Illinois families teaching their children at home face the most formidable challenge ever in the Illinois General Assembly. Sadly, it appears to result from deep-seated anger and animosity being projected upon all families who have been teaching their children in the past and are currently teaching their children.

Those parents are accused of being “guilty until proven innocent” by those supposedly representing them in Springfield.

Wednesday morning, State Representative Terra Costa-Howard (D-Lombard) brought before the Illinois House’s Education Policy Committee an amendment to her “Anti-Homeschool Act’ that would – for the first time – require Illinois homeschooling families to register their students with the state. Once again, HB 2827 passed the committee with a vote along partisan lines, with nine Democrats for and four Republicans against. (Click HERE to watch the entire hearing.)

During the hearing, the proponents’ witness via Zoom was D.C. attorney Carmen Longoria-Green, who was homeschooled for 12 years in Missouri and is a graduate – ironically – of HSLDA-affiliated Patrick Henry College. After receiving her J.D. from Georgetown University, she became a litigation attorney for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, arguing religious freedom cases at both the trial and appellate levels.

Longoria-Green heads the only organization created by once-homeschooled persons, who, sadly, are not pleased with the schooling choices their or others’ parents made. Coalition for Responsible Home Education’s website indicates the group is especially focused on “protecting students taught at home from abusive parents” – something they seem to believe is relatively common.

CRHE recommends home-schooling families that do not educationally abuse their children to prove to state and local officials that they don’t.  In other words, the concept of “innocent until proven guilty” will no longer be the base for the judicial system concerning families dedicated to their children.

Ms. Longoria-Green lifted the veil on the group’s legislative agenda during her testimony in support of HB 2827:

There needs to be a process in place spelled out in the law on how to handle reports of educational neglect in a home school setting. CRHE [Coalition for Responsible Home Education] research shows that educational neglect is often co-morbid with other forms of abuse and neglect. This means that in addition to covering educational neglect, the process set by HB 2827 will also help to identify other forms of physical abuse and neglect in the home school setting. And that’s critical…

Rep. Costa-Howard, who litigates domestic violence cases in her day job, echoed Longoria- Green’s views as she reiterated her concern about isolated children whose parents were claiming to home-school. Costa-Howard’s concerns, she said, led to what she sees as a required need to report to local government school authorities, and provide opportunities for truancy officers to interview children about their schooling.

In other words, parents who love their children so much they are willing to set aside a two-career income, pay exorbitant property taxes, and fund their children’s schooling costs in order to take full responsibility for their children’s education should be presumed as guilty of educational, physical and emotional neglect or abuse until they are proven innocent.

Think about that.

Could it be that HB 2827 sponsors, supportive teachers’ unions, CRHE representatives and other home-schooling opponents are skillfully practicing what psychologists call “projecting”? (Projection is when an individual unconsciously projects their thoughts, feelings, or behavior onto someone else.) It may seem unkind to suggest they implement such a manipulative mind tool, but it should be considered.

How else could responsible lawmakers ignore and ridicule the 42,000 witness slips filed against Amendment 2 in the last 24 hours?

Homeschool Legal Defense Association’s evaluation of HB 2827’s 2nd Amendment explains the seriousness of the bill’s newest version:

Truancy laws still a threat: Section 30 creates a rebuttable presumption that a homeschool student is not truant if and only if a homeschool notification form was submitted. This still leaves parents subject to Illinois’ criminal truancy laws if the form is not filed.

Criminal penalties replaced with criminal referrals: Sections 60(b), 65(c), and 70 give truant officers the power to refer homeschool parents to the state’s attorney for criminal prosecution.

Separation of Children from parents: Page 40 of Amendment 002 contains new language which is deeply concerning: “The truant officer or county truant officer notified of a homeschool in violation of Section 30 of the Homeschool Act, shall meet with the child or children complained of and make an initial determination of whether there is cause to start a truancy investigation.

In other words, home-schooling parents will be considered “guilty until proven innocent” simply because they are not sending their children to government or brick-and-mortar private schools.

Think of it this way:  You have a driver’s license. You admit to the State that you drive a car.

Instead of the State assuming you are obeying the State’s driving laws until the State law enforcement witnesses or can prove that you are guilty of breaking a driving law, the State assumes you’re abusing the law and that you’re guilty of the worst infractions until you can prove that you are not.

Who would want to drive under those pressures?  Who wants to take the chance of being forced to spend thousands of dollars on legal representation simply to take a vehicle from one place to another? Who would want to take the chance?

A group of legal minds that disapprove of families teaching their kids outside of the government school system are projecting their speculations upon the citizens of Illinois and plowing their way towards a new outrageous system of “guilty until proven innocent” for home educators.

Who will be next? Bible-believers? Church attenders? Synagogue devotees?

Again, the very persons that were applauded and admired during the 2020-2022 pandemic are now being accused as a group of abusers – that is until they can prove themselves innocent.

Will someone in the Illinois General Assembly please stop this hysteria before the next group of persons is burdened with a similar horrific brand?

Expect a vote on HB 2827 in the Illinois House before the end of this week’s session.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send an email to your state representative to ask him/her to reject HB 2827 and the government’s overreach into the lives of homeschooling families. You can also make a phone call to your representative’s office.  Click HERE to look up their contact info.