This list was design to provide a forum to Utah homeschoolers to discuss politics that effect them in one way or another.

An advisory group concerned with educating people about the need to eliminate government involvement in education and the rights of parents to educate their own children. On this site, you will find a public proclamation for the separation of school and state, which you can sign.

This list is created to be a means of informing, documenting and evaluating available information concerning the impact of virtual/charter schools on the homeschooling community. This information consists of and is not limited to news items, articles from various sources, legislative information (bills, law changes), documented efforts and experiences and other information that may give weight to whether home-based charter schools or virtual schools are having an impact in any negative way on homeschooling.

Twenty years ago, home education was treated as a crime in almost every state. Today, it is legal all across America, despite strong and continued opposition from many within the educational establishment. How did this happen? This paper traces the legal and sociological history of the modern home school movement, and then suggests factors that led to this movement's remarkable success.

While many parents may not have the opportunity to influence legislation regarding home education on the state level, there are ways to be involved on a local level.

Text of the summary provided by assistant to the Attorney General, John S. McAllister, to State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Scott Bean.

Your children are safest at home. It is an unhappy fact of our crumbling, anti-family society that government social services are sometimes out of control and innocent people are being accused and their children taken. Utah is particularly bad.

Do the public school authorities feel threatened by homeschooling? Judging by their efforts to lure homeschooling families into dependence on local school districts, the answer is apparently yes. For the last several years, homeschooling has been the fastest growing educational alternative in the country. The sheer number of homeschoolers represent a distinct threat to the hegemony of the government school monopoly. Qualitatively, the academic success of homeschoolers, measured by standardized test scores and recruitment by colleges, debunk the myth that parents need to hire credentialed experts to force children to learn.

Homeschoolers have been vigilant in protecting their rights, rising to the occasion when they discover threats to clamp down on their activities. Discusses some of the criticisms by opponents of homeschooling, along with the examples of some legal fights in Connecticut and Montana.

Details the importance of support alternative educational choices, including private schools and vouchers, along with homeschooling.

Some veteran home educators seem to take a firm stand on principles that others don't even recognize as issues. Is it that they are just stubborn, rebellious, or cantankerous? Probably not.

Families homeschooling for the first time inevitably have questions about legal challenges or threats that they might face from local or state education authorities. Those who do seek an answer to these questions are often faced with a confusing array of laws, policies, and regulations that not only vary from state to state, but also between school districts, and school officials within the same state or district.

The State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Scott Bean, asked the Utah Attorney General's Office ten questions regarding home education. An assistant to the Attorney General, John McAllister, responded by writing an informal opinion termed The McAllister Letter. This is relevant to current and prospective home schoolers in Utah because many public educators have responded as if it were law. That this informal opinion is not law is clearly stated in the last paragraph of the letter: "This advice has not been reviewed or approved by the Attorney General and does not constitute a legal opinion of the Attorney General's Office." The McAllister Letter was written on February 14, 1997 and some home schoolers have called it "The Valentine's Day Massacre Letter."

A bill shielding homeschooling parents from requirements that they meet state credential standards and give public school officials records of what they teach passed unanimously in both houses of the Utah legislature in February 2005. Senate Bill 59, sponsored by freshman Sen. Mark Madsen (R-Lehi), also prevents school boards from requiring homeschool students to take standardized tests.

The education establishment has realized that the socialization issue will be seen for the red herring that it is, and has searched for other means to suppress homeschooling. Two new strategies have emerged, and these pose real threats to homeschooling. The first strategy is to argue that homeschooling needs some form of accreditation. A number of reasons have been offered: it eases the transition back to the public school for those homeschoolers who go back, it is the basis for awarding a recognized diploma, and it makes it easier to provide homeschoolers access to public school programs and facilities such as science classes, libraries, sports, etc. But accreditation is simply another word for conforming, and the desire to not conform is the fundamental reason for choosing to homeschool. Homeschoolers as a group will not be seduced nor will they be tricked by the false promises of accreditation. The second strategy for suppressing homeschooling is one that is much more likely to be successful, and it is to drastically limit homeschoolers’ access to public higher education. In this, the education establishment has discovered its only effective weapon against homeschooling.

Although a credit or deduction could be helpful for homeschoolers, HSLDA opposes any tax break legislation that could come with governmental regulations. Homeschoolers have fought far too long and much too hard to throw off the chains of government regulation that hinder effective education and interfere with liberty. It would be inconsistent and foolhardy to accept tax incentives in exchange for government regulation. However, HSLDA supports tax credits that promote educational choice without threatening any regulation of homeschoolers. - See more at: http://nche.hslda.org/docs/nche/000010/200504150.asp#sthash.tvLv2ItR.dpuf

A look at the battle for the homeschooling movement and the demographics of homeschooling families that challenges the notion that all homeschoolers are conservative fundamentalists. This article is a critical look at the HSLDA.