More Freedom to Improve Education Wanted for Home Educators in North Dakota

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

More Freedom to Improve Education Wanted for Home Educators in North Dakota

BOTTINEAU, ND January 11, 2011  North Dakota Home School Association NDHSA.org

The North Dakota Home School Association (NDHSA) initiated a House Bill (HB 1211) that will return some freedom to parents, to more fully direct the education of their own children in North Dakota. They claim that freedom from state regulation is the best way to improve educational results. 

Representative Chuck Damschen introduced this bill, which is cosponsored by Representative Bette Grande, Representative Dan Ruby, and Senator Margaret Sitte. The bill will allow families to officially count learning time which occurs outside the home (such as during field trips to a zoo or library), remove the burdensome requirement of weekly monitoring visits by state officials, and allow some parents to decide whether or not they want their children to take nationally standardized tests, based on their philosophical, moral or religious convictions about those tests.  It is hoped this bill will begin to change North Dakota’s reputation of being one of the worst places in the United States to home educate.

Where concerns are voiced about the possibility of “even one home educated child possibly falling through the educational cracks,” the NDHSA gently points to the Youth Health Risk Survey results for North Dakota’s public schools and demonstrates that the best way to close educational cracks is to
empower parents with both freedom and knowledge resources without state involvement, which is supported by both Biblical and Constitutional ideas.

The 2011 Christian Home Educators Conference is one example of an educational crack closing event which will be held at the Jamestown Civic Center on March 3-5, 2011.  Andrew Pudewa from the Institute for Excellence in Writing and Sherri Seligson from Apologia Science will be keynoting this conference.  There will be a special track for teens to experience a mock legislative session. Sixteen other workshops will be offered, covering a variety of topics from getting started in home schooling and teaching high school subjects, to apprenticeships and entrepreneurships. The conference will also include a family sharing night, art exhibit, used book sale, commercial exhibit hall, home school choir and more.  Adults and children from the public are welcome to register and attend this conference to close some of their own educational cracks, or to see why home education is the fastest growing mode of education.

The North Dakota Home School Association is a non-profit association which provides information, resources, guidance and encouragement to home educators through its newsletters, publications, legal support, legislative lobbying, support group network, and annual conference.  For more information about the 2011 homeschool bill or the March Jamestown convention, please visit their website: http://NDHSA.org, call their office: 701-263-3727, or email office@ndhsa.org. 

Newspaper, radio, and television interviews are available by contacting the Executive Director, Dr. James Bartlett.