📰We were in the news!
I wanted to share an important update from the front lines of homeschool advocacy in Texas — and we all know that what politicians can get away with in “Red” Texas, they’ll try to do everywhere.
This past week, I had the opportunity to be interviewed by KBTX News and represent HFC’s stance about three new Texas laws related to homeschooling, namely HB 3041, HB 2674, and SB 401.
Everyone has been talking about SB 2, but homeschoolers need to know about the other new laws that are now on the books, too.
You can read the article and even watch the video clip!
What made this interview particularly significant is that I was going head-to-head with Jeremy Newman, Vice President of Policy & Litigation of Texas Home School Coalition (THSC).
While THSC is claiming these bills are “game changers” for homeschoolers, our perspective at the Homeschool Freedom Coalition is quite different.
As I stated in the interview, many of these bills’ supposed victories are, quite frankly, a “nothing burger.”
>>🎙️Check out the interview!<<
The elephant in the room, of course, is the THSC’s support of the recently-passed and poorly-worded “School Choice” bill. They’re not mentioning that bill — the one they pushed — and which dozens and dozens of high-profile leaders in the homeschooling movement both in Texas and nationally opposed.
Shifting attention away from that bill and to these other “game-changing” victories for homeschoolers, Newman said about the latest legislative session, “There wasn’t the usual tension that slows everything down. Instead, we had alignment – and that gave us space to actually work on policy instead of just fighting politics.”
Maybe they’d prefer if we all just ignore:
👉🏼 Tens of thousands of homeschoolers here in Texas who signed Homeschool Freedom Coalition’s petitions opposing the terribly worded School Choice bill.
👉🏼 Evidently such a poor turnout at their ‘lobby day’ — where they were supposed to be telling the legislators how much homeschoolers love this bill — that they didn’t even post on any of their socials or email about it.
👉🏼 Touting these new bills as wins to try to distract from the gutting that the School Choice bill was doing to homeschooling — but homeschoolers were not falling for it!
👉🏼 The HSLDA openly opposing this bad bill.
👉🏼 The fact that there are facebook groups in Texas with nearly 20,000 homeschoolers that were opposed to this bill, and they’re some of the most die-hard leaders of the homeschool movement.
That sounds like alignment, right?
Instead of talking about that, the Texas Home School Coalition wants to take applause for some nothing-burger bills, and ignore that they’ve lost the trust of homeschoolers in Texas — likely permanently.
The bills this year could have been worded so much better and really benefited homeschooling. Instead we’re stuck with their terrible version of School Choice and some do-nothing bills that… do nothing.
Texas homeschoolers already enjoyed some of the best homeschooling laws in the country.
These new laws do little to truly expand that freedom and, in some cases, may even open the door to more government oversight.
For instance, HB 3041 modifies college admission criteria, but as I point out in the interview, it’s just changing how colleges read standardized tests that many are moving away from anyway. 2,000 of 2,637 4-year colleges and universities in the US no longer even require SAT or ACT scores. Why bother?
SB 401 flips UIL access from opt-in to opt-out, but still comes with strings attached that many homeschoolers want to avoid. Plus, public school systems that don’t want to support homeschoolers don’t have to. The bill helps nothing.
And HB 2674, touted as the “Homeschool Freedom Act” to prohibit new regulations, is laughable when they just pushed a bill that would require the state to track and regulate homeschoolers who participate in the $1 billion dollar ESA they endorsed!
>>🎥Watch for all the details!<<
Here’s the bottom line: What happens in Texas often sets the tone for homeschool freedom nationwide. That’s why this fight matters.
Homeschooling is thriving without government strings, and we intend to keep it that way. We don’t need state control disguised as choice, especially in a stronghold like Texas.
We’re not here to play nicely with politicians or groups willing to compromise our freedom. If they push bad policy, we’ll confront it — plain and simple.
Homeschool families want to be left alone. That means no new regulations, no bureaucratic red tape, and no backdoor mandates.
We’re fighting hard, we’re not backing down, and we won’t settle for fake wins. The goal is simple: protect real homeschool freedom.
If you agree, we could use your help.
Every dollar you give goes straight into exposing bad bills, mobilizing homeschool families, and holding the line at the Capitol.
Stand with us. Support the fight.
And let’s continue to advocate for genuine freedom, not just legislative theater.
In pursuit of freedom,
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