By Carolyn Martin (CHEC Director of Government Relations)

Upcoming Election

Mail ballots will begin being mailed out to all registered voters on Friday, October 8th. Despite nagging questions and lagging confidence in our election system, it is important we continue to take our responsibility as citizens seriously and vote. If possible, consider getting involved in the process by volunteering to be a poll watcher or working as an election judge (students are also eligible). 

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By Carolyn Martin (CHEC Director of Government Relations)

Is Leap for Us?

What if a new law in Colorado specifically identified homeschool students as being eligible to serve as a nonvoting board member over a newly created government agency, would you be concerned?

An initiative creating the LEAP (Learning Enrichment and Academic Progress) Program which will be on the ballot this November does just that. It creates the Colorado Learning Authority within the Colorado Department of Education. The impetus for this new program is the failure of the public school system to meet the needs of its students. The latest results from state testing reveals that the third-grade language arts overall scores continue to be dismal — only 39.1% met or exceeded expectations. (Before the pandemic, the results weren’t much better — only 41.3%.) Yet, this decline in scores will be the reason for increasing the growth of government by creating an unaccountable, nontransparent agency.

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By Carolyn Martin (CHEC Director of Government Relations)

Threats on the Horizon

In our current political climate, it is not the right to home educate that we stand up for per se, but the right to do so without undue burden placed on us from the state. Don’t get me wrong, there are those who believe homeschooling is detrimental to the upbringing of the child and desire to outlaw it. But often what the government cannot outright eliminate, they merely make more difficult through burdensome laws and regulations.

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By Carolyn Martin (CHEC Director of Government Relations)

2021 Session Wrap Up

Home Education
For the time being, the laws that govern home education in Colorado remain unchanged. Hallelujah! But, as the fallout from the pandemic continues to spread and the full effect of the new vaccination law’s implementation is felt, policy makers and education bureaucrats will be looking to reign in homeschooling. Why? It boils down to control and money. Threaten either of those and the government will seek to right what they see as a ship headed in the wrong direction.

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By Carolyn Martin (CHEC Director of Government Relations)

Exploring Contrary Narratives 

Remember last year when Harvard Law School was planning to host a summit entitled “Problems, Politics, and Prospects for Reform”? (See my blog post from last year and this article from HSLDA.) The speaker lineup included many who desire to see homeschooling heavily regulated. Thankfully, the pandemic put a hold on the invitation-only event that left out voices from the homeschool community. 

This year, the Harvard Kennedy School hosted a seven-week long webinar to explore the “Post-Pandemic Future of Homeschooling.” It’s clear from the title that those hosting this new conference had a very different agenda. Instead of solely looking at the problems with homeschooling, they wanted to understand the growth and the expanding landscape of homeschooling families.

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