Updates Affecting Homeschool Freedom
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
This quote, attributed to Thomas Jefferson, reminds us of the watchfulness we homeschooling parents must maintain. The earlier generations of homeschooling parents, along with organizations like Home School Legal Defense, fought for the good homeschool regulations that we enjoy today.
However, there are often organizations or misguided people who would like to see that change.
In this summary of MACHE’s recent webinar with HSLDA’s Will Estrada, we highlight the positives of homeschooling in Maryland, along with the potential challenges.
Positives for Maryland homeschooling
We are blessed to work alongside HSLDA and individual homeschooling families to keep an eye on the workings of the State Department of Education and the current COMAR re-evaluations. Will Estrada and MACHE’s LaNissir James, along with other homeschool advocates, have discussed proposed changes with the DOE, as well as testifying in Annapolis on these important concerns.
Also, thanks to the many families who took the time to enter comments during the comment period on proposed regulation changes!
Another positive is the 45,000 homeschoolers in the state of Maryland. We are thankful that MACHE can help educate, encourage, and support families as they fulfill their God-given mission to home educate their children, while protecting their homeschool freedom.
One impactful MACHE event is the annual Capital Day. Last March 12th, around 500 homeschoolers attended our visit to the Maryland capital.
Other important MACHE events include our graduation, followed by our convention. In 2026, these will be held on May 15th and 16th. You don’t miss them!
Current challenges for Maryland homeschooling:
There are several potential challenges that MACHE and HSLDA are watching.
COMAR review
Every eight years, the Maryland State Department of Education makes of review of COMAR (Code of Maryland Regulations). This includes reviewing homeschooling regulations. During the public comment period, Maryland homeschooling families did a great job of recording their comments, while Will Estrada and LaNissir James spent time with the DOE superintendent and at the Capital.
However, this story is not over yet. Keep an eye out for alerts from MACHE and HSLDA for any further advocacy work or information that we may need.
Portfolio review oversteps
Some local school districts have been overstepping state regulations for portfolio reviews for families who choose that homeschool option. Some districts appear to want to micromanage homeschooling families’ education.
Maryland is an interesting state in that the regulatory structure is clear in some areas and vague in others. So, it’s a little bit of a balancing act sometimes in how we respond and push back with school districts. HSLDA and MACHE are working together on this issue as homeschooling families report difficulties.
Anti-homeschool Publications
Elizabeth Bartholet’s infamous anti-homeschooling article was published in The Harvard Law Review in 2020. She argued that the state should impose a presumptive ban on homeschooling, allowing an exception for parents who can satisfy a heavy burden of justification. The article lost most of its punch when the outcry against the publication was overwhelming, followed by a pandemic that added millions of students to the homeschool population.
In 2023, the Washington Post entered the fray with a six-part series called Homeschool Nation, which many of you likely remember. After the series, Matthew Hennessy, an editor at the Wall Street Journal, wrote, “The knives are out for homeschooling. How else to interpret the sudden spate of critical articles?” Referring to the Washington Post series he wrote, “Somebody, somewhere has decided that this experiment in liberty has gone on long enough.”
Recently, a Scientific American called on the Department of Education to enact nationwide standards regulating homeschooling, something the federal government does not have the power to do.
A recent ProPublica article weighed in. They asserted that too much homeschool liberty is a bad thing. (And in response, an Illinois legislator called for more regulation.)
The Coalition for Responsible Home Education
This is an organization that opposes homeschooling. They have introduced a model bill called The Make Homeschool Safe Act to the legislators in several states. The bill is an attempt to roll back the homeschool freedom that we enjoy.
As the model bill’s fundamental assumption is that many children are not safe in a homeschool environment, without significant government regulation. In support of that view, CRHE has spent over ten years assembling the Home Schooling’s Invisible Children database, which the authors describe as a collection of 400 cases of abuse and neglect resulting in over 200 fatalities of homeschooled children.
The stories in that database are heart-wrenching. The idea that any parent would forsake their highest duty to protect and care for their own children is almost unconscionable. It’s the opposite of what homeschooling is all about. (It should be noted that most of these children were also on Child Protective Services’ radar before homeschooling entered the picture.)
Some parts of CHRE’s Make Homeschool Safe model bill:
- Every homeschooling parent must have a high school diploma (research shows that the parent’s level of education does hinder success in homeschooling)
- Parents who have committed serious offenses cannot homeschool (this is superfluous, since these parents do not have access to their children)
- One subsection of the bill would bar any parents from withdrawing their children from public school if their family has been investigated by CPS in the previous three years, regardless of the reason for the investigations or the outcome of the investigation. Unfortunately, CPS reports are filed for any number of reasons. Some are legitimate. A child is being harmed, others are meritless, such as when somebody mistakenly believes a child isn’t in school when they are in fact being taught at home. Some reports are even malicious: a neighbor calls CPS to gain leverage in a property dispute.
But what the model bill gets wrong in our view is that it starts with the assumption that a startling number of parents are looking to use homeschooling to abuse their kids. The vast majority of parents sign up for homeschooling because they love their children and love them sacrificially.
Of course, parents who opt to make the sacrifice need to obey the law, and HSLDA and MACHE exist in part to help them do that.
BTW: You might know that one of their co-founders said that Germany is the model country when it comes to homeschooling. (Of course, we know that homeschooling is illegal in Germany.)
Keeping children safe
The millions of homeschoolers in the United States have access to safety without unnecessary regulations. For instance, HSLDS has a robust program for keeping children safe with the work of Darren Jones, who handles group services.
The results
We find ourselves in a position where both in the realm of academia and in the media channels, homeschooling finds itself under a critical eye. While we recognize that criticisms of homeschooling are certainly not new, we also recognize that the calls for regulation are increasing in frequency and in intensity, and from a wide variety of sources, many of which have large platforms and quite a wide reach.
These calls for increased regulation and oversight stem from a fundamental view that’s different and distinct from the one that many of us hold. Homeschooling parents’ view (and good research shows) is that children generally thrive in homeschooling, and it has produced incredible successes for children.
Children benefit when their parents are free to do what is best for them and are respected by the law.
Join HSLDA and MACHE
HSLDA’s mission is to see trends emerging and respond at the earliest opportunity, but we are humbly aware that we can’t defend homeschool freedom on our own.
Every single victory for homeschooling since HSLDA was founded has only come about through passionate and mobilized homeschool communities like MACHE.
When HSLDA and MACHE tell you what they see on the horizon and where they think it’s headed, it’s because they want you right alongside us. The challenges today are different from those homeschoolers faced forty years ago, but with the Lord’s guidance and help, working together in common cause, we can have confidence that he will give us all that we need to meet today’s challenges.
Will you join us?