To be an effective homeschool activist, you need to be:
- Familiar with your state home education laws
- Informed about legislative issues
- Well connected within your homeschool community and with your state legislators
- An articulate communicator
Becoming Familiar with State Laws
You shouldn’t drive without knowing the rules of the road, and you shouldn’t homeschool without knowing the laws of your state. Tap into a good local or state homeschool group for support, but remember they’re no replacement for first hand knowledge of the law.
- Familiarize yourself with the basics through a good support group.
- Then go to your state department of education website, or statutes site, and read the relevant laws for yourself.
- Cross reference what you read with interpretive information from your state group, and ask for clarification on any aspects of the law you may not understand.
Staying Informed
In addition to a good homeschool support group, connect with your state representatives. Drop them a line or call, introduce yourself and explain that you’d like to stay informed about issues that may affect home education in your state. It’s their job to keep you informed, but they need to know that you want to be.
Other good ways to stay informed include state e-newsletter updates for news and information about various state government departments. And Congress.org and Open Congress provide customizable alert systems to help keep you up to date on issues you feel are important.
The Well-Connected Homeschooler
Connecting with homeschoolers statewide is helpful in several ways. Statewide connections not only help you to see patterns or trends, but help give voice to different concerns in a more cohesive fashion. You don’t have to agree with other homeschoolers’ views on everything to share the common ground of homeschooling.
While you may not want to speak out on everything others find of concern, it’s valuable to be aware of various issues and to look for possible ramifications of bills or laws. It’s also important to be willing to support some of the concerns of others in order to establish good working relationships for the future.
Once you’ve introduced yourself to your legislators, stay in touch with them, especially with those in the Dept. of Education who are most connected with homeschooling. Meet them if at all possible. Many states host a “Home Education Day” at the state capitol. If your state doesn’t, consider organizing one through your state legislators. Keep the participatory democracy relationship in perspective: Legislators work for citizens, not the other way around. They are public servants, and homeschoolers shouldn’t feel subservient to them.
How to Speak Out Effectively
That said, legislators deserve the same respect and decency we expect from them. You can call, send regular mail or email. The advice for all three forms of communications are about the same:
- Contact your own state legislators, or relevant committee chairs in a timely fashion. (Contacting those for whom you are not a constituent won’t be as effective.)
- Address legislators properly. (Visit Congress.org for proper titles)
- Get right to the point: Whether calling or writing, identify the Bill and Bill Number in question, and clearly indicate what you want your Senator or Delegate do – vote yes or no, speak to other congress people, etc., in your opening words.
- Keep letters short, no more than two or three paragraphs.
- Limit your call or letter to only one issue, for clarity and effectiveness.
- Concisely state your position, and include any specific personal experience that’s relevant to your position.
- Request a specific follow up response from your legislators.
For more information, check out Grassroots Activism.
Theresa Willingham - My goal, as a writer and photographer, is to create thought provoking and informative content that inspires community engagement, and ...
