEKs would seem to be a significant step towards increasing our freedom and autonomy, not to mention just plain privacy. So, I’ll be contacting my Congressman with an urge to vote for the bill.

    Y’all can make up your own minds how to “vote.”

    [Be sure to check Judy Aron’s comment over at the HEM blog.]

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