Anyone know how did HSLDA start?

[Cammie]

I know that people have issues with HSLDA and the way they operate/their policies/etc. However, the very fact that a legal defense association for homeschooling exists is a good thing IMHO.

 

Here in India we are in need of such an organization. The education minister has some very great ideas - but some of them will probably impact homeschooling families in a negative way. He is in the process of passing a Right to Education bill which would put more pressure on people to make sure that children are enrolled in school. He is attempting to address the very great problem here of young children in poor families who are not sent to school. The fact is that homeschoolers are such a teeny-tiny minority that they are not even on the radar when language for these types of legislation is drafted. A few of us want to start some type of legal defense association.

 

Any thoughts/information/advice would be appreciated.

[asta]

I know that people have issues with HSLDA and the way they operate/their policies/etc. However, the very fact that a legal defense association for homeschooling exists is a good thing IMHO.

 

Here in India we are in need of such an organization. The education minister has some very great ideas - but some of them will probably impact homeschooling families in a negative way. He is in the process of passing a Right to Education bill which would put more pressure on people to make sure that children are enrolled in school. He is attempting to address the very great problem here of young children in poor families who are not sent to school. The fact is that homeschoolers are such a teeny-tiny minority that they are not even on the radar when language for these types of legislation is drafted. A few of us want to start some type of legal defense association.

 

Any thoughts/information/advice would be appreciated.

 

Go to their website, click on the "25th anniversary" logo, click on "history", then, on the bottom of that page, click on "For more information, see ....." and there is a link there to a page with their entire history.

 

I don't wish to name anything off of their site or link anything that will be picked up by a search engine, as I feel they can promote their agenda all by themselves.

 

One thing I would say, however, is that the mechanism of establishing a Christian homeschooling organization in America would be slightly to significantly different then establishing one in India, which is over 80% Hindu.

 

 

asta

[Cammie]

 

One thing I would say, however, is that the mechanism of establishing a Christian homeschooling organization in America would be slightly to significantly different then establishing one in India, which is over 80% Hindu.

 

asta

 

I never said anything about establishing a "Christian" homeschooling organization. What I need is a model for a national homeschooling organization. Are there any others in the US that do legal defense type activities?

[tex-mex]

Texas Homeschool Coalition:

 

http://www.thsc.org/about_us/thsc_history.asp

[asta]

I never said anything about establishing a "Christian" homeschooling organization. What I need is a model for a national homeschooling organization. Are there any others in the US that do legal defense type activities?

 

That isn't what I was trying to say. Sometimes it is hard to get meaning across on the internet. What I am trying to say is that HSLDA is a special case (see below). Perhaps you could find something more representative on this list.

 

The HSLDA was created as a Christian homeschooling organization. If you read the page I directed you to, it has interviews with the men who came together to organize it. They were all lawyers, and they were all in agreement both constitutionally and religiously. Here is a quote from one of them:

 

That’s a case that we longed for, prayed for, worked for, for such a long time. It was the most significant victory—not just for HSLDA, but for home schoolers ever, anywhere, anytime, anyplace.

But the Robin Diegel case in Ohio is the most inspiring case ever. The day before the trial I flew out there and went to Mrs. Diegel’s home. I went out in her backyard, and we sat at the picnic table. I was getting her prepared for trial and was talking to her about her religious beliefs. It was obvious to me that she really didn’t know the Lord even though she had a high respect for the Word of God and was oriented toward Christian things. So I walked her through the steps of salvation, and she prayed to receive Christ that afternoon.

The next day I walked into the trial. The judge called us into his chambers and said, “Mr. Farris, I just read the Schmidt decision from the Supreme Court of Ohio. You lost that case. You’re going to lose this case, again today.†You know, I’ve been in courts where I thought the judge had made up his mind before we started, but I never had one openly tell me.

I went out, but I did not tell Robin what the judge said. I had told her the night before that I thought that God was going to do something really powerful in her case to welcome her to His family, and to go home and read the Bible. (I thought maybe she’d read the part in Deuteronomy about stoning false prophets.)

The prosecutor put his case on first. He called the superintendent. My turn to cross examine came up, and I asked a question I’ve never asked before and I never have asked since. It’s a dumb question. It’s objectionable really. I asked, “Did you get any legal advice before you decided to turn this lady down in her right to home school?†The superintendent should have said, “no.†What could I have said? Rather than do that he tried to justify himself. He said, “Well, I didn’t talk to any lawyers or anything like that but I talked to some government officials.†I said, “Well, like who?†He said, “Well, like the judge here.†I said, “You talked to this judge about this lady’s case before this thing ever came to court?†He said, “Yeah.†You should have seen the judge’s face. There was a newspaper reporter in the courtroom.

The judge called recess, and he took us back into the chambers. This time he was talking to the prosecutor. He said, “You find a way to approve this lady.†We had some pow-wows in the hall, and she got approved. We went out and announced that in court. The judge was very concerned that the newspaper reporter be informed that this case had been approved and none of this discussion business made it into the press. It turns out the judge just made a good faith mistake. He wasn’t being a bad guy. He was just a brand new judge and didn’t know what the rules were. It worked out. The one question that was the chink in their armor jumped into my head out of the blue. That illustrates better than anything I know who is really the advocate here. It’s not us. It’s God. That is the story of HSLDA—that God is our advocate, and we’re just the conduits.

 

 

asta