Dear HSLDA Members and Friends:
Your calls and emails are needed to stop a bill that threatens your homeschool freedoms, even your ability to choose which homeschool option to use in South Carolina.
House Bill 3478 would impose state testing on all homeschool students in both the South Carolina Association of Independent Home Schools (SCAIHS) and all homeschool associations. Additionally, results of the annual review of these organizations by the South Carolina Department of Education would have to be reported to the legislature. Further, these organizations would be required to provide the name of each student being homeschooled to their respective school districts, instead of providing just the number of students being homeschooled as is now required.
But this is not the worst part of this terrible bill. It would eliminate membership in a homeschool association under Section 59-65-47 of the South Carolina Code as an option for homeschooling on July 1, 2014. No longer would South Carolina homeschoolers be able to exercise what is known as the “third option” for complying with the compulsory attendance law.
House Bill 3478 is sponsored by Representatives Norman D. “Doug” Brannon (Dist. 38), Michael A. “Mike” Anthony (Dist. 42), Jenny Anderson Horne (Dist. 94), and Joseph H. Jefferson (Dist. 102). It is currently in the House Education and Public Works Committee. This bill needs to be stopped in its tracks before it gains any momentum.
Members of the House Education and Public Works Committee need to hear from you today!
Action Requested
1. Please call and/or email as many members of the House Education and Public Works Committee as possible with this message or a similar message in your own words:
“Please vote against House Bill 3478, which would unfairly require homeschool students to take the same state tests as public school students. Homeschool students are not instructed using the same curriculum as public school students, yet they would be tested on material they may not have been taught. Even worse, this bill would eliminate membership in a homeschool association as an option for complying with the compulsory attendance law. There is no justification for taking this option away from thousands of law-abiding homeschool families and destroying the livelihood of those who administer these associations.”
The members of the House Education and Public Works Committee are as follows:
Phillip D. “Phil” Owens, Chairman (R-5)
(803) 734-3053
Online email form >>
Bill Taylor, 1st Vice Chairman (R-86)
(803) 212-6923
Online email form >>
Robert L. Brown, 2nd Vice Chairman (D-116)
(803) 734-3170
Online email form >>
Lester P. Branham, Jr. (D-61)
(803) 734-3002
Norman D. “Doug” Brannon (R-38)
(803) 212-6876
Online email form >>
Joseph S. Daning (R-92)
(803) 734-2951
Online email form >>
Raye Felder (R-26)
(803) 212-6892
Online email form >>
Jerry N. Govan, Jr. (D-95)
(803) 734-3012
Online email form >>
John Richard C. King (D-49)
(803) 212-6873
Online email form >>
Harold Mitchell, Jr. (D-31)
(803) 734-6638
Online email form >>
Ralph W. Norman (R-48)
(803) 212-6888
Online email form >>
Andrew S. “Andy” Patrick (R-123)
(803) 212-6928
Online email form >>
Joshua A. Putnam (R-10)
(803) 212-6931
Online email form >>
Samuel Rivers, Jr. (R-15)
(803) 212-6890
Online email form >>
Tommy M. Stringer (R-18)
(803) 212-6881
Online email form >>
Don L. Wells (R-81)
(803) 212-6884
Online email form >>
Mark N. Willis (R-16)
(803) 212-6882
Online email form >>
Donna H. Wood (R-37)
(803) 212-6878
Online email form >>
2. Please forward this email to every family you know who is not a member of HSLDA and urge them to contact members of the Committee.
Please call or email today!
Sincerely,
Dewitt T. Black, III
HSLDA Senior Counsel
