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What is good my exhies? It's your boy Jake Gooden and we're back another
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episode of the exhome schclers club and uh I'm excited because I got uh a return
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guest. Tess Ore is back with us and you may remember her from a couple months ago and she is the director of the
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Coalition of Responsible Home Education and uh if you haven't heard me talk about it uh apparently you haven't been
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listening to the show because I'm pretty sure I've shouted it out on like every
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episode since her episode and probably before that. Um so Tess, welcome back to the exhomeschoolers club.
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>> Thanks so much for having me Jacob. I'm happy to be here. >> And uh today we're going to talk about
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some different things because if you if you want to know Tessa's homeschool story, go back and listen to that
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episode cuz that's not what we're talking about today. Today we're going
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to talk about legislation. We're going to talk about politics. Uh we're going
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to talk about uh things that are changing, things that are coming down the pipeline and like how to get
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involved in making an impact on like current homeschool families. And so, uh, what better way to do it than have the
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director of the people, uh, actually putting forth some stuff, putting forth some bills, uh, here to share what's
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going on. So, Tess, let's start with this for people who don't know what the
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coalition is. Like, walk us through what it is, what you guys do. Um, and yeah, really just like that. What is it?
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>> Yeah. So, the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, we are a homeschool
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alumni founded and powered organization. Um way back in 20 in 2013, a bunch of homeschoolers um found found each other
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on the internet and that's where uh the coalition for responsible home education
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was born. What we do is advocate for responsible homeschooling oversight. We operate some programs that are really
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impactful for homeschool alumni. We do a lot of research that talks about homeschool outcomes. And for me, one of
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the most important things that we do is advocacy around making sure there are legislative guidelines that keep
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homeschooled children safe and ensure that they have access to resources as well. Honestly, finding you guys and and
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and seeing what you guys were doing, that's what was so attractive because yeah, I love telling my story of being a
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homeschool kid, but like knowing that there are people who want to make a difference for some of the things that
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maybe weren't so great for when I was a homeschool kid and and want to see changes like on like an actual legal
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level uh is really cool. And so um so that's what attracted me at first to the
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coalition or CR uh as uh it's so much less of a mouthful to say that for sure.
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>> So let's talk about some some victories because you guys have announced some
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stuff recently. Some really big victories happened uh in Nebraska and in Connecticut, but let's talk about like
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what those are and how those are going to impact homeschooling families coming up here. the structure I guess of all of
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the things that we recommend to state legislators as a part of our make home school safe act. Um a few key points of
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those were actually able to be enacted in two different states and this is just absolutely incredible and especially for
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people who kind of grew up I think in the homeschool world um are deeply familiar with the influence of certain
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advocacy groups in really taking away any any legislative guardrail on homeschooling. So what was so exciting
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was this is the first time we saw movement forward that corresponds to that make homeschool safe act which
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again is kind of the that model legislation is what we hang all of our work on at CR. So seeing that happen
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both in Nebraska and Connecticut was absolutely fantastic this year. So in Nebraska um Senator Megan Hunt actually
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moved across not one but two really critical child safety measures in in homeschooling. And then in Connecticut,
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um, absolutely remarkable, but Representative Leaper was able to take a take a House bill that originally had a
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lot more in it, right? But it actually moved Connecticut into being one of those states where we are going to have
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a registration system. So, we even know how many children in Connecticut are homeschooled. And we've started having a
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really important conversation there about how to keep homeschooled kids safe as well. you mentioned the keep
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homeschool safe act um or homeschool safety act or um so let's talk about that a little bit and like what that is
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and some of maybe like the pillars of of what that is um so that people understand like where where we stand
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where are we at with like what are we advocating for for for homeschool kids >> absolutely so the make homeschool safe
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act um it was published in in 20 in 2024 and really some of the key pillars of that are that we want to know where
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these homesooled kids are at. We want to make sure that there's a registration
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and kind of that floor level of accountability. Uh you've heard me say it a lot, Jacob, but you know, now now
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there there used to be 13, now there's 12 states that um you don't even have to
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report to the state or local school district that you are homeschooling. So when we go into these states, we can't
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even tell you how many children are being homeschooled. Um so we we really want there to be some kind of reg um
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registration, some accountability system. We'd also like to see to ensure to ensure homeschooled children's open
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future that there's a system in place of educational assessments as well as safety measures as well. One of the
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concerning parts um when we look at the worst outcomes of homeschooling is that homeschooling can be so uniquely and
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totalitarian totalitarianism in terms of its isolation, right? That we're worried
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about children not having access to mandated reporters. The reality is is that child welfare system grew up
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alongside the public school system. So when children are removed from a school system, they are just not seen by as
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many adults. So we want to have checks and balances in place to make sure children are seen by are seen by
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mandated reporters. We also want to make sure they're being homeschooled by safe
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people. There are now 47 states where you can be convicted of a crime against children and still be allowed to
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homeschool your own children. Um Nebraska was one of those states that actually moved across. We'll talk about
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that a little bit. I get really excited about this part of it. Um, and then the final piece, the Make Home School Safe
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Act, is advocating for increased resources for homeschooled children as well. There's a variety of reasons to
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homeschool and and whatever those reasons are, we still believe that it's important legislatively that children
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have access to to sports, to libraries, to IEP programs, and all those other services that run through a public
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school system. as I re-entered into like understanding my homeschool life and asking questions about it and even like
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calling my mom and being like, "Okay, so like from a legal perspective, like what
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did you have to do? Like what were you required?" And then talking to other
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people, I realized one, every state is so vastly different with the requirements, you know, with the
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assistance that's there, with like all of the laws associated with it. And like
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to your point, you said it, there's 47 states that you can be some kind of child sex offender and still pull your
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kids out of school and homeschool them. Most people would say common sense says that's a bad idea. Um, and you know, so
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the fact that it's, you know, that's possible is crazy. The fact the state I
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grew up in, California, my mom always talks about she had one week to file a piece of paper that just said, "I'm
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homeschooling my children." That was it. She never had to report uh any test
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scores. we didn't have to do standardized testing. Like we were on our own uh in a lot of capacities. And
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that's kind of wild when you think about it. Even now, like talking to her, she's
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like, "Yeah, that's a little crazy that that's like our government just let us
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do that." Um, and so it's, you know, again, it's not necessarily always
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about, my understanding at least is like it's not really about like trying to
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enforce or like create these insane boundaries and laws that have to like be followed to a tea that make
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homeschooling like that much harder. It's really just like creating an environment where like all kids that are
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home educated can succeed and like be able to launch really well and like be accounted for. and like your point like
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access to uh mandated reporters and things like that that are already in the school systems like we can I think we
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can make some real difference in a lot of those things and so um so yeah maybe let's let's talk about Nebraska and and
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what changed there and why it's such a a big victory and uh and then we'll talk
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about Connecticut. >> Yeah. So, um, Nebraska, uh, LB1224 was what was passed in in Nebraska. And it's
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helpful also to understand that part of, um, part of our work at CR, of course, we're advocating for the Make Home
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School Safe Act. And a lot of that is influenced by a project that we have called homeschoolings and physical
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children. This is a database of, frankly, the worst outcomes of of homeschooling. Um, and the reality is we
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have over 500 cases documented there where homeschooled children um had horrific outcomes.
