Let us propose a new law which requires car owners to notify the town clerk each year, 9 months prior to registering your car, of your intentions and, no later than 30 days after your vehicle inspection, to send another notification letting the DMV know where you intend to have your car inspected the following year.   Oh, and if this is your first car, you must also indicate all the detailed items to be inspected in a special planning report, this because you may not take car ownership seriously.   The bill would require the State send $12M to the towns to cover the cost of collecting these notifications and anyone missing a notification date would, by force of law, have their car towed and impounded indefinitely.   Why would we need such a law?   "Precisely because there is no problem", we must now hold car owners more accountable.

Sounds absurd?   Yet, this is exactly what Senator Iris Estabrook wants home educators to do.   In a bewildering rampage against home schools, her bill SB337 saddles home schools with all sorts of confusing deadlines, dates and paperwork.   Senator Estabrook presided over a public hearing to review her own bill, and with a lack of decorum reminiscent of previous hearings, showed a condescending contempt for the public attendees, many of whom lost a day's pay to be there, all of whom opposed the bill.

Hearing Summary:

The Public Hearing of SB337 by the Senate Education Committee was held in SH103 at 8:45 AM, February 5, 2008.

The hearing room was full with some attendees standing.   Senator Estabrook, the bill sponsor, introduced the bill and then, conveniently, chaired the meeting.   She introduced several surprise amendments to the bill and as Chairperson to the proceeding, refused to make these available to public attendees leaving many confused about what was actually being considered.   Estabrook began her testimony with a bitter acknowledgement that home education was working, saying she did not want to spend the next hour hearing about home education successes.   She then stunned the sensible by stating that precisely because there was no problem to solve, we must now make a new law to hold home educators more accountable.   Estabrook reasoned her bill would provide a safety net for potential problems and discourage those who don't take education seriously by forcing parents to submit curriculum planning paperwork.   Estabrook, a Democrat, complained that this paperwork requirement had been hastily removed from the law on a party line vote last year.   (Fact check: HB406, which eliminated this unnecessary paperwork actually passed with bipartisan support and was signed by a Governor Lynch, also a Democrat.)   Estabrook added insult to absurdity when she suggested that this bill could prevent abusive situations, insinuating these were happening already, but provided not a shred of evidence of even a single abuse case.   Roberta Tenney, working for the Education Department, was the only other person to speak in favor of the legislation.   Senators asked both Tenney and Estabrook about the $12M/year price tag for the bill, clearly skeptical that the State needed to pay towns for home school oversight.   Tenney admitted the Department had no data supporting the need for this extra spending.

SB337 Bill Summary:

SB337 is a giant step backwards for home schools.   It would put back into the law several confusing requirements which were eliminated in past sessions and add a requirement that parents notify for every child, every year, by August 1st and no later than 30 days following an evaluation.   No other students have such an incredible list of legal requirements.   The bill would also cost the State an average of more than $12M/year, yet there is no data supporting the need for this spending.