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School versus Education

Posted on March 19, 2025

Where are 48% of our Public-Schooled Truants?

HB2827 with Amendment House Hearing, March 19, 2025

As I watched the committee hearing being broadcast live, just a few thoughts and questions came across my mind. It was stated over and over that the Bill is about truancy. It was stated that truancy in public schools has gone up every year. It is currently 48% within the public school system. Let that sink in. 48%. The truancy department of the BOE currently has 20 million dollars from our taxes to track and prevent truancy. 20 million dollars. And they would like more.

AND YET with 20 million dollars at their disposal, truancy has only INCREASED. As a homeschool parent, who successfully graduated and launched all my homeschooled children, and as the current director of a homeschool program, my question to HB2827 writers and supporters is this:

Clearly truancy is increasing in the public schools. Nearly HALF of ALL public schooled students are truant in Illinois. Why is no one asking the fundamental question, which would be WHY are students truant from the public school system in the first place? And WHY is 20 million dollars not able to address this question? I would contend that public school teaches kids to HATE school. Schools are rife today with sexual abuse, bullying (by teachers as well as students), lack of any kind of discipline, inefficient educational practices, and rising suicide rates. THIS is why students are truant. Why is this problem and the 20 million currently being spent on ‘truancy’ not being asked about or addressed? 

The idea that homeschooled students are truant is ridiculous. Homeschoolers perform 25% BETTER on academic testing. The idea that the State wants to go after homeschooled students for supposed ‘truancy’, while neglecting the reason that so many public schooled students are truant in the first place remains unanswered and unexplained. The whole idea of truancy in a homeschool is a ridiculous idea anyway. Homeschoolers are schooled ALL DAY LONG. 100 percent of the time. “All of life is learning” for a homeschooler. My own education, though I hold an MBA, has been Completely Redeemed by being a homeschool teacher. I was mindlessly bored in public school and could not get away fast enough to begin Real Learning.

TCH gave a teary account of her desire to protect children who have been harmed by their parents. Certainly, all of us desire to do this. But a ‘registration’ Bill Will Not Accomplish this. Her stance throughout the hearing was condescending and arrogant. She spoke with slow and sarcastic speech and repeated herself over and over in a manner that suggests the people who oppose this Bill are slow in understanding.

She states that she represents the child who is being abused. Yet children in public schools are not currently protected and abuse cases in public schools are far higher. This bill would do absolutely NOTHING to protect children, homeschooled or otherwise, and when asked this very question on how the Bill would protect the children, she could not provide an answer. Many homeschooled children have in fact been pulled out of a public school system that was abusive and are now thriving as homeschooled students.

Amy Elik, on the other hand, was a powerhouse in her speech during the hearing. She eloquently and clearly, asked many questions which TCH and the BOE simply could not answer and stumbled in their speech in attempting to do so.

There are currently millions of our tax dollars being spent on a broken, failing and corrupt system. There is undeniable evidence that the children trapped in this system are not being educated. On the other hand, we as homeschoolers have paid tens of thousands of tax dollars to support the public school system. We have received Zero benefit from them, all the while funding our own schools out of our own pocket. We ask nothing and want nothing from them.

The fact that This is the system that legislatures want to put our children under, to ‘protect’ them is both egregious and insulting.

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After vigorous testimony and debate in a hearing that went far beyond its allotted time, after 48K witness slips opposing the Bill, (versus less than 1000 approving), after thousands of individuals came to the Capitol in respectful and peaceful opposition to the Bill, it was Passed 8-4, completely down party lines.  

This tragically indicates how out of touch Illinois representatives are, how nefarious their desire to control and place our children under the authority of the State and their own worldview, and how corrupt our system really is. The eight representatives who voted ‘approval’ of the Bill today ignored the largest opposition count in recorded history, ignored their constitutional duty to represent the people of the state of Illinois (and not to tyrannize them), and instead followed their own interests to push an unfunded mandated Bill like HB2827.