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The reason we do that though is because you can you can find patterns and you can identify trends and ideally then you
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can put legislation into place to make sure that these things don't happen. So
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there's two key findings on homeschoolschooling of visible children database um that were actually addressed
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in LB1224. The first was is that you know um one of the key one of the key indicators for
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horrific abuse and neglect in a homeschooling setting is a child being w being withdrawn from the public school
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system during an active CPS investigation. The second piece of that is is that perpetrators that are
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previously convicted of crimes um have a higher I guess a higher likelihood of being
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perpetrators again towards these homeschooled children. And so LB1224 actually as much as as much as they can
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begins to address some of these things. So LB1224 if a child is the subject of a DCF
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investigation, they have to remain in school for 14 days um before they're before they're withdrawn to be
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homeschooled. The reason that's so important is because they retain access to mandated reporters and it also um
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puts a bit of a put a bit of a bit of a bit of a speed bump in terms of that reactive withdrawal. LB1224 also
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prevents individuals with again those crimes against children from homeschooling. And really what it does
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is it means that if you have if you have enough of a criminal conviction that you
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could not work in a school, you can't also homeschool your children. >> That seems like common sense to me. Uh
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but like again, you know, I don't know. some of these things like they just as
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as I was getting connected with with you and with what the coalition is doing, there were certain things that I was
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like blew my mind as far as the fact that it's like is this not just common sense? Is this not just like like you
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were saying, if you can't work at a school, then why would you be able to homeschool your child? You know, uh that
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seems like pretty obvious to me, but again, I guess I guess we haven't been that smart for um to actually create
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something around that. And maybe that has to do with like, you know, homeschooling even though it has been
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around for quite a while now, it still is to some degree a relatively new thing. Um, and so um, and then as you
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mentioned before, there are some advocacy groups who very much advocate for kind of a no uh uh no restrictions
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policy on on anything homeschooling. So, I'm sure that plays uh somewhat of a
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role in that as well. It >> does. And you know, I think that that, you know, it's it's difficult when the
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sentiment is so heavily, you know, hands off hands-off homeschooling, the children who need these these
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regulations most and the children who need some of these safety measures are swept up into that as well. And so, one
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of the most powerful pieces of testimony I thought that came out of Nebraska um was, you know, a home school alumni who
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said, "The children who need these laws are not are not here. The children who
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need these laws are not here advocating in the capital. the children who need these laws um are are are effectively
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invisible. And it was really powerful to hear her say that um you know, of course
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based on her own homeschooling story, but also just the reality of being an of being an adult and and caring for all
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children in a community. I think that's something that is a little bit different
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about what you guys do is there is an emphasis on creating like somewhat of like rights for children in a lot of
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senses and you know a child's right to be educated and have access to mandated
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reporters and things like that to have access to test scores potentially you know like things like that where it's
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like um I I just spoke with a lady who's in France and she was telling me how at
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her kids school there is a big sign on the um on the wall and it goes through all of the things that all of the kids
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have the right to do. Education, they have the right to be who they are, they have the right to a mandated reporter,
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they have all these things, right? And it it's on the wall clearly for all of
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those kids to read. Um, and I was like that would never happen in the in the states. Um, we're a little too
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individualistic. Um, and I think we put a little bit more, his personal opinion,
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but I think we put a lot more emphasis on parental rights uh than we do on rights of kids a lot of times. And so,
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um, maybe we could shift things a little bit. Um, hopefully, uh, some of these bills will, um, will do that. So,
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>> and it's not lost on me, too. When I say, you know, I I'm so proud of
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Nebraska for, and I have to give Nebraska a shout out here. They actually passed this legislation. Um,
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they passed this legislation. Um, they are always on a bipartisan basis, but it was it was unanimous as well. So I think
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that's I think that's really important to see because when we are able to shift
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that shift that narrative to like hey these children >> these children have rights too um you
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know even though again the US will not sign on to the US convention on the rights to the child um at least on a
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state-by-st state basis we can start to make some of this change. >> Yeah. Well I like what you said there
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too. It's not really it shouldn't be an issue of left or right you know Democrat
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versus Republican. it it I think that our kids can be something that we universally come together and say what's
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best for all kids, you know, and um and that's something that hopefully both
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sides can get on board with because that's a that's a messaging point that
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both sides bring up a lot is is kids and the protections of kids. So, it's like,
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hey, this shouldn't be something we fight that much about. We should actually be able to work towards some
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solutions there. >> The reality is is that homeschooling's always been its own little subculture
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anyway. So, we can't even lock ourselves into one of those camps, right? You
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know, and I find that that happens more and more in the advocacy that we do is that we truly are are in a space of our
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own. >> Yeah. Is there anything else in Nebraska that you want to touch on or should we
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talk about Connecticut? >> Yeah. Um, like I said, Nebraska was great for some of those like again floor
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level accountability kind of systems. Nebraska already has homeschooled children um at least register and we
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kind of know where they are in Nebraska. So, this is really um this is a step up
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for Nebraska even though they were already making some effort. So, uh, but yeah, happy to talk about Connecticut,
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too. >> Yeah, let's let's let's dive into it. So, uh, HB5468. Uh, man, I feel like I feel like we need
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a new naming system. I know why we name things the way we do, but man, man, oh man, um, you know, I'm like, yeah. So,
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if other people Tess sent me an email with like, hey, here's all the things that are kind of coming down the line.
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And I was like, this is just letters and numbers to me. But um but uh but Connecticut, what is changing in
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Connecticut and uh and what what does that victory look like? >> Yeah. So Connecticut before this year
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has been one of those wildly unregulated states that we talk about. Um and when we say unregulated, I mean
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nobody has to know if you are homeschooling. You also get no resources from the state if you are homeschooling,
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right? Like there's >> that's on both sides of the coin. Um, and what's really exciting about
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Connecticut is that they with HB5468, letters and numbers all the time, right? Um, this the state of Connecticut is
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actually going to basically move up a category, not be super unregulated anymore because they're they're at least
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going to start to register and figure out where these homeschoolers are. So again, I it's not lost to me. This
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doesn't sound like a big like a big step, but it truly is because this is the first step that take that states
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take towards accountability. Connecticut also decided because um because of some
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really horrific cases in Connecticut that they needed to do something as well to address this kind of phenomenon of
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suspicious withdrawal to you know quote unquote homeschool. So what Connecticut also did is that when you're being when
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children are being withdrawn to be homeschooled, not only are we going to know where they are, but there's
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actually just a quick cross there's basically just a quick cross check to make sure that that child is not the the
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subject of an active DCS investigation and also make sure that the adults in the house are also not part of an
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investigation as well. So it is by no means it's not opening up a DCF case. It's nothing like that is happening. But
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it is, you know, it's effectively a background check is what's happening.
