Illinois homeschoolers have been energized this week to call their state lawmakers and urge them to oppose State Senator Ed Maloney's SB 136, requiring non-public school parents to register their students with the State Board of Education. Senator Maloney's getting lots of calls, and he told Illinois Review today that he's preparing to hold hearings on subject matter while he's amending the bill. Maloney said he is interested not in registering private schools students tas much as he's interested in getting home schoolers signed up with their local schools.
One by one, home school parents and liberty-loving activists are racking up commitments from lawmakers to vote no if the bill progresses. Tuesday, State Senator Dan Duffy said he was working to "kill the bill," Paul Mitchell of Lake County reported on his blog. In addition, State Senator Chris Lauzen said via email that he would vote against the bill if it came up for a vote, as did Lake County's State Senator Suzi Schmidt.
Several home school leaders met with State Senator Ed Maloney Tuesday, and Maloney told them he would look into tabling the bill, but wanted to hold the subject matter hearing. He also will amend the effort to drop private schools and make the student registrar local school superintendents rather than the State Board of Education.
Then, homeschooling father David E. Smith, also executive director of Illinois Family Institute told IR, Maloney said he would consider how to move forward on SB 136. Smith encouraged concerned citizens to call their state lawmakers at the capitol at 217.782.2000.