A failing, abusive, and grossly inefficient government school system will not help anyone, least of all the tens of thousands of currently thriving homeschooled children. A number which is growing specifically because of the failing public educational system, the same system that TCH and supporters think will somehow ‘protect’ and ‘save’ our children. The only thing our children need to be protected from are the individuals and systems who would seek to dismantle our constitutional rights and freedoms.

HB2827

Posted on March 17, 2025

# More Than Just a Homeschool Bill

HB2827 with Amendment, filed 3/13/2025

I have taken the time to read every word of both the original HB2827 and the ‘Amended’ HB2827 and will be summarizing some of my thoughts and responses below. I urge every parent, every citizen to read the Bill in its entirety as it is a chilling assault not just on homeschooling families, but on all who desire to remain free in America.

The proponents of the Bill, caught off guard by the level of opposition, (currently 31,000 opposed and 600 approved), postponed the hearing on the Bill (originally scheduled for March 12, 2025, and added an Amendment. The Amendment, filed on 3/13/2025, changes absolutely nothing in the Bill, in fact it is 15 pages longer.

Clearly, they’ve not met very many homeschoolers if they assume that they will be going away quietly. In a further attempt to thwart the legal and democratic process, new ‘witness slips’ in support or opposition to the new amended Bill will not become available likely until Tuesday- the day before the hearing, when they convene in Springfield again.

In the Amended Bill: P. 1 and 2 ‘explain’ that Homeschooling is the fastest growing form of education in the United States. Under a free market economy, a failing institution necessitates the need to create alternatives. This is exactly what has happened with the public school system. The dismally failing public system has created a flood of students who have fled from a dangerous and ineffective system and opted for a better system. And so, the State now seeks to ‘protect’ those children who are being homeschooled. Yet there is zero evidence to suggest that homeschooled students are being abused. In fact, homeschooled students do better by Every Measure (Alex Neuman, Illinois Homeschoolers Under attack) (https://libertysentinel.org/illinois-homeschoolers-under-attack/).

The Bill requires all homeschool parents to ‘register’ with the State Department of Education. Registration will include a myriad amount of information on the child and parent and must be updated every school year. Failure to comply may result in fines or jailtime. Certain information within the Homeschool Declaration form will be retained by the Department of Education for a period of up to 5 years.

A portfolio will be required to present ‘evidence’ of the child’s education across the subjects (the subject requirement is already a law and not necessary) and sampling, testing, etc., required to prove that the child is ‘performing’ up to the public school ‘standards’. Never mind that it has been unequivocally proven for years now that homeschoolers outperform their public schooled counterparts on average 15-20% higher on national tests. Additionally, 20-30% higher number of homeschoolers over public-schoolers will attend a higher education facility and will matriculate.

Under section 2-3.25, a “lawful school” is defined as any school registered under the State Board of Education and under the Homeschool Act. They further state that the “fundamental goal of the People of the State is the educational development of all persons to the limits of their capacities” and that “the educational development of every school student serves the public purposes of the State.”

As human beings, and citizens of a free society, the purpose of education is absolutely not in service of the State. The purpose of education is to grow ourselves to our fullest potential, to glorify God (not the State), and to serve our communities and mankind, Not the State.

Section 26-16 provides graduation ‘incentives’ for Illinois students under a myriad of ‘dropout’ reasons, among these citing a student who ‘was formerly enrolled in a homeschool program with less academic rigor than such graduate academic incentive (alternative) programs.” This is again simply laughable considering what we Know to be true about homeschool graduates.

Section 920 defines the limits of a “school” to be a public institution only and further requires a Student Permanent Record to be kept by the public school which ‘may’ (i.e. subjective to the school) include various information including disciplinary infractions, mental health and psychological information, intelligence testing, and ‘any other information of clear relevance to the education of the student’. (i.e. read any other information…). This same section defines a “parent” as “a natural parent or a person with the responsibility for the care and upbringing of the student.” Anyone who has had any association with adoptive families would know that this type of language (a ‘natural’ parent) is archaic and insulting.

Section 6 further contends that this information gathered by the State public school system, and kept for up to 5 years after graduation, is allowed to be  disseminated to the following groups: the records custodian of another school, any school with “demonstratable educational or administrative interest in the student”, any person for the “purpose of research, statistical reporting or planning”, and to any Juvenile Court to which the student may be referred to.