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The same as in a public school system. So now that registration has become is becoming more normalized in states like
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what does that actually do? What does that accomplish for for you guys? What does it accomplish for the government
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like and for kids? What does it actually do? centering children and making children kind of the the first the first
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part of this always. Um it is basically a floor level accountability measure to make sure that the parents who are in
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charge of their education are at least reporting that out um and making sure that you know it's their their education
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their right to an open future is not just an afterthought. It's something that actually needs to be taken taken
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responsibility for every single year. So that's an incredibly important part of a
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registry and why that happens for for policy makers. Um, it's critical to have
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good data, too. We homeschooling is it can be an absolute lightning rod in in a state legislature. And what I've seen in
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just in my brief experience is that it's even more of a lightning rod when we can't tell you how many children are
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being homeschooled, right? So, a policy maker that comes in and says, you know, hey, I want to be a part of this sort of
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responsible homeschool reform. Are they talking about 5,000 kids in their state or are they talking about 50,000 kids in
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their state or they talk about five mill, >> right? We don't know. what a wild place
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to come from, right? >> And then um and then additionally for you know for child welfare workers and
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for people who work in in those systems of support, it's incredibly important to
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know just where these children are. So when things happen, when additional support is needed for families or when
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again some of these horrific outcomes are happening as well, there's at least
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a way um and kind of a web that we can help prevent some of these terrible outcomes. Well, I would also assume too
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that some of this data can be used also to to research like positive outcomes, right, of like, you know, I if it's
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working like, you know, we're going to be see seeing families hopefully register repeatedly, right, to be to be
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homeschooling their kids. They're not going back into the school system. Why
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is that? And then is that kid then able to launch? Like, I mean, I'm looking
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maybe big picture here, uh, you know, kind of a thing. But it I think it it serves two purposes, right? It serves
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the protection aspect of it as well. But also it can be a good indicator because
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we hear repeatedly over and over and over or at least I did. I grew up with this very strong sense that it was like
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homeschooling was better because you were more likely to get into college. You were more likely to be smarter than
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public school kids. You were more likely to XYZ. Like you were God's gift to the
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earth. Um and I don't know I don't I'm very average when it comes to my
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intelligence. Um, and so, so, you know, I was able to get in college and and things like that, but but it it
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definitely was something that like where is that data coming from? How do we know
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that that's actually accurate? And I know that that's not 100% of what you
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guys are doing, but maybe it can give some kind of a baseline of at least understanding that it's like there to
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your point, there is x number of homeschoolers in our state. And so maybe also to put some significance on do we
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actually need to be enacting laws around this? Because if you know 20% of your state is homeschooling their kids,
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that's a significant number. Probably should have some some say in what that
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does. And I know 20% is probably a large number uh for most states. I know it's
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still kind of a niche thing, but um but we are shifting. >> We could get there. Yeah.
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>> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. And and I think that outcomes piece is critical, right? Because even
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though we say all the time homeschooling is is increasing, which we we know it does, but to be honest, that's also a
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best guess as well, right? Part of that is just we know less children in the public school system,
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>> right? >> Kind of to your point, what exactly what exactly does that mean? And like a piece
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of our work, too, isn't is in research because there are those um those studies
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and those outcomes of homeschoolers. I mean, I definitely heard them too. indiv individual exceptionism is is is real in
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in some of these in some of these conversations, but also, you know, those are all those are self-reported. Those
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are the families who are already invested and kind of an active part of this are who's delivering that data. We
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don't even know what percentage of that data it is because we can't tell you how
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many there were in the first place. The other thing uh that I was going to note about these two bills is very much that
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like these are to your point these are very these are welfare bills. These are about like welfare of these kids,
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welfare, you know, and making sure that they're safe. Um I know you had mentioned in the pillars of what you
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guys do, you also work on some bills that maybe are like access to things, right? Kids have access to sports or
00:20:39
libraries or you know uh educational resources. And so I'm curious like bills
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like that. And I know I know that there have been a couple this year that have kind of stalled on the floor or maybe
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they're dead completely and those tend to be maybe more in that vein. Would you
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could we talk about that a little bit and maybe why those stall a little bit more uh than like something like a
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welfare bill would do? >> Yeah, absolutely. Um, and it's so interesting when we come out
00:21:07
of legislative season when, you know, in one state we're working on a bill that
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is, you know, kind of again very child welfare centered, making sure children are safe, criminals should not be
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homeschooling kind of a kind of a bill. And then we flip the script and we say, you know, um, hey, let's get them into
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public sports as well. So, it's an interesting kind of dichotomy of just ways that we're talking about things,
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but the reality is is that it's all about it's all about children's rights
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to an open future and to access. So, um, we did we did work in a couple states this year. Um, the most work actually in
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Maryland about some of these some of these really important resource bills. And for us, um, those resource bills
