Greetings all -- I am hoping that you have gotten this news from other sources by now:  Thursday's executive session of the House Education Committee voted 14-6 to report HB368 without amendment and inexpedient to legislate (ITL).  Consideration of that report by the full 400 member House is scheduled for January 6.  The full House may accept or reject the report, and could amend the bill -- anything can happen, I suppose.  The most common outcome is that the full House accepts Committee reports.  We shall see. 

The committee room was opened into the adjoining room's space to accommodate what was still an overflow crowd of about 150 homeschoolers (if anyone did a careful count, could you let me know?).  The House Clerk, Karen Wadsworth, was on hand, apparently to assist in maintaining decorum and to be available to advise the Committee as it navigated five subcommittees worth of observations and recommendations.  Two state troopers amiably guarded homeschoolers stuck in the hallway. 

It is unfailingly wonderful to be part of an assemblage of homeschoolers.  It was great to see you all  -- I only regret that we couldn't get together afterward and just enjoy one another's company!  .

Last week, as my sixteen year old son and I contemplated what to expect today, I asked him what might happen that would take us by surprise.  The surprise Thursday came from a Republican state representative from Haverhill.  Rep. Rick Ladd had been appointed to the "probation" subcommittee which met once  for about 10 minutes as the eight month study period neared its end.  His group had recommended no change to its section of the law.  In a move that seemed to upstage Representatives Philip Harvey and Rachel Burke (who had headed the "evaluations" and the "definitions" subcommittees), those subcommittees' recommendations never got presented as individual amendments.  Instead, Rep.Ladd  brought forward an amendment that 1) combined government and history into "social studies" (more in keeping with minimum public school standards, noting that this would include geography),  2) left out computer literacy  3) doubled up the evaluation requirements by calling for both portfolio evaluations and testing,  4) called for rules for written evaluations to be adopted by the department of education (DOE), 5) allowed only tests approved by participating agents and test providers qualified by the DOE, and so on.  The Ladd amendment listed Reps Rous, Clarke, Harvey, Reever, and Day as supporters. 

So there is never a dull moment -- where was all this coming from, after scads of subcommittee meetings that produced no such recommendations?  After much discussion , the amendment failed on a 10-10 vote.

Rep Fleck made one of the most humane observations of the day:  Throughout the discussions that we have had on this bill and related matters, I have avoided making any comparisons between homeschooling, public schools, private schools or anything like that.  I do want to say that from the parents that I have talked with, and I think the committee members should have the same impression,  there is no more effective accountability than you would find with the parent homeschooling his or her child.  There is a moral and intellectual commitment that transcends anything that we might find anywhere else.  It's a self-enforcing mechanism.  We talk about public schools, and I taught in higher education for a good number of years, dealing with the administration of change and things like that.  Change in bureaucracies is not brought about very easily.  We can make that kind of change in the homes where parents really understand what they want for their children.  It's a philosophical argument; it gets away from the statistics that we like to deal with, but if you look at the results, I think that the homeschooling community represents accountability better than any other entity in education.

Perhaps one of the happiest moments was Rep Barbara Shaw's comments about her turnaround on homeschooling since she had arrived at the Education Committee and had gotten to know about homeschooling, saying it was like how when you first meet someone and don't like them, but after you get to know them, you realize they are not so bad after all.  That was worth the trip.  

Let's hope and work for similar sorts of experiences for other legislators!

Happy Thanksgiving all!  --  Mary