The Constitutional language in HB 1580 is completely valid and the House Education sub-committee concurred. So what we have here is the unstated triumph of statutory law over Constitutional law, which is just plain wrong.
HB 1580, relative to home schooling. MAJORITY: INEXPEDIENT TO LEGISLATE. MINORITY: OUGHT TO PASS.
Rep. Kimberley S Casey for the Majority of Education: This bill was written to allow parents to home school their children outside the jurisdiction of state law, including but not limited to, school attendance, and notification of home school intent. There are three options to meet the compulsory attendance requirement. They are: public school attendance, private school attendance, or home education pursuant to RSA 193-A. This bill would establish a fourth category, that being homeschoolers who operate outside the purview of RSA 193-A. The majority felt creating a new class of home school children with no regulatory frameworks of RSA 193-A goes too far. Vote 12-7.
Rep. Paul Ingbretson for the Minority of Education: Passage of HB 1580 would insure and reinforce the right of parents to determine, without limitation, the direction of the education of their children. Parents may choose to educate at home, enroll them in a private school, have them tutored privately or enroll them in public school. Failing to educate their children would expose parents to state laws having to do with abuse and neglect. Put another way, this bill affirms that, while education is compulsory, parents retain the right to choose the way in which that would be achieved.