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mean that, um, homeschoolers are allowed to access public school sports and extracurriculars. In some cases, um,
00:21:47
like testing and AP courses as well. And then um while it wasn't a part of our
00:21:52
bills in Maryland, in the past we have worked on pieces of legislation that would ensure that children have the
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right to whether it's IEP kind of services through their through their school district. And um to me, what's so
00:22:04
interesting about this is I feel like this is a slam dunk for a legislator, right, to say absolutely, let me get all
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the kids in my, you know, all all of my constituents uh the ability to play sports. We're not mandating anybody play
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sports. I know as a kid I absolutely would not have played sports if it was offered to me. I love the idea of kids
00:22:21
being being able to do it though. So um so again to me it feels like a slam diamond for a legislator and the
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roadblocks we come up against are really interesting because there's an aspect of
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you know kind of this like deeply conservative homeschooling movement which we're all familiar with that
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doesn't want any of that kind of crossover and views it as a door to I guess a door to additional oversight
00:22:44
regulation accountability um and then we also face face a little bit of push back
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actually quite a bit of push back sometimes from um you know public school teachers as well and individuals who are
00:22:55
involved in the school system. So, it's an interesting spot for us to be at to
00:22:58
be in the middle of this to say let's center the children and their I guess again just just their rights to access
00:23:04
in this um even though we're kind of you know hearing it from both sides. I could
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understand the argument being made of like well there's you know like you have
00:23:13
your community centers and like the town I grew up in it's like when I wanted to
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play soccer like the you know I didn't go to the public school I went to I joined through the community center
00:23:21
right and so I played on teams with other public school kids but now looking back on it like I recognize like my
00:23:28
parents paid for that you know and not every parent has the ability to do that you know and sports in general is
00:23:34
expensive even if you do it through the public school system uh because you still got to pay for cleats and you all
00:23:39
that all the sports gear itself, right? Um, but like I definitely I've kind of come around on it because
00:23:47
even when you guys like first brought that up and in and one of the conversations I either had with you guys
00:23:52
or in sitting in on a session at first I was like, "Yeah, I don't really see the
00:23:57
point of this like at all." Like this seems like a waste of energy in a lot of
00:24:02
ways. Um, and now I've kind of started to come around on it to your point of
00:24:05
it's like, well, it's not about we're gonna mandate that kids have to do
00:24:10
sports or have to be in an extracurricular. It's more of if they want to be, can we give them access to
00:24:16
those things, you know, and um, and I'm sure that goes for more than just sports, right? I'm you said
00:24:22
extracurriculars in general. So, what else falls under that category? honestly a little bit of it state by state,
00:24:28
district by district. That can be um sometimes that can be band, that can be theater, some of those other access
00:24:34
points. You know, I live I I live in a rural corner in Michigan uh where a lot of times the only library that is
00:24:40
available is is the public school library. So even things like that are part of this like resource access type
00:24:47
of a type of conversation. Um, it's really important for some states, especially without robust transcript
00:24:53
capabilities, that homeschoolers can go and take those AP tests as well because they're going to need something on their
00:25:00
transcript to turn around and to show to a university to say, "Hey, no, I can I
00:25:05
can perform at this level." And I think that, you know, again, for us, centering
00:25:10
the children, we believe they have a right to this type of access. And you know it's also not lost on us that the
00:25:16
more the more safe adults they're around whether that is coaches whether that is
00:25:20
teachers um is important for our welfare piece as well. >> Is there not to some degree also a fear
00:25:26
of like if homeschool kids get let into public school sports um or aftercurriculars that they would then
00:25:33
come in and dominate that? Um does it open up like the ability for homeschool parents to be coaches or you know
00:25:40
theater or you know whatever it is. Does it open them up for that too or like how
00:25:45
does how does that work? >> That's a common question that's brought
00:25:47
up even to us in testimony and stuff. And part of what um Dr. Stewart did was actually run some numbers even on like
00:25:52
the percentage of children that you could assume would even join this. And I'm going to be honest, it's negligible.
00:25:58
It would be, you know, not we use football as an example. Not every kid in the public school system is is on your
00:26:05
football team. I promise you, not every homeschooler is also going to join is, you know, is also going to join your
00:26:10
football team. Um, and so I think that it's uh district by district, state by state,
00:26:17
there are guidelines that they've put in around this. Um, there there are 38
00:26:20
states that allow this right now. And so within those 38 states, you know, some of them some of those guidelines are
00:26:25
like it has to be in the in the home district they're zoned for. Um, and there's kind of these other ways they're
00:26:30
able to shape that so that it works for a community. And I think that's that's
00:26:33
another important piece of this legislation, too, right? is like, hey, what does work in your community to make
00:26:38
sure that all the children in your community can play together? >> That's a good point of like you kind of
00:26:43
have to to some degree do it on a case- by case basis of like what is going to work for your community because every
00:26:50
community is different. every, you know, every neighborhood has like what the I'm
00:26:55
sure the percentages of homeschool families in those neighborhoods very differently, you know, and so yeah, it's
00:27:01
like also how many kids in public school want to play sports? You know, if you're
00:27:05
already struggling to bring people on the team, you know, it might be worth it to try to go get a couple of the
00:27:11
homeschool families to come play uh football or soccer or any baseball or anything like that. So,
00:27:17
>> and honestly, in in some rural districts, it is if if they want their wrestling team, they need a couple more
00:27:22
kids. That's the only way that um that's the only way that's going to happen, you
00:27:26
know? I mean, so personally, I live in Michigan, which again is one of those very very unregulated states.
00:27:31
>> And we don't um we don't allow homeschoolers typically to participate
00:27:36
unless it's kind of on a coach by coach decision. Um, and so it's interesting.
00:27:42
Part of what I, you know, kind of was compelled with to start work on CRA G was actually falls a little bit in this
00:27:47
vein. Um, I coach a kids running program at my local elementary school and I have
00:27:51
homeschoolers on my team. I'm happy to have homeschoolers on my team. I I understand them. I mean, it's a it's
00:27:57
kind of a neat like connection point, but the elementary school across town does not allow homeschoolers to
00:28:02
participate on their team just because. >> And that's me. It's just cuz, you know,
00:28:07
coach Tess says, >> "Yeah, >> sure. I can take an extra kid or two."
00:28:12
>> Right. Exactly. >> And I don't think it should be up to me. I mean, that's that's my problem. I
00:28:17
don't think it should be up to I think it needs to be consistent. >> No, I I'm with you. I think what's
00:28:22
interesting, too, is like kind of also to the point of like the way that school schools are structured. I think about
00:28:28
like, you know, my my homeschool prom was was not in a basement and I didn't
00:28:33
go with my mom. Um, uh, I actually went to a prom. I went to two different proms
00:28:38
and but they were tied to private schools, but the private schools were so small that their prom would have been 20
00:28:45
kids, something like that. And so actually having the homeschool community come in, they were able to double and
00:28:51
sometimes triple those numbers because, well, you know, it it helped pay for nicer events like we got to go to a golf
00:28:58
course or we got to be on a paddle boat or whatever, you know, whatever the thing was.
