Maryland home-schoolers fight bill that would ‘gather information’ on them

Maryland home-schoolers concerned about government overreach are fighting a proposal in the state legislature that would create an advisory council to “gather information” on them.

Dan Beasley, an attorney for the Home School Legal Defense Association that represents 1,500 member families in Maryland, will testify March 3 on their behalf at a hearing about the bill, H.B. 832.

“The creation of a home-school advisory council in the Maryland Department of Education is unnecessary and presents a threat to liberty,” Mr. Beasley said. “Home schooling is a grassroots movement that has thrived because parents are empowered with freedom to provide a custom-tailored education for their children.”

The bill would establish the Maryland Homeschool Advisory Council in the State Department of Education “to gather information on the needs of home-school parents and homeschool umbrella schools and advise the State Superintendent of Schools, the State Board of Education, the General Assembly, and the Governor on matters relating to home schooling; and generally relating to the Maryland Homeschool Advisory Council.”

Delegate Sheila Ruth, a Democrat who represents Baltimore County, introduced H.B. 832 in the Democrat-controlled Maryland House of Delegates on Feb. 3.

Ms. Ruth did not respond Monday to a request for comment. But in a document responding to questions about the bill posted on her website, she stresses that the council would have no oversight authority over homeschooling parents.

“It would simply act as a liaison between the homeschool community and the Maryland State Department of Education,” Ms. Ruth says in the statement. “It would not put any requirements on home-school parents. You would still be free to educate your children as you currently are, according to your personal beliefs and home-schooling methods.”

The delegate adds that she plans to change the phrase “gather information” to “conduct surveys” in the bill, heading off any privacy concerns.

Surveys will primarily seek to identify whether home-schooled children should participate in state-sponsored athletics, qualify for scholarship requirements and offer “simple clarifying guidance” to counties about how to work with homeschoolers, she added.

But Delegate Daniel L. Cox, a Republican who represents parts of Frederick and Carroll counties, said in a testimonial letter that the bill’s proponents represent only “approximately .001% of the Maryland homeschool community.”

“The huge majority of the thousands in the Maryland homeschool community are bipartisan moms and dads who just want a quality education for their children without oppressive state interference,” wrote Mr. Cox, a gubernatorial candidate. “H.B. 832 will entangle the state, in partnership with competitive actors, to interfere with and ‘gather information on’ families and programs, and ‘report’ to the State.”

Joel Fischer, administrator of the K-12 home-schooling academy Wellspring Christian Family Schools in Sabillasville, said the state already has “broad channels” to communicate with homeschoolers that make a state advisory council unnecessary.

“Our biggest concern about Maryland’s H.B. 832 is that while it is purported to give a greater voice to the home-schooling community in Maryland, it will do just the opposite,” said Mr. Fischer, an attorney. “Maryland home-schooling families already have numerous channels to express their needs and or concerns.”

He said those channels include the local board of education home-school liaisons in every school district, who routinely keep in touch with home-schooling families and home-school umbrellas; numerous state and local homeschool umbrellas like Wellspring that serve diverse communities of home-schooling families; and direct access to elected officials who can voice the concerns of home-schooling constituents whenever needed.

Maryland law currently provides two main options for home schooling: Parents may home-school directly under the supervision of the local board of education or they enroll under the supervision of a nonpublic educational institution, including home-school umbrellas like Wellspring.

Mr. Fischer and his wife Mikaela, a music teacher, said they have lived in Frederick for the last decade and are currently home-schooling a preschooler and first-grader. He said parents in his group oppose the new bill because they prefer advocating for themselves rather than dealing with state officials.

“By transferring that advocacy to a primarily political, state-level entity, the voice of home-schooling families would be reduced from a broad, grassroots community, to a narrow, bureaucratic body that will essentially serve as a rubber stamp for the majority party in power,” Mr. Fischer said.

The new advisory council would be comprised mostly but not entirely of home-schooling parents, according to H.B. 832.

Other members of the council would include one representative from the Maryland State Department of Education, one from the Maryland Higher Education Commission and two home-school liaisons from county departments of education selected from among the state’s 24 counties.

The bill has been assigned to the House’s Ways and Means Committee for further work before it can reach the floor for a vote, but whether it passes may ultimately depend on which party wins the Nov. 8 election to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.

Mr. Hogan, who recently recognized home-schoolers by proclaiming Jan. 23-29 to be Maryland School Choice Week, has nevertheless diverged at times from his party’s legislative priorities.

“School choice is about giving every family the opportunity to prepare their children for a better future,” Mr. Hogan said in his Jan. 20 proclamation, touting the millions of dollars in scholarship money his administration has given to families for alternatives to public education.

While the home-schoolers are lobbying Republican politicians to pledge opposition to the bill, state Democrats support it.

Michelle C. Williams, administrative director of the Abrahams Covenant Education Services home-schooling umbrella in Charles County, said she hopes the bill does not reach the next governor.

“Home-schoolers want other home-schoolers to be successful,” said Ms. Williams, who home-schools six of her children. “I’m opposing the bill because I already represent the state of Maryland in a home-schooling cooperative, per the mandates we already have in place as a supervising entity, and this bill wants to govern what we already have the authority to decide.”

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the grade of a student home-schooled by Mr. Fischer and his wife Mikaela.