Legal Issues Relating to Homeschooling
Homeschooling Laws
Specific information about homeschooling laws can be obtained from your local school board or from the following:
Smoky Mountain Home Education Association (SMHEA)
www.smhea.org smhea@yahoo.com (865)675-3073
The Smoky Mountain Home Education Association - serving Home Educators in 18 counties surrounding and including Knox Co., TN. Check the SMHEA website for membership information. SMHEA is affiliated with THEA, the Tennessee Home Education Association. BHEA is an affiliate support group of SMHEA.
Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA)
www.hslda.org (540)338-5600
We highly recommend membership in this national organization. Please take the time to visit their website and learn more about their role in protecting our rights to homeschool our children.
A good source for general information about homeschooling in Tennessee is Tennessee Home Ed at http://tnhomeed.com
Current Issues Relating to Homeschooling
We frequently get e-mails from Cory Bennet at SMHEA, other regional homeschool leaders, or from HSLDA. We will try to post them here for your reference, in case you did not receive them.
8/8/04
From
Cory Bennet: Mike Bell is a member of the Tennessee Home Education
Association Board of Directors and the President of the Mid-Southeast chapter of
THEA located in the McMinn, Meigs, Monroe county area. Mike also is the
homeschool lobbyist for THEA and works with the state legislature to defend our
freedoms. THEA and SMHEA are 501 (c)(3) organizations limited by law in our
ability to invest more than a small percentage of our efforts in anything that
could be deemed political. Here is an opportunity to make a difference through
an organization that is free to pursue political activities.
You can contact Mike at the address below.
Dear fellow home educators,
Bobbie Patray (Director of Tennessee Eagle Forum) called me today and told me
she was going to be co-hosting the Steve Gill show on 99.7 WTN Tuesday morning
from 5:30 to 9:00 central time. Steve is on vacation next week and Bobbie was
asked to be one of host for Tuesday. She called me today and asked me
to call in and do a segment with her and maybe take some calls on home
schooling and the election. This could be fun. Please pray for me and
Bobbie and listen if you can.
Now let me
catch up on some business. Claiborne Thornton (president of the Tennessee Home
Education Association) and I have started a PAC (Political Action Committee).
The name of the PAC isThe Tennessee Home Education Family PAC. It's purpose is
to be a vehicle for the home school community to endorse candidates and to
organize home school families to work for friendly candidates. I am in
the process of putting together a candidate survey. We will endorse
candidates from how they answer this survey. We endorsed two
candidates in the primary and both of them won! One of the races was
expected to win and one was to tell you the truth a shock to me even
though I worked in it. We endorsed Susan Lynn in the 57th district
and Matthew Hill in the seventh district. Hill beat longtime
incumbent Bob Patton. I made four trips to Johnson City. Nathan, my
son, lived with Hill and his wife and worked twelve hours a day for
the last two weeks of the campaign. On election day I took 6 students
with me up there to work the polls. We beat Patton by less than 400
votes. Patton was one of Naifeh's republican stooges in the house.
He voted for the income tax two years ago and if you remember Patton
was the only republican to vote against the Woods amendment to
equalize homeschoolers scores for the lottery scholarships. Hill is
a twenty-five years old and new to the district he lives in. Hill, as
far as I know, will be the first person who was home schooled to serve
in the state legislature if he wins in November.
The 7th district has traditionally voted republican. Now for the
tough part. The PAC needs money to operate. So far we have spent very
little money. What money we have spent has come out of my pocket. I
have bought the kids food who have worked with me and the time I had
in Hill's race. But in the next week I need to mail out surveys to
all the candidates and we need to have a web site built. I think I am
going to be able to get some seed money this weekend that will cover
those cost but we will need more. If any of you could help with this
or know someone who would want to help fund a conservative PAC let me
know.
Sincerely,
Mike Bell