00:29:03
all of a sudden you could actually make it and more affordable for people as well
00:29:10
because all of a sudden you don't have to pay $100 to go to prom now you can
00:29:13
just you know pay 50 or 40 or whatever it was um and so I think that was definitely you know it's not the public
00:29:21
school but it definitely I remember there being aspects of particularly private schools in our area being like
00:29:27
very open to having homeschool kids come and be part of what was happening in there because they just didn't have the
00:29:33
numbers uh to make things actually like successful in a lot of ways. And in the same way, my homeschool community uh to
00:29:40
some degree we opened up certain things to public and private school kids. We did dances a lot of like swing and
00:29:46
ballroom and catillian dances and stuff like that. Um and so we would invite those people in as well. they had to
00:29:52
come as guests, but you know, it still was like we were push some of us in particular were pushing much more for
00:29:59
like let's have these people come and and have fun with us because they let us
00:30:02
go have fun with them, you know, >> like an even bigger level. I think part
00:30:04
of part of why I like advocating for these resource and access bills and why I think it's important is I think
00:30:08
there's a genuine like dstigmmentation that has to happen on both sides of this
00:30:11
conversation. I think it is only helpful when we have, you know, again, either homeooled kids are going to public
00:30:17
school or public school kids are going into homeschoolers, right? There's um I
00:30:21
think that children now maybe won't have the same type of reaction maybe that you
00:30:24
and I have when when we say to people I was homeschooled um for whatever stereotype that is, right? And there's
00:30:29
so much especially in advocacy, there's so much fear on both sides of this conversation between the public school
00:30:34
and between homeschoolers, you know, it's um I think this is a really productive way for us to just start just
00:30:40
start working together a little bit better. >> Yeah. No, and totally. And to to your
00:30:45
point of like Yeah. the the reaction of like I I remember as a kid like the worst thing to hear was like when you
00:30:51
told somebody I'm a homeschool kid and they would say ah that makes sense. I
00:30:54
hated that. It made me feel so just like nasty inside. I just was like oh like I
00:31:01
I'm the weirdo. Like it made me feel like an outcast. What's funny now is
00:31:05
that like I will go and I'll meet current homeschool families and um you know out and about or you know I've
00:31:11
worked a couple jobs where I have to interact with people or whatever and it'll come up and I'll be like oh yeah
00:31:16
like I was a homeschooled kid too and they're like oh that's so cool like you
00:31:19
know whatever and it's like the opposite effect of like you know and and I'm able
00:31:25
to maybe kind of do that for people too where I'm like not like I don't come at
00:31:28
it from a shock to like oh that makes a lot of sense. No, it's like, "Oh, okay,
00:31:32
cool." Like, "Tell me about that." You know, and I'm like, and so, but the the
00:31:36
whole structure around it, I feel like even coming from public school kids, it it's just it's so different now, it's
00:31:42
like actually like a little bit more normalized, I think, in a lot of ways. And so, um, yeah, so maybe those stigmas
00:31:48
are going away. >> Yeah. And I would love it to, you know, if we're not coming into these like
00:31:52
legislative conversation thinking like public schools are terrible, evil, horrific places and, you know, and like
00:31:58
again, just on both sides of that. Yeah, I think there's a world in which uh
00:32:04
yeah, I'm a I'm a huge believer that public, private, and home education,
00:32:08
which I guess technically kind of falls under private as well, is like I I think
00:32:12
that they can all work together and I think for the for the betterment and and it's just like it really also stems from
00:32:18
a place of like nobody needs to come at it from like I'm better than you. Uh
00:32:22
it's like, you know, different, you know, everyone's got their favorite,
00:32:26
right? and every everybody's got their thing that like works >> better for their family, their child,
00:32:31
those types of things. And so I think that there's just right scenarios for right people and it's figuring out what
00:32:36
those are. So why not make all of them operate really well and then that way it's easier to plug people in where it's
00:32:41
like this is this is going to work best for my kid or my family or you know any of those scenarios.
00:32:48
>> Yeah, definitely. >> So let's talk about uh is there anything
00:32:51
coming up? Are there any bills still on the floor that are still getting passed through or anything you guys are working
00:32:56
on maybe for next legislation season? I know it's still kind of we're kind of in
00:33:00
that season still, but like what's what's coming up? >> Yeah, so the majority of states are, you
00:33:04
know, winding down their legislative season, but we're really excited about some legislation coming out of Rhode
00:33:08
Island as well, um which will again begin to address that suspicious withdrawal component of um of
00:33:16
homeschooling. So, we're excited to do some advocacy around around that bill as
00:33:20
well and and been in touch with a couple other um leaders in other states that are excited about,
00:33:28
I guess, you know, making sure that homeschool children are prioritized next legislative season. And so I'm so
00:33:35
excited that they're proactively reaching out to us now and we're able to
00:33:38
sort of begin these conversations because, you know, advocacy, legislation, legislative change is it's
00:33:45
a marathon and not a sprint. Um we started talking we started talking to uh both both alumni and legislators about
00:33:51
the Connecticut piece way back in October. That's how long it took um for us to get, you know, to to get across
00:33:58
the finish line. And so um we are working like I said actively. We still have a opportunity in Rhode Island. They
00:34:04
don't the legislative season doesn't close until the end of June. So, we'll
00:34:07
still be active. We'll still be active there um for now and really really gearing up for next for next year as
00:34:13
well. >> The other thing I was going to ask you too is like if if something passes and goes into
00:34:19
action in a state, does it become easier to show that as example to other states
00:34:25
to say, "Hey, this is working." Um or like I don't I I don't know like I I
00:34:30
always think about it like my my uncle and I who talk politics all the time. Uh we we we always talk about like
00:34:36
>> Are you going to say slippery slope to me? Don't say slippery slope to me.
00:34:39
>> Not a not a slippery slope. I was just going to say I was going to say like
00:34:42
like we always talk about like if we were to just put in action some piece of like whether it's like a a socialist
00:34:50
idea or whether it's like whatever you know it's like whatever political idea
00:34:53
if we just put it into action in one state and see and give it some time to operate and see if it works or not does
00:34:59
it then become more valuable to other states to look at that and say oh this is working for that state we could try
00:35:04
that here as well and see if it works for us like with these bills that are getting passed and this legislation
00:35:10
that's happening. If it is working, if it starts to work, does it become easier
00:35:14
for you guys to go to other states and say, "Hey, look at we're doing this for
00:35:17
homeschoolers over here. It's working. The results are are paying off." Would
00:35:21
you guys be interested in something like that? Or are they really not receptive to that kind of a thing?
00:35:25
>> I I hope so. And to be completely honest, this is some of the first major
00:35:28
legislation that CRG has passed. And it's also um I I I'm also not not even a
00:35:36
year into this position, so I'm excited to like Yeah. So I'm so I'm excited to
00:35:40
see how I'm able to take these like legislative these legislative wins and kind of like you know make them grow and
00:35:46
go into other states. But in general, yes, I do believe that there is um there's there's a lot of value in
00:35:53
passing something in one state and it sort of like rippling out and that kind of effect
00:35:58
that effect happening. What I'm I particularly proud of I guess this legislative season is that we were able
00:36:05
to pass something in Nebraska, middle of the country. I'm Midwestern myself and
00:36:10
we were able to do something on the east coast. You know, I think regionally those are very very different places,
00:36:14
but I think it speaks to how important this work is. And you know, even thinking about like, you know, what do
00:36:20
what does one state do that influences another state? Um Senator Hunt, who introduced this legislation in Nebraska,
00:36:26
uh she modeled it after law in West Virginia. And so West Virginia um's law really really compelling story to look
00:36:35
up about about homeschool reform. But Delegate Fluity has tried for the last seven years to get this legislation
00:36:42
across the finish line and is continuously it is continuously shot down and what Ray Lee's law does is
00:36:48
basically again prevents that suspicious withdrawal because Ray Lee Browning died
00:36:53
because of because of suspicious withdrawal. Um they can't get it across the finish line in Nebraska in um in
00:36:58
West Virginia. But what Nebraska did is they said, "Hey, look at what's
00:37:02
happening over there. Look at how important this is and we don't have to wait for an absolutely tragic case for
00:37:07
us to enact this in our own community." And they >> and so they worked ahead that way.
