Each state has its own rules and regulations because each state is different. Washington has the kind of law it has because that was the best we could do at the time. It worked like this:
First we studied the existing laws regulating compulsory attendance. In Washington private schools are required to have certified teachers. They are required to have school a certain number of days (it's NOT "liberally construed" for private schools), and are required to teach the 11 subjects (ditto). In addition, they must have the school building inspected and approved. Before the law was passed some moms who were also certified teachers did create "schools" for their children in order to homeschool them. I was acquainted with some of them. They had to have split toilet seats installed, locks on all bedroom doors, all basement window wells covered, build a wooden railing around their front door steps, etc. Of course there was a fee to be paid for the inspection of the "school" and another fee for its approval by OSPI.
About four or five states had already passed specific homeschool laws by the time we were ready to start working on ours. I researched all these states' laws and borrowed the parts that sounded good to me, such as the parent rights clause ("All decisions ... shall be left up to the parent," after the FL law).
Then I studied court cases down at the Gonzaga Law Library, because some states had gone that route, having compulsory attendance eliminated in the courts, usually due to vagueness and difficulties of enforcement (I believe this was the case in Texas). I also lifted some of the language from these legal cases to use in the lobbying effort. My favorite was the landmark Supreme Court case of Pierce v. Society of Sisters. But there were many others to review. I noticed that while some courts favored parents rights, they all seemed to come down in favor of accountability and the discussion revolved around the prerogative of the state to ensure an educated electorate v. the right of parents to direct the education and upbringing of their children.
Since some of the states had no regulation of private school (I believe S. Carolina is one where you don't have to be a certified teacher to teach in a private school), naturally those states worked on having homeschoolers come under that provision of their law.
Here in Washington we had at that time one of the worst circumstances for homeschooling. Not only was there no loophole in the existing regulations, but we even had precedent-setting cases in the courts where in one case a public school teacher was found guilty of truancy for teaching his 8 year-old at home. In another case a mother with a college degree (but no certificate) managed to get away with teaching her kids for several years in the '50s and was able to show the court some test scores to prove they were up to grade level. Nevertheless, she was still found guilty and prosecuted for truancy.
When it came down to the actual lobbying, by far the majority of legislators told me they would vote for it if the bill included testing. One, Rep. Ren Taylor who had been a school superintendent, said they didn't want to actually see the test scores ("That would be adding to our work load...") but he still insisted on the testing clause so that "at least the parent will be aware of any deficiencies."
As we approached the final passage of the bill, it became evident that certain powers were going to block it. The issue revolved around the qualification of parents. It was Rep. Applewick who said the bill was guaranteed to pass if we'd accept that parents simply aren't qualified and therefore must work under the supervision of a teacher. My response was that we could never accept such an idea and there would be no homeschool law unless the Legislature trusted in the fact that parents have their children's best interest at heart and recognized that parents have a right to teach their children as they see best.
In order to get through the impasse, it was necessary to propose a compromise. Someone suggested a college degree. But many of us would not or could not afford to go that route. Finally a group of Spokane homeschooling parents came up with the idea of a qualifying course. In the end this was accepted, although after the bill was passed, the governor was induced to block it for the same reason as before: teachers should be in the picture (jobs?). I hastily wrote a letter to the governor pointing out all the reasons why we could not have such a requirement, and that many of the homeschoolers opposed even this much regulation. He finally signed it into law as it was passed.
Through the years people have tried to change the law, or interpret it in different ways. There was even an attempt by certain homeschooling teachers to define what the qualifying course should be, which I strongly opposed as a move to standardize homeschooling. But we have managed to preserve the law virtually intact until now. About ten years ago when it became very difficult to obtain the standardized tests, we considered changing that clause. But our friend at OSPI, Barbara Mertens, pointed out that there were people just waiting for such a move so they could come in and change the whole thing beyond recognition.
Since it is a homeschool law, they cannot make major changes without the homeschooling community being consulted. But as we have seen, the homeschooling community in this state is anything but cohesive. We have a hard time agreeing on anything and this is just what the Washington Education Association and others can count on to destroy what freedom we have. Get us fighting among ourselves, and they can put their teachers back in charge of the whole thing.
Having said all that, I could see making some small carefully planned modifications which over several years might bring about the desired changes. I would be happy to coordinate such an endeavor if there was enough support for it because for one thing, with education reform the whole standardized testing issue may go by the wayside and why should we be the only ones still required to use them? Well, there's your history lesson for the day...
--Kathleen McCurdy
