Homeschooling in Alabama

My name is Laura Askelson and I am a junior honors student at The University of Montevallo, with a full tuition, board, and room scholarship (the MAPS program). I am a double major in Political Science and History with double minors in Communication Studies and Pre-Law studies, planning to attend law school when I graduate in spring of 2015. I cannot over emphasize the importance of education in my life and I owe my successful education to my mother. I was privately tutored by her from kindergarten until I graduated with a 4.0 GPA in 2011. I regularly attended courses offered by local church schools, even gaining several hours of AP credit throughout high school. My mother has five years public school teaching experience and has continually taught my siblings and me since 1994. She earned her Bachelor of Science and Master’s degrees in Early Childhood Education from the University of Montevallo. She later earned an Educational Specialist degree from UAB and is currently an Alabama state certified Reading Specialist (N-12) qualified to teach Early Childhood (P-3) and Elementary (1-6) Education. I list her many qualifications because the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) is currently attempting to restrict teachers like her from privately tutoring students and their own children. In fact, the ALSDE is trying to institute several new measures to regulate home schooling by targeting church schools, private schools, and private tutors with restrictions and fees. This attempt at regulation will probably appear in the next session of the legislature and I ask you to consider the consequences if these regulatory measures pass. I would like to offer you some background on the current legal environment of homeschooling and the specific goals of the ALSDE.

In the state of Alabama, parents are given three alternatives to public education for their children. The first option is to enroll their children in a private school. The second option is to enroll in a church school, which is “operated as a ministry of a local church, group of churches, denomination, and/or association of churches on a nonprofit basis which do not receive any state or federal funding” (Ala. Code §16-28-1[2]). Church schools are required to keep records of those students’ attendance and sends public school withdrawal forms to the local public school superintendent. Beyond these regulations, “according to an Alabama Attorney General’s opinion dated January 3, 1997, ‘[o]ther than the state laws requiring parents to report attendance and for church schools to report if a student is no longer in attendance at such a church school, there is no provision of Alabama law that permits or requires any state or local authority to regulate a church school’” (Homeschooling in the United States, HSLDA). The third option is for a publically certified Alabama teacher to privately tutor students. They are required to report a record of attendance and subject material directly to the county superintendent. They are required to tutor for a minimum of three hours within the hours of 8 AM to 4 PM for any 140 days of the year.

According to a report compiled by Top Masters in Education, gathered from research collected from 18 reliable sources, 87% of public school students scored lower than their homeschooled peers in academic achievement tests. Of the students sampled, only 49 % of publicly schooled students attended college, while 74% of home-schooled students continued to higher education. In a Likert scale, ranging from 1 for strong disagreement to 5 for strong agreement, 66% of formerly home-schooled students strongly agreed that homeschooling gave them an advantage as an adult. Homeschooling is not only good for students, it is good for our tax dollars. Whereas, on average, the government spends $9,963 on the education of a single child, a homeschool family spends, on average, $500 for an equivalent or better education. For further information and an excellent info-graphic demonstrating numerous statistics that highlight the positive qualities of home-schooling, I encourage you to visit http://www.topmastersineducation.com/homeschooled/.*

At the beginning of August 2013, State Superintendent Thomas Bice and the ALSDE attempted to bypass the legislature by using an emergency provision to impress regulations upon students who are not publically schooled. According to the PowerPoint (the original minutes of the meeting are no longer available) of the meeting ALSDE held July 25, 2013, the ALSDE intends to implement measures to require church schools to purchase a $500 exemption of certification, which is detailed on pages 5-11 of the slideshow. This exemption is required not only for private schools and church schools, but also for private tutors. Private tutors would be required to enroll in a church school and pay the exemption, despite the fact that if a person is tutoring students, that person is legally required to already be a publically certified school teacher in the state of Alabama, thereby making the additional “exemption” unnecessary. Effectively, ALSDE’s regulations would nullify private tutoring as an option in the state of Alabama.

Without the interference from multiple concerned homeschool groups, Governor Bentley’s hesitance to back ALSDE’s actions, and support from the Home School Legal Defense Association, the emergency implementation which would have bypassed legislative action, was delayed. The ALSDE still plans to implement these action steps as soon as they can, and their most likely course of action is to turn to the legislature. I ask that you vote against any and all measures to limit freedom of educational choice. If the legislature passes these regulations, my two younger sisters will not enjoy the same benefits of the education I received.

Thank you for your time,

Laura Beth Askelson

Works Cited

The Code of Alabama 1975, Education. http://alisondb.legislature.state.al.us/acas/codeofalabama/1975/coatoc.htm. 

Home School Legal Defense Association. http://www.hslda.org/about/default.asp.

“Homeschooling in the United States: A Legal Analysis, Alabama.” Home School Legal Defense Association. 2012.
http://www.hslda.org/laws/analysis/Alabama.pdf. 

“Home Schooled: How American Homeschoolers Measure Up.” Top Masters in Education. http://www.topmastersineducation.com/homeschooled/.

PowerPoint of 07/25/13 Agenda dealing with Non-Public Entities. Alabama State Department of Education.
http://the36review.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/nps-july-meeting-powerpoint-7-25-13.pptx


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