Posted 01/29/08

The MI House Education Committee has scheduled a hearing on HB4042, the bill to increase the compulsory attendance age to 18, during their committee meeting at 10:30a.m., January, 29, in 519 House Office Building, Lansing, MI.

You may recall that Governor Granholm also strongly supported this effort in her State of the State address last year. As a review of why we are opposed to raising the compulsory attendance age, click here to view my response to this question from Pastor Don Jabaay in the Political Issues section of www.inch.org.

We managed to avert this issue when the bill was introduced nearly a year ago by mounting a huge email and call-in campaign to House and Senate co-sponsors of the bill and follow-up contacts to everyone's own individual Rep. and Senator. It is now the strong recommendation of the Home School Legislative Action Committee, an alliance of HSLDA, INCH, CTV, Support Group Leaders and friends in the Legislature, that we initiate a massive phone and email blitzto all members of the House Education Committee so they know there is a huge groundswell of opposition to this bill.

Our Plan of Attack

Today

After you’ve read it forward this email, or the one you may receive from HSLDA, to as many of your Michigan home school contacts as you can. Do not forward this email directly to any legislator. It’s not a problem if we all happen to get several copies of it. That just means we’re well connected.

This Weekend

Send an email to all the House Education Committee members and to Rep. LaMar Lemmons (who will be presenting this bill to the committee) this weekend expressing the reasons why you oppose this bill. I have included bullet points below to help you frame your opposition, but your words should be your own. Here’s a tip:  If you place your cursor right on the “k” of the first email address (kathyangerer) in the list below, you can click and drag to the bottom of the list and then copy and paste all the email addresses into the TO section of your letter at once. You’ll have to enter LaMar Lemmons address separately as it was not part of the list. Would you also please include the email address of Elerts@inch.org in the BCC section? This will help us track the amount of email the committee members receive on this issue.   

Monday/Tuesday

Beginning on Monday, January 28 and continuing through Tuesday, January 29 we need to flood the offices of all the committee members with phone calls. Respectfully voice your concerns with changing the compulsory attendance ages based on the talking points provided below. You do not need to identify yourself as a home schooler. Ask them to oppose this bill in committee and to remove it from further consideration. They may quickly set their phones to go directly to voice mail. That’s OK. Leave your message anyway. If you do get to speak to someone in their office, they may tell you to call your own Rep.’s office. Tell them you are calling this Rep. because he or she is a member of the Education Committee and that they should expect to receive calls from across the state on education issues that come before the committee. Since you may not be able to call every member of the committee, randomize who you call from the list below. That way all the committee members should receive lots of calls, not just the top ones on the list.

Additionally, it would be a great idea for many, who can take the time, to attend the hearing and voice your disapproval in person. In this situation it would again be important to not identify yourself as a home schooler, but rather as a concerned citizen or concerned tax-payer.

Why We Oppose Increasing Compulsory Attendance to Age 18.

• It is no guarantee that kids will stay in school and graduate as Governor Granholm has suggested. Increasing the compulsory attendance age will not reduce the dropout rate. In fact, the two states with the best high school completion rates, Maryland at 94.5% and North Dakota at 94.7%, compel attendance only to age 16. The state with the lowest completion rate (Oregon: 75.4%) compels attendance to age 18. (Figures are three-year averages, 1996 through 1998.)
• It does nothing to address the problem of kids between the ages of 12 and 16 who are already habitual truants. We already have laws on the books that aren’t being enforced.
• There will be massive enforcement problems differentiating between kids who have a legitimate reason for not being in school and those who don’t. Such reasons include in-service days varying from district to district, part time students, home school students; those expelled either temporarily or permanently, etc.
• It is a disservice to teachers and students who want to learn to force kids who may be disruptive, delinquent or dangerous to stay in school if they don’t want to be there.
• The cost to employ additional teachers and create additional “alternative” schools to keep delinquent kids separated from regular students will be massive. With the budget woes Michigan continues to face, we can ill afford to force kids who don’t want to learn to remain in what will be viewed as “kiddy prisons”.

Contact information for House Education Committee Members and Rep. Lemmons

District	Last Name	First Name	Party	Location	Phone	E-mail
55	Angerer	Kathy	D	S 0989 HOB	517-373-1792	kathyangerer@house.mi.gov
84	Brown	Terry	D	S 1188 HOB	517-373-0476	terrybrown@house.mi.gov
67	Byrum	Barb	D	S 1086 HOB	517-373-0587	barbbyrum@house.mi.gov
34	Clack	Brenda	D	N 0798 HOB	517-373-8808	brendaclack@house.mi.gov
20	Corriveau	Marc	D	N 0699 HOB	517-373-3816	marccorriveau@house.mi.gov
75	Dean	Robert	D	N 1094 HOB	517-373-2668	robertdean@house.mi.gov
22	Hopgood	Hoon-Yung	D	S 0786 HOB	517-373-0852	hoon-yunghopgood@house.mi.gov
109	Lindberg	Steven	D	S 1488 HOB	517-373-0498	stevenlindberg@house.mi.gov
27	Meisner	Andy	D	N 0791 HOB	517-373-0478	andymeisner@house.mi.gov
29	Melton	Tim	D	N 0793 HOB	517-373-0475	timmelton@house.mi.gov
31	Miller	Fred	D	N 0795 HOB	517-373-0159	fredmiller@house.mi.gov
15	Polidori	Gino	D	N 0694 HOB	517-373-0847	ginopolidori@house.mi.gov
3	Scott	Bettie Cook	D	S 0587 HOB	517-373-1776	bettiecookscott@house.mi.gov
91	Valentine	Mary	D	N 1195 HOB	517-373-3436	maryvalentine@house.mi.gov
70	Emmons	Judy	R	S 1089 HOB	517-373-0834	judyemmons@house.mi.gov
86	Hildenbrand	Dave	R	N 1190 HOB	517-373-0846	rephildenbrand@house.mi.gov
61	Hoogendyk	Jacob	R	N 0995 HOB	517-373-1774	jackhoogendyk@house.mi.gov
41	Knollenberg	Marty	R	N 0890 HOB	517-373-1783	martyknollenberg@house.mi.gov
98	Moolenaar	John	R	S 1287 HOB	517-373-1791	johnmoolenaar@house.mi.gov
93	Opsommer	Paul	R	N 1197 HOB	517-373-1778	paulopsommer@house.mi.gov
73	Pearce	Tom	R	N 1092 HOB	517-373-0218	tompearce@house.mi.gov
80	Schuitmaker	Tonya	R	N 1099 HOB	517-373-0839	tonyaschuitmaker@house.mi.gov
72	Steil Jr.	Glenn	R	N 1091 HOB	517-373-0840	glennsteil@house.mi.gov

2

Lemmons Jr.

LaMar

D

517-373-0106

lamarlemmonsjr@house.mi.gov

May God bless you and your efforts to keep home school freedom alive in Michigan.

Sincerely,