CORRECTING THE RECORD: Favorable homeschool bill not passed in 1985 as reported by Wall Street Journal on 7/17/2010

Stephen Moore, senior economics writer for Wall Street Journal editorial pages, wrote a very lengthy and informative piece on Sharron Angle’s campaign to defeat Harry Reid printed in the weekend edition July 17-18, 2010 and posted online at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704682604575369093396496532.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Of interest to homeschoolers is her role in the homeschool movement in Nevada that he mentions about half way through. Regrettably, however his facts aren’t correct on what happened to us here in NV and implies that Sharron won the battle in 1985 which was not the case as we all know. The following correction was posted in the comments section (pg. 9, #216) to his piece which is probably irrelevant to most but to Nevada homeschoolers, who worked so hard from 1983 to 2007 to make homeschooling free, it is not.

Just to clarify a point regarding Sharron’s service to NV home school parents. Although there were “homeschooling” bills proposed in the 1983 and 1985 NV Legislative sessions to change the existing 1947 law and Mrs. Angle did participate in those fights, both bills died and did not become law.

The result was that the NV State Board of Education was empowered for the next 24 years to regulate the rights of parents to educate their own children. And regulate they did; making NV one of the most restrictive states to home school in during that time. It took dedicated home school parents 20 years of fighting the NV State Board of Education to scale back some of the most restrictive regulations.

In 2006, Assemblywoman Sharron Angle sought relief for home school parents by requesting a Homeschool Freedom Bill. The bill was picked up State Senator Maurice Washington and championed by Sharron (who had given up her Assembly seat to run for Congress in ’06) for the 2007 NV Legislative session.

Nevada Homeschool Network (a statewide homeschool advocacy group established in 2002 and built on the work of homeschool parents before them) authored the bill and worked with Senator Washington and Sharron to usher the bill through the NV Legislature to a unanimous vote of approval in both houses. The bill was signed into law on June 14, 2007.

Of most significance is that the law removed home schooling from the jurisdiction of the NV State Board of Education and grants freedoms delineated in both the US and NV Constitutions. It is this kind of dedication to upholding the Constitution and the rights of all NV citizens that exemplifies Sharron’s record.

Sharron’s candidacy has served to bring the Homeschool Movement front and center on the national scene. We are most grateful to Sharron’s constant support of parental rights.