00:37:12
>> Yeah. >> Truly because of West Virginia. >> That is that's good to hear that it's
00:37:15
like because I think you know like I I think sometimes we view especially as as state rights get pushed a lot more and
00:37:24
more which I think is important. It's still it is one of those things where I
00:37:27
think some states are much more receptive to looking at what's working other places or being proactive like you
00:37:32
were saying um and and saying we can we can do this better before somebody else or you know at the same time you know or
00:37:40
even following after somebody um and saying you know yeah we can make this change now. Um, and so hearing that
00:37:46
there's legislators that are are are wanting to do that is like is good because I think again a lot of what
00:37:52
we're talking about is politics and right now I think a lot of people are disenfranchised with politics and not
00:37:57
feeling like political leaders are actually like doing things that are in the best interest for their
00:38:01
constituents. So it is good to hear that that's not always the case. There are
00:38:05
good things that are coming out of our states um particularly to protect kids. So
00:38:09
>> yeah, and when a legislator fights really hard in one state for for children, no matter the outcome, it does
00:38:15
inspire somebody else, too. And so it worked for again, Delegate Flity's work
00:38:19
is really um you know, has a tremendous amount of credit for the Nebraska um for
00:38:24
for the Nebraska legislation getting across the finish line. Wyoming did the same thing this year. Carly Prevenza
00:38:29
picked it up and said, "Hey, I see what I see West Virginia tried to do. I see
00:38:33
what worked in Nebraska. I'm going to do it, too." >> That's good to hear. Um, is there any
00:38:39
other bills? I'm I'm looking at our notes. I see that you've got a couple
00:38:43
federal bills listed here as well. Do you want to talk about those and and why CR is like backing or supports those
00:38:51
bills and then what they actually are and how they would impact because I'm I'm assuming a federal bill is like
00:38:56
that's nationwide, right? >> It is. And so, um, it's sometimes hard
00:39:01
for us to be a part of federal conversations because education and frankly child welfare operates on such a
00:39:06
state-by-state basis. >> So, um, we we saw an opportunity with the it's
00:39:12
called the Homeschool Graduation Recognition Act. Um, we saw an opportunity to kind of encourage, I
00:39:20
guess, utilize that homeschool graduation recognition act to encourage individuals at the federal level to take
00:39:26
some ownership and some responsibility for what what the homeschool experience all the way up to graduation looks like
00:39:32
in their state. So, what the Homeschool Graduation Recognition Act does is basically just enshrines that especially
00:39:40
for federal student aid, whatever the requirements for homeschool graduation in your state are, that that has to be
00:39:48
accepted by those um by those aid programs. It also has to be essentially like accepted by a university. Um the
00:39:57
reason for us that was so important to to support is because we have heard time and time again from all the alumni that
00:40:02
we talked to how many hurdles they had to get kind of you know how many hurdles they had to go through to get into
00:40:09
college. Um like I said in in my last episode with you know I was I was homeschooled by a teacher so she was
00:40:15
very very adamant that I had a you know real transcript. I had standardized test. I had that all together. But to be
00:40:25
frank, I my experience is relatively unique in the homeschool community. And so even though there is a ton of work to
00:40:31
be done on that entire way up to graduation, the reality is is that we don't want to put any more roadblocks
00:40:37
into place for children who are graduating out of homeschooling. Should there be more accountability up to that
00:40:42
up to that level? Absolutely there should be. But the reality is is that kids aren't going to stop graduating
00:40:46
from homeschooling right now. So, it's important for us even though even though
00:40:51
this bill does not address what happens before to support what happens now as well. And it it did open up some really
00:40:58
amazing channels for us in terms of federal federal conversations, right, about talking to senators about who
00:41:06
talking to senators, talking to Congress people about um yay, they've heard about
00:41:11
homeschooling, right? But do they actually understand what that means in their state? That's huge because yeah,
00:41:16
to your point of like the transcripts and like getting into college, like I mean I I'm so thankful. I also had a mom
00:41:23
who was like the whole goal was like if my kid wants to go to college like we're
00:41:27
going to make sure that kid gets to college and so we're going to make sure there's transcripts and there's
00:41:30
documentation of all of those types of things. I I have friends their parents did not do that for them. And so, you
00:41:36
know, for them to get into school was a lot harder because they were either playing catch-up to try to build it
00:41:41
themselves. they were trying to, you know, talk to mom and dad about like what did we actually do and how did we
00:41:46
do it, you know, and and build it all and, you know, in a much shorter time frame than like we had a lot of that
00:41:53
documented. And so even though we did end up going to somebody who helped us format and make sure it looks proper for
00:41:59
for, you know, uh, college acceptance and that kind of thing, it was like a lot easier because we really were able
00:42:04
to walk in with a stack of papers and say, "Here's this um, you know, help us
00:42:08
know what is important to to document here." And so, and I know that there are
00:42:12
people out there who help with those things uh in each state and it's a state-by-state basis, but that document
00:42:17
is actually so significantly important of like whether it's your transcripts,
00:42:20
but also like you were saying like states recognizing like and accepting homeschool graduation as like a
00:42:26
legitimate thing is like so massive. Um because those things even if down the line, even if you don't go to college,
00:42:32
down the line, you could still need paperwork like that uh to like get a job. Uh even they might ask you about,
00:42:38
you know, your high school education. um and grade school and stuff like that. So
00:42:42
um it is really important to have all that documented. >> Yeah. And again just acknowledging that
00:42:47
you know it is not we know that the system isn't perfect to getting up to graduation right but um
00:42:53
and there was you know and I I know that in in CR supporting this bill to be frank I I understand there was some push
00:42:59
back in the um you know especially in the homes school alumni community about us supporting a bill like this. Um but
00:43:04
for us it really was about again if we need to reframe this conversation not on not on parents rights but but if we're
00:43:11
we are reframing this whole conversation to be on children's rights and children's experience and children's
00:43:16
access to an open future we can't we cannot put a roadblock in place for them. And then to your point too, it
00:43:22
opens up those conversations with those legislators that maybe you didn't have
00:43:25
access to before to actually make some of those changes down the line on a more federal uh level or at least get access
00:43:32
to some of the states that maybe it's just harder to get into or you know anything. You never know. It's all a
00:43:37
networking thing, right? Uh at the end of the day, it's who you know who you
00:43:41
know kind of a thing. So, is there any other legislation we want to touch on before because I want to ask also ask
00:43:48
you some questions around how people can get involved, but is there any other legislation you want to touch on before
00:43:53
we move on to that? >> So, those are really those are really the big ones that are coming. Um, one
00:43:58
other victory I'll share with you, which I think is, you know, it's it's it's
00:44:00
next door to homeschooling, uh, right, is that, uh, New Hampshire decided not to enshrine parents' rights in their in
00:44:10
their constitution. Um, and to me, we did some advocacy around this as well. Um, but to me that was just an
00:44:17
interesting an interesting step to see, right? Because what we're seeing is states like Texas who have decided to
00:44:22
add parents rights as a as a um through a resolution into their constitution. And New Hampshire actually decided not
00:44:30
to this legislative season. And so even though I I think New Hampshire is moving
00:44:35
in a direction where they might be deregulating some things about homeschooling, it's just really
00:44:39
interesting to me that they still chose not to. It wasn't the parents rights
00:44:42
part of it that they were comfortable with. >> Yeah. To your point, I think it's very
00:44:46
very interesting what it it's very clear sometimes where uh certain things are
00:44:52
taking place uh and you know if you watch but it Yeah. It's like vastly different
00:44:59
of like sometimes like to your point you're like so you're deregulating all
00:45:02
this stuff but yet this you're not comfortable with. Why is that? You know and like yeah that is such an
00:45:07
interesting perspective on that as well. Um okay let's touch on how we get involved because I think you know aside
00:45:16
from you know I'm sure money is always great uh to be able to support you guys.