A government or social service agency may at any time investigate a student’s compulsory attendance records or may require the student portfolio to be examined. And finally, the ‘sharing of student information must be voluntary and at the discretion of the school’. (i.e. not the parent). This information literally means that the Public School and not the Parent would have complete control over every student every day of the year.

The Amendment to HB2827 increased the Bill from 45 to 60 pages. It goes to unmitigated lengths to strip parents and their children of human rights in a democratic state. It threatens every citizen in every state- public, private, and homeschooled students, parents and all individuals who desire to live in a free society.

HB2827 tears at the very fabric of democracy in America, hijacking our children and placing them under the authority of the State. No society will remain free if such measures are allowed to be taken by the government, a government whose job in a democratic society is to protect its citizens and not to control them or to take them.

This is not just a fight for homeschool freedom or freedom in education, this is a fight for all human beings in America to be allowed to flourish and to remain free thinking individuals, not robots in service of the State.

Children are Born Persons

Posted on October 23, 2022

“Children are born persons” is the first of Charlotte Mason’s Principles of Education and the foundation on which all the other principles lie. Susan Schaffer Macaulay states that “it is not some minor element of a greater truth. It is a central truth in its own right.”

The idea of a child as a born person is that we are to respect and take seriously the child as an already formed person. That does not mean that they are already educated, but that within themselves lays the ability and power to educate themselves. A teacher cannot ‘force’ learning upon a child as much as we may try. A child is not an empty vessel, waiting to be poured into by the parent or educator, but within him/her already lays the God-given capacity to respond to ideas and knowledge. Furthermore, they are hungry for knowledge- not facts and information, but true knowledge.

At Eagle’s Wing, the principle of “Children are Born Persons” is the core of our principles and who we are. A child of any age and any capacity can thrive with a Charlotte Mason education. This means practically, that we do not adhere to grade-level ‘standards’ or expectations. (These ‘standards’ are completely arbitrary and manmade anyway and did not even exist before about fifty years ago.) Rather, we respect all individuals in all their varying capacities and methods to learn.

The child who excels in their scholastic efforts is given the ability to dig deeply and to learn much. They develop a thirst for knowledge and a lifestyle of learning that goes far beyond their ‘schooling’ years. For a child who struggles with the skills of academia, the teacher-parent can respond to the abilities of that individual child, serving the child first, and not the curriculum. All children will thrive under this principle of respect. Charlotte tells us that in her schools, “every child is discovered to be a person of infinite possibilities.” Every child.

As parent-educators, this should greatly put our minds at ease. We are not responsible for the whole of their education, (and we must not forget that education lasts a lifetime). We are simply responsible to spread the feast before them and dig in together with them, not prodding them, but ‘allowing then to stand or fall by their own efforts’.

Charlotte Mason says,

It would be better for boys and girls to suffer the consequences of not doing their work, now and then, than to do it because they are so urged and prodded on all hands they have no volition in the matter. The more we are prodded the lazier we get, and the less capable of the effort of will which should carry us to, and nearly carry us through, our tasks. Boys and girls are, on the whole, good, and desirous to do their duty.

Volume 6, Philosophy of Education

This is difficult in the short run, but in the long run will develop students who are responsible for their own learning and their own selves, and who will indeed become the men and women God intended them to be.

Susan Schaffer Macaulay tells us that,

“He (the child) is a separate human being whose strength lies in who he is, not is who he will become.” Parents, often especially homeschooling parents, fall prey to the lie that we can ‘shape’ our children.

For the Children’s Sake

As parents and educators, we can guide our children, we can place the feast of truth, goodness and beaty before them, but we cannot and should not try to shape our children. Only the Holy Spirit within them can do that.

A Day at Eagle’s Wing!

Posted on February 15, 2020

Are you interested in what a day looks like at Eagle’s Wing Learning Center? Watch this short introductory video to learn more about Eagle’s Wing Co-School and our educational philosophy!