CT Senate GOP Urges Homeschooling Community to Attend Monday Informational Hearing

Sen. Heather Somers, Sen. Eric Berthel, Sen. Jason Perillo, Sen. Rob Sampson, Sen. Henri Martin, Sen. Paul Cicarella, and Sen. Stephen Harding today urged Connecticut homeschooler families to attend a Homeschooling Informational Hearing at 2:00 PM on Monday, May 5 in Room 2 E of the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. (YouTube hearing link here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCraMimcKyMoYpb5ouHG71kw/live)

“We urge all homeschoolers to show up on Monday because your way of life is going to be negatively impacted,” the lawmakers said. “In the wake of the Waterbury tragedy where a young man was locked in a closet for 20 years, majority Democrats at the State Capitol now bizarrely want to attack homeschooling families.

Homeschoolers have nothing to do with the tragic situation in Waterbury. Instead of focusing on DCF and the Waterbury public school system on how and why that child fell through the cracks of the system, Democrats have targeted the 40,000 homeschoolers in our state who do an amazing job of educating their students outside of Connecticut’s education system.

So, without a public hearing to allow homeschooling families to speak out and stakeholders to provide input, majority Democrats want to shove through new regulations and state government mandated reporting requirements.

Our public schools are already struggling. They are already buried with reporting requirements. Now, state government is going to be putting 40,000 more students into the reporting system? Evaluating parents? Making parents comply?

That is insane.

The last thing state government should do is get in the middle of something that is working.

Homeschooling is working – and working tremendously well. Homeschooling allows for a flexible curriculum based on students’ interests and strengths. Homeschooled students are graduating and often graduating early. If they return to public school, they are often graduating at the top of their class.

And by the way, we all know our property taxes are too damn high. 75 % of most local budgets are funding the educational system. Newsflash to Democrats: Homeschoolers aren’t getting anything in return.

Homeschooled kids are safe, happy in their environment, and having great outcomes.

Why are we messing with that success?

Democrats are going to shove these intrusive mandates into the state budget implementer bill without a public hearing. Homeschoolers never had a chance to weigh in. They have been silenced by Democrats who control the state legislature.

This is once again the majority Democrat party in Connecticut trying to take control of people’s lives. It’s destructive and it’s wrong.”