Home Schoolers Protest Registration Bill

Hundreds of home schooling parents and their children descended on the Capitol today to defend what they contend is a lifestyle choice.
Rep. Jack HOOGENDYK (R-Kalamazoo) and Rep. Bill HUIZENGA (R-Zeeland) encouraged the crowd to let lawmakers know that efforts to extend the state's reach further into the home-schooled community just weren't going to fly.
"The constitution doesn't mandate that every child get an education," Hoogendyk said. "That's the job of the parents."
Specifically, the two lawmakers were riling up the audience over a Rep. Brenda CLACK (D-Flint) bill, Track this Bill HB 5912, which would require parents who chose to home school to register their kids with their local school districts.
The ever-independent home-school community simply doesn't like the concept of having to register to exercise something they view as a God-given right.
"This is what it is all about," Huizenga told the crowd. "Coming out here as a home school parent and as a home school kid and putting a face on this."
The Zeeland Republican said Lansing politicians need to see real home schooling parents and children in order to break the prevailing stereotype.
Clack said the issue to her is about accountability, and nothing more.
A grandparent from her district turned her onto the issue when he spoke of his daughter, who claimed she was "home schooling" her child, but, in his opinion, was not. Who is to judge one-way or the other? Clack asked. Who is to say home-schooled children are prepared when they enter a local high school?
While Track this Bill HB 5912 doesn't address these issues, she said the state should, at the very least, know who is being home schooled.
Claims that the hidden reason behind the legislation is so the compiled information could be given to the military for draft purposes are "asinine," Clack said.
Hoogendyk pointed out that the numbers show that children educated at home get, in many cases, a better education than those who go through the traditional public school system.
"Seventy-four percent of home schooled kids have taken college level courses, compared to 46 percent of non home-schooled kids," he said in his opening remarks aimed at riling up the home school crowd.