President Donald Trump has begun his second term with an energetic flurry of action. As he continues his relentless pace, it is worth remembering that before his election last November, he expressed support for homeschooling as a great educational option.
He’s right.
The freedom to homeschool enjoyed by Americans is indeed a unique one that we should not take for granted. It was not long ago that those freedoms were far more restricted than they are today. Many other countries still place onerous restrictions on or even outright prohibit homeschooling, making America’s freedom to homeschool even more unique.
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The freedom to homeschool enshrines and protects the important right for parents to direct the education of their own children in accordance with the values of their family. It plays an integral role in protecting the family nucleus that lies at the heart of American society.
As president of the Home School Legal Defense Association, the nation’s largest homeschooling advocacy organization, I am frequently asked, “What can the federal government do for homeschoolers?”
Our response is always the same: We don’t want government handouts. Instead, we want more freedom to choose homeschooling and fewer barriers for homeschooled children to enter the adult world. Our work to expand the boundaries of homeschool freedom is best left to the states.
But there are some barriers getting in the way of homeschooled children that the federal government could help remove.
In the early years of the modern homeschooling movement, the qualifications of homeschool graduates were viewed with suspicion by colleges, the military, trade schools, and some employers, especially state and local governments. The proven success of homeschooling graduates over the last few decades has helped lower or remove many of those barriers.
Today, colleges from the Ivy League to local community colleges and all branches of the military actively recruit homeschool graduates. But a few enclaves stubbornly continue to discriminate.
For example, trade licensing boards. We recently sued New Jersey’s cosmetology board because it refused to license a homeschool graduate even though she had successfully completed all the coursework and had passed the test.
Why?
Because it did not recognize homeschooling as a valid high school education — for her or any other homeschooler.
While the board ultimately relented and issued the license, this scenario has popped up repeatedly. We have had frequent run-ins with the phlebotomy board in California, cosmetology boards around the country, sheriff’s departments, and other public employers that have had blanket rules against recognizing homeschooled children as high school graduates. Sometimes, HSLDA can intervene, but more often, because litigation takes time, the young adult is forced to get a GED or associate’s degree. They just want to get to work.
The federal government could remove this barrier by requiring any recipient of federal funds to recognize homeschooling as a way to complete high school on par with public and private schools. This would apply whether they be educational institutions, trade schools, or public employers.
A second barrier is hidden in the byzantine regulations of the Department of Labor. For 14- and 15-year-old teenagers to work, they must get a work permit, which is a state-administered process. But federal regulation 29 CFR 570.35(b), which affects certain employers, only permits hiring a teenager “outside school hours,” defined as “the hours that the local public school district where the minor resides while employed is in session during the regularly scheduled school year.”
In other words, a privately educated student’s work hours are restricted by the public school schedule. Suppose a child attends a faith-based private school that takes Easter week as spring break, while the local public school does not. That child would not be permitted to work on any of those days until after the public school closes for the day.
One of the great benefits of homeschooling is its flexibility. Homeschools are not required to follow the public school calendar or hours, so why should a homeschooled teenager’s work opportunities be artificially restricted by public school schedules? That is especially true today as more young people are exploring apprenticeship options to enter high-paying blue-collar trades rather than taking on enormous college debt. This regulation should be revised to ensure that homeschooled and other privately educated students’ work opportunities are linked to their own school schedule, not that of the public schools.
Another barrier for families considering homeschooling can be the expense of privately educating a child. Homeschooling can be successfully pursued on a tight budget, but some parents need extra help. One of my organization’s charitable missions is to provide financial help in obtaining curriculum for families who have lost a parent or been devastated by a disaster, such as Hurricane Helene or the Los Angeles wildfires. Generous donors have allowed us to help thousands of families over the years with millions of dollars in grants.
While our donors may be eligible for a charitable gift deduction from their federal income tax, a bill currently before Congress would encourage similar private philanthropy on a much larger scale. Under the Educational Choice for Children Act, generous donors to nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations would receive a 100%, nonrefundable tax credit — not just a deduction. The scholarship-granting organization would then help lower-income families afford to educate their children privately.
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Using the federal tax code to encourage private philanthropy is a time-honored tradition. The ECCA would encourage those with plenty to help families with less to pursue the best private education for their children. That’s a win-win we support.
We believe that homeschooling is good for children, families, and society. If we remain vigilant, homeschooling can continue to flourish.
Jim Mason is the president of the Homeschool Legal Defense Association.