Wolf in sheep's clothing

Nothing in the homeschooling community makes me angrier than the Homeschooling Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). It's a wondeful scam. A group of uber right wing, Christian fundamentalist, Republican, neoconservative males hit on the perfect way to fund their political action group.

They purport to support homeschoolers for all their legal problems. What they do in reality is use push right wing, political agendas. Right now they are supporting Huckabee for president. If I see one more headline about homeschoolers supporting Huckabee I am going to throw up. Please people, homeschoolers do not support Huckabee. The HSLDA supports Huckabee and they only represent a VERY small portion of homeschoolers. Homeschoolers by their very nature are independent and are not represented by any one body.

Huckabee is not a friend of homeschoolers. He's a foe. Arkansas became much less homeschooling friendly during Huckabee's tenure. Huckabee is all about federal intervention in education. This can only be bad for homeschoolers. As homeschoolers we should want the federal government out of education.


The HSLDA also wants more federal involvement in homeschooling as is seen by their HONDA bill. I wish they would leave well alone. Education is a state issue. We do not need national organizations, who are out of touch with the local issues, getting involved in legislation at any level.

I'm tired of reading their "Urgent" alerts full of scares that are in reality recruitment tools. I've lost count of the number of new homeschoolers in VA who think that VA is a homeschool unfriendly state and that you need legal protection thanks to the HSLDA. VA is an easy state in which to homeschool. Our two statewide organizations have a good relationship with the department of education and the legislature. Sometimes we have misunderstandings at local levels or a new official tries to flex some muscles, but on the whole, it all works well. However, the HSLDA thrives on adversarial relationship. They need them in order to survive. Who needs a legal defense association if problems can be solved easily and amicably?