Senate Select Committee on School Choice Chairwoman Patrica Rucker said a bill decreasing some standards for home school families would bring West Virginia in line with 26 other states. (Photo Courtesy/WV Legislative Photography)

CHARLESTON – A rare debate broke out in the West Virginia Senate Thursday over a bill not yet up for passage that would decrease regulations on home school families.

Senate Bill 966, changing requirements for home school instruction, was read a first time Thursday and will be up on second reading and amendment stage today.

SB 966 would deregulate specific aspects of non-public education by removing requirements for parent certifications and eliminating mandates that home instruction curricula mirror the specific subject areas taught in public schools. The bill’s lead sponsor is Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Tom Willis, R-Berkeley.

Annual academic assessments remain mandatory for home schooling, learning pods and microschools. But under the proposed bill, when a portfolio of work is reviewed by a certified teacher, the written narrative must cover progress in “reading, language, mathematics, science, and social studies selected by the parent,” rather than a fixed, state-mandated list. The bill would not apply to families who receive the Hope Scholarship, which has its own mandates.

Senate Minority Leader Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, made a motion Thursday calling on the Senate to reject SB 966 on first reading, which would have ended all further consideration of the bill.

“It eliminates instruction of reading, math and science,” Woelfel said. “The teacher is not even required to have a GED. You could be a sixth-grader and be a teacher of a home school student. It abolishes any normed testing for any student. It abolishes any reporting requirements to the board.

“West Virginia is regarded as the least-educated state in America,” he said. “I can’t imagine what this would do. Many of our home school parents are outstanding, great people (but) some people game the system. I urge rejection.”

Woelfel’s motion to reject SB 966 failed in a 10-24 vote with eight Republicans joining Woelfel and Senate Assistant Minority Leader Joey Garcia, D-Marion, in voting for it.

“I support homeschooling 100%, but I think there’s several levels of that,” said Senate Education Committee Vice Chairman Charles Clements, R-Wetzel. “I know a lot of people who have done a very good job of homeschooling … but I also know many places in my own county where people are trying to home school that don’t have the ability to do it. We need some type of guardrail to protect these children, to make sure that they get a good education, whether it be at home or in the public school system.”

“On this bill, we are going to not expect children to be taught in any of the basic fields of reading, or taught by folks that have no educational background, and I think it’s just a step too far,” said state Sen. Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia. “I have supported homeschooling through all the years I’ve been in the Legislature. I’ve supported home school students being able to engage in extracurricular activities, but I think this is a step too far.”

But the majority of Republican senators opposed rejecting the legislation, defending it as a “freedom” bill that would afford home school families more flexibility regarding their children’s education. Senate Select Committee on School Choice Chairwoman Patrica Rucker, R-Jefferson, said 26 out of 50 states do not regulate homeschooling as strictly as West Virginia does.

“The perception that we must tell a parent what it is that they have to teach, what criteria they must meet; the idea that you must have a certain degree or level of knowledge is really kind of (becoming) defunct,” Rucker said. “These are homeschoolers that are educating their children with their own funds, taking the responsibility and accountability completely onto themselves. This is just giving them the respect they deserve and which they have in … a majority of the United States of America.”

“This is a freedom bill,” said state Sen. Mike Azinger, R-Wood. “This is basically saying that the parents are sovereign over their children; that they love their children more than anybody else does.”

“We’ve seen some really great achievement across our state from our home school students,” said state Sen. Brian Helton, R-Fayette. “I think that when it comes to trying to adopt one-size-fits-all or to take away choice from parents is a big mistake. It’s a huge mistake. We need to fight hard to make sure that our home school students are allowed to learn in the environment that fits them best.”