00:45:21
If you if you have a link I'm going to make sure there's a link down below too
00:45:23
if they want to if people want to support you guys financially. But aside from that, what from homeschool alumni
00:45:29
specifically can we do for you? What are you what are you guys looking for? >> Thank you for bringing the financial
00:45:35
component. You know, we are 501c3. Uh so and I think like I've told you before,
00:45:39
we we operate at 0.01% of what the the big homeschool uh anti-regulation lobby does. So, I just
00:45:48
like to throw that out there to people when they're understanding really, you
00:45:51
know, the the tremendous amount of effort that is being put in by those by those alumni and by those volunteers to
00:45:56
get these bills moved ahead. Um, when that's the type of resources that we're
00:46:00
working with. Yeah. Um, >> so all the all the sugar daddies and all the sugar mamas who are listening to
00:46:04
this uh link down below. Go support. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> The people who are rolling in it right
00:46:10
now, let's let's let's make some things happen. Um, yeah. uh for those of us who
00:46:14
maybe our pockets are a little bit tighter um how do we get involved? What do we what do you need from us?
00:46:21
>> Yeah, so the alumni stories is really is it is is really a critical part of this
00:46:24
conversation because every single piece of legislation we're advocating for we
00:46:28
are advocating for from a children's rights perspective. Um now we were the homeschooled children, right? And so we
00:46:35
have the stories and we have the voices now that are so important to bring to to
00:46:40
to to bring forward in this conversation. Um especially I think you know the further we get past our
00:46:44
homeschooling experiences the more our frontal loes close and we realize all of the you know all of the reasons our
00:46:52
parents had all of the maybe challenges and supports that were available. I truly think the homeschool alumni are
00:46:58
the most important voice in this in this conversation. So there's lots of ways to
00:47:03
to get involved with that. Um at CR we do a lot uh we we kind of work on both sides of bills. There's a lot we do
00:47:11
beforehand to get a legislator um ready to bring this to the floor. We need to convince these legislators that this is
00:47:17
important. We need to give them the tools and support that they need to effectively tell our stories to their uh
00:47:23
you know to their other legislators. And then we need to make sure that people understand why this is important. Once
00:47:29
the bill is introduced, then we need support as well. Um and and again those direct stories and those direct voices
00:47:37
and so at our website and it's our voices for reform program that we have there's ways that you can participate in
00:47:42
that um both before you know before a bill is introduced and while a bill is being um is is being debated the
00:47:50
testimony options you know it's um if you get if you get plugged into us through that voices for reform program I
00:47:55
send out all sorts of emails that are like hey we're exploring this in this state there's easy ways that you can
00:48:00
just you can just sign on to a letter that we're doing, you can give us a sentence or two and I'll add that into
00:48:04
testimony. But if you feel particularly compelled and especially if you are either a resident of the state we were
00:48:10
working in or you were homeschooled in that state, your voice um and if you're
00:48:15
willing to be a part of either, you know, submitted written testimony um there's also opportunities to a lot of
00:48:21
times testify virtually and kind of the best thing and the most effective thing you can do is um come out to a state
00:48:27
capital with me. I love I love bringing home school alumni out to state capitals
00:48:31
with me. Um it's a huge lift, but I can't tell you how impactful it is for
00:48:36
legislators to see us and to hear us and to talk to us in person. And the bills that we moved across the floor this
00:48:42
time, um both in Nebraska and in Connecticut, I have to be honest, it's because home school alumni were there
00:48:47
and in person with me. >> Yeah. I think that's like again that's one of the that's one of
00:48:53
the reasons I started this show was the fact that I came to the realization in like 2020 that I was like our stories
00:49:02
are important and I had been talking to friends and we've been talking about
00:49:06
homeschool life and like what it was like and what we had like now that we were almost 10 years removed from it
00:49:12
like what was going on in our brains of like you know did mom and dad fail us? Did they did they succeed? how was it
00:49:19
successful? You know, all of those things. And so, to your point of like, you know, our our uh our frontal lobe
00:49:24
was like finishing developing. Um, it's like we could look at it a lot more objectively, I think, than like right
00:49:31
when we had gotten out, right, at 18 years old when I was fresh out of it. The the first thing I wanted to do was
00:49:37
just like not be associated with homeschooling anymore. And because I was just I was scared of that, like, oh,
00:49:43
that makes sense. Like, I just didn't want to hear that anymore. So I just would always tell people I'm private
00:49:47
schooled and you know I went to a very small school very elite um kind of thing. uh you know, little did people
00:49:53
know um well some people some people sniffed it out pretty quickly but you know but now as those stories are coming
00:49:59
forward like to your point I think there >> they do make a difference right because
00:50:05
in in a couple different ways for for what my show does it really I think gives us a sense of community to know
00:50:10
that we're not alone in what we experienced uh whether it's good bad or ugly right but the reason I wanted to
00:50:16
have you come back on and talk about what's going on is because those stories
00:50:20
not only can be impactful for our community and and feeling seen, but also we can now actually use those stories to
00:50:26
make actual impact that will impact like current and future generations of homeschool kids. That's like huge. Like
00:50:33
I'm like, "Oh my gosh, that's like such a bigger, you know, uh, life goal in a
00:50:37
lot of ways that that we could be a part of that." And so again, yeah, I think
00:50:41
it's great. People get connected. Links will be down below because yeah, testimonies absolutely phenomenal. Um, I
00:50:48
know I've signed on to a couple uh bills or at least one of them um to, you know,
00:50:52
throw my name on there. But yeah, when you guys do something in California, let me know because I'm I will raise my
00:50:58
