by Dick Hall-Sizemore

Gov. Glenn Younger has been reading Kerry Dougherty’s columns too much. He announced that he will veto SB 1031, dealing with religious exemption from sending one’s children to school.

“I am a strong supporter of homeschooling and will always support the rights of parents to homeschool their children,” he declared. He needs to read the bill.

Under current law, parents may choose not to send their kids to school on the basis of their “bona fide religious training or belief.” A parent may also choose to educate his child at home for other reasons. If the parents choose to homeschool their child, they must provide evidence that one of them is qualified to teach or evidence that an on-line learning program will be used. In addition, parents must provide to the local superintendent a list of the subjects that will be taught and, at the end of the year, evidence that an “adequate level of progress” has been made. The evidence of progress can be a score on a standardized test or a letter from a certified teacher or someone with a master’s degree of higher who has knowledge of the child.

The proposed legislation would require that parents who have a religious objection to sending their children to school meet the same requirements that apply to parents who choose to homeschool their children for other reasons.

No one is being denied the right to homeschool their children under the provisions of the bill. If the governor is opposed to the bill, he, in effect, is saying that he supports parents being able to keep their kids out of school on religious grounds and provide them no education whatsoever.