From the day it passed out of the Illinois state legislature’s Education Policy Committee last March until it died at the end of the legislative session on June 1, H.B. 2827, also known as the Homeschool Act, provoked the ire of parents. The bill would have placed an undue burden of regulation on homeschooling families, including the potential for criminal penalties and imprisonment if they did not fill out burdensome paperwork at the whim of the state.

Ironically, until the advent of the Homeschool Act, Illinois was one of the freest states in the union for homeschoolers. The HSLDA called H.B. 2827 “the most authoritarian bill proposed in the country in the last three decades. In recent memory, no state has even attempted to put automatic criminal penalties on homeschool families who do not file a piece of paperwork, as the original bill stipulated, or automatically refer them to a state attorney for prosecution, as in the amended bill.”

But homeschooling parents and conservative and Christian organizations in Illinois were not about to give up the freedom to educate children as they see fit, despite the bill’s momentum and the state’s Democrat majority that seemed sure of having the votes to push it through. On March 19, hundreds of homeschooling families descended on the state capitol in Springfield to protest the bill.

The Illinois Christian Home Educators led the charge, and hundreds of parents filled out “witness slips” online in opposition, which Illinois citizens are allowed to do in support of or against a bill. Phyllis Schlafly Eagles Executive Director, Kurt Prenzler, reports that 42,393 witness slips were submitted against H.B. 2827, with fewer than 1,100 in favor.

As if to make bad legislation worse, the Democrats amended it, which attracted 51,238 witness slips against, and then introduced a second amendment, which resulted in 43,177 slips in opposition. Just over 400 witness slips were submitted in support of each of the two amendments.

As the bill languished, homeschooling families and supporters continued the fight. On April 3, a crowd of parents, students, and other opponents rallied in downtown Chicago, led by Illinois State Democratic lawmaker, La Shawn Ford, whose district includes parts of Chicago. Parents in Ford’s district reportedly contacted him about the rally, during which he made a comment that struck home with the crowd and became a rallying cry against the bill.

According to Fox News, Ford said in part: “I believe in restorative justice. I believe in making sure that people don’t have a pathway to the criminal justice system.” Then he said: “This bill is a pipeline to the criminal justice system for parents. (Emphasis added.) And I can’t stand for that. How can we criminalize parents for wanting to love their children?”

Ford further observed that, since the pandemic, homeschooling has increased “across all demographics,” and that specifically in the black community.

Fox also quoted the vice president of the nonprofit Urban Center, who charged at the rally that, “This bill would require private schools to hand over the individual contact information, including names, phone numbers, and addresses, to the state of Illinois. That is government overreach.”

Prenzler and others believe Ford’s speech was the catalyst for ultimately killing the bill. “The Democrats failed to consider one thing,” Prenzler pointed out, “which is that, over the years, many black mothers took their children out of the Chicago public schools to homeschool them.” These parents proved a formidable force, and Rep. Ford struck a chord as he articulated against the bill.

While celebration is in order, homeschoolers know better than to relax their vigilance, realizing that the Democrats will try again. Prenzler reports that, after the bill died, Illinois homeschooling mother Cora Weber, through her group called the International Alliance for Freedom in Home Education (IAFHE), persuaded the leaders of 12 county governments to pass “pro-homeschool freedom” resolutions. Prenzler says, “these counties are all known as ‘homeschool sanctuary’ counties.” The hope is that more counties will follow their lead in Illinois and that the idea will spread to other states.

Weber’s organization warns that although homeschooling “is currently the fastest growing form of education in the United States, certain agenda-driven groups with anti-family values have taken the opportunity to intensify their attacks on homeschool freedoms.” Illinois is an obvious example, but other states also face threats.

IAFHE’s website states:

• Groups like the Boston, Massachusetts-based Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), consider most home educators to be what they call “Parental Rights Extremists,” and seek to undermine fundamental freedoms and parental rights under the false pretense of preventing child abuse. A deep dive into their background shows alignment with radical leftist organizations like Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ+, while a cursory run through their website reveals an agenda bent on promoting legislation that would force parents to waive their guaranteed First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment protections just for the “privilege” of home educating their own children.

IAFHE further cautions that CRHE is peddling a “model bill” to legislatures nationwide that will force parents to “acquire a permit to train their own children.” The language in this bill “is so egregious it would create measures that could be interpreted to force parents to align their children’s education with woke ideologies and radical leftist policies under threat of their children being forced to attend government schools for three years and/or having their children removed from the home.” (Readers may review this model legislation proposal here.)

Homeschoolers and their supporters, along with everyone who values freedom, must be mindful of these dangers. Kurt Prenzler urges anyone whose right to homeschool is being challenged to contact Weber through her organization, or to contact him by phone at 618.514.2599.

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