hand. I'll be the first one in line to say anything you want me to. Um >> yeah. Yeah. And that is and you know, I
00:51:04
think that's also, you know, um we yes, we are working in these states and we
00:51:07
send out these calls to action, but especially if people feel very compelled um about the Make Home School Safe Act,
00:51:12
about whether it's the whole thing or maybe there's one piece of that that
00:51:15
really stands out to you. um legislative change can can start to happen with you. I am not always the
00:51:22
best person to talk to your state representative because they don't I've
00:51:26
got an address in DC and they don't care, right? But if if someone if one of
00:51:30
their constituents can reach out and say, "Hey, make an introduction. Here's
00:51:34
an organization you should look at. They're trying to do something that can be that is truly the the first step and
00:51:40
could make all the difference in your state." Good to know because I think that's I think that's again one of the
00:51:47
one of the things like it it is really that like where do I start? How how do I get involved? And so yeah, knowing that
00:51:54
it's like hey maybe I should just call my representative for for my state or my
00:51:58
childhood state or whatever it is. Um >> yeah, and I've got all those scripts as
00:52:02
well and so if people ask me for it, I'm happy to, you know, we can give via
00:52:07
email. We can even do a quick call. It's um it's it's been really tremendous to
00:52:10
open up some doors again. You know, your representative works for you. You need to talk to them. Yeah.
00:52:17
>> Yeah. No, that's important. And Yeah. And to your point, people get on the
00:52:20
email list, too, because Yeah. Like like Tess was saying, you know, I get emails
00:52:24
all the time from you guys that's like, "Hey, we're we're doing this. Do you
00:52:27
want to sign on to it? Do you you know, we're looking for people who are doing
00:52:30
XYZ." And so, you know, it's not it's not an all the time thing. Like, it's
00:52:34
not a you know, it's not a full-time job to for you. It is a full-time job, but
00:52:38
like, you know, for for us, it's not a full-time job to have to go advocate for
00:52:42
those things. It can take 5 10 minutes. You know, I've written a couple things
00:52:46
for you guys and it it literally took me five minutes to just jot down a few thoughts. You know, it's like it's not
00:52:51
that big of a deal. Um, but it can make a huge impact. And so, uh, you know, that's that's important to know. So, any
00:52:59
other ways we can get involved locally, sign up with you guys, get on the newsletter, give them some support. if
00:53:05
you've got the money, throw a couple bucks their way as well, but like any other ways we can get involved in what's
00:53:11
going on with with upcoming legislation and future legislation. >> Yeah. I mean, and I um
00:53:19
I and Dr. Stewart, we're two people kind of running this uh kind of running this
00:53:22
organization. So, you know, the other thing is if there is, you know, if there is a story about about homeschooling
00:53:28
happening in your area, um just again about like kind of like legislative aspect of homeschooling, um shoot it to
00:53:34
us, tag us, let me know that's happening, too, because it's a really important way that we can plug into a
00:53:38
conversation. And I depend on the network of alumni that we have to make sure that I know, you know, what's going
00:53:43
on. Some of these things, um again, they don't always make it to me. Um but I'm
00:53:47
happy to support them. So, as much as people want to plug us in, I'm I am grateful for it.
00:53:52
>> Yeah. No, I think that I think that's great and I'm excited. Uh yeah, Dr.
00:53:56
Jonah is coming on the show very soon. So, uh yeah, so that's going to be fun.
00:54:00
will hear uh about their experience and uh I think that's going to be cool and
00:54:04
what and what they're doing for you guys because I think like that that's the
00:54:08
other piece of what CR did and the reasons like I started to fall in love with what you guys were doing was
00:54:14
because I was like there are all these resources around what is happening like the invisible uh homeschool kid you know
00:54:22
it's like things like that and being able to tap into those and look at those
00:54:25
resources or look at the the data that you guys are collecting and actually like laying out in a way That makes
00:54:30
sense. It's like, oh, okay. Like, there's a lot here. You know, we've got
00:54:35
generations after generations of homeschoolers now. I mean, we got kids in the, you know, um, dating back
00:54:41
potentially to like the 70s. Um, you know, of of people who could talk about their homeschool experiences and and how
00:54:47
vastly different they have been in that stretch alone. Um, but, you know, there's there's also that tie of what
00:54:54
that thing that ties us all together, which is being a homeschool kid. There's
00:54:56
just this weird thing that like makes it all so we could we see each other, we hear each other, we like instantly
00:55:02
understand. It's it's like a weird >> it's a superpower I keep telling people.
00:55:07
>> Yeah. So, very cool. Well, Tess, this has been wonderful. I really appreciate
00:55:12
you coming on and talking about like what's what's happening, the good things
00:55:15
that have happened, some of the things that maybe died on the floor, but you know, some of the reasons they they did
00:55:20
die and and how we can maybe change that in the future, things that are coming down the line, which is is super
00:55:26
exciting and uh and then how we can get involved because I think, you know, that's that's the next piece is is
00:55:32
action. So, um yeah. Anything else that we haven't touched on before I let you
00:55:37
go? >> No, I appreciate I appreciate the time. I always like being able to um you know
00:55:42
echo the cause of the fact that legislative reform is is needed in in homeschooling and responsible
00:55:48
homeschooling needs these legislative guidelines. And so we are moving the needle forward this, you know, this
00:55:54
year. This truly is one of the first years we've seen the needle go towards towards the reform that we want, not
00:55:59
away. And I'm I'm just excited to keep the momentum going. >> Good. Good. And uh to the audience, you
00:56:05
guys, links for all this stuff down below. Okay. Okay. So whether you want to support financially, whether you want
00:56:09
to get involved in person, whether you just want to hear more about what like the coalition is doing, like please like
00:56:13
get involved. Check it out. See if it's for you. Sign on to some things if that
00:56:17
if that is uh sounding good to you. And uh yeah, until next time, we'll see you.
00:56:22
Peace.
