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The C H A P   E-Newsletter

Welcome to issue four of the CHAP E-Newsletter. Thank you for your kind
response to this publication. If you have friends and aquaintances who
would enjoy receiving it please forward a copy to them. They may
subscribe if they are interested. If you want to see any back issues
they are posted on the CHAP web page at www.chaponline.com.

The first few issues will center on the debate about if and how the
current Pennsylvania Homeschool law should be changed to give home
educators more freedom. The model for these papers is the Federalist
Papers published by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton. The
Federalist Papers were written to support the adoption of the new
Federal Constitution. In the Federalist papers the authors used
pseudonyms. This custom is continued in the Freedom Papers.


Freedom Paper 5 (cont.) -By beta

Last month's E-Newsletter began an analysis of the likely political
strength of homeschoolers in regard to changing the law. This article
was based on nine factors listed by Rober L. Guyer in his book,  Guide

to State Legislative Lobbying. The first 5 of these items were in last
month's issue. If you read that article you can start at item 6. The
first five are listed again for those of you who want the review. A new
addition in this issue is a numerical score for each area, with a five
representing a very strong position and a one representing a weak
position. The scores are a best guess and do not represent facts. The
score labeled "now" is the estimate for our current situation and the
score labeled "was" is the guess for the situation in 1987.

1. Internal Consensus Without unity success will be difficult. This is
probably the most difficult of the issues for homeschoolers. Because
homeschoolers tend to be independent and individualistic, we tend to
have different visions about what an ideal law would be. These visions
range from keeping our current law to having no law at all.

Dick and Dorothy Carmen, state leaders in Oregon, stated that getting
agreement among the homeschoolers was the most important and most
difficult step in their attempt to get a new homeschooling law. They
noted that they had more opposition from other homeschoolers than from
the teachers' and educators' unions. Score:	Now 4		Was 4

2. Member Motivation Homeschoolers tend to rate high in the area of
motivation. While not all homeschoolers will work to change the law,
many will. This is the strength of the movement. If the Pennsylvania law
is changed at all it will be due to the motivation of individual
homeschoolers to make life better for themselves and their successors.
When CHAP did a survey of their mailing list there was a fifty per cent
response rate.  That is staggeringly good for such a survey. For a
commercial survey the response rate is expected to be in the range of 1
ot 2%. Score:	Now 5		Was 5


3. Relationships The relationships we have with legislators, family,
friends, other public interest groups, schoolteachers and administrators
will be a major force in our ability to change the law.  In some of
these areas we have real strength. We are weak in our relationships with
lawmakers and other lobbying groups. Home educators need to improve in
these areas. Score:	Now 3		Was 2

4. Places Where Members Live and Work Because the legislature represents
the whole state the wider the geographic diversity of a group the more

political power a group will have. On this item Homeschoolers score
well. We are geographically diverse. Score:	Now 4		Was 4

5. Shared Characteristics with Legislators Knowing, working and sharing
a common background with the representatives and senators makes for
potent lobbyists. For example a person who has known the public servant
all of his life has a potent influence on him. Home educators will
likely have a great deal in common with their elected servants.
Score:	Now 3		Was 3


6. Membership size In general the larger the membership the higher the
chance of success. Homeschoolers are not a large group. At best we
represent two percent of school students. With about 20,000 students in
Pennsylvania we do have a significant number of interested parties. Our
numbers are about five times the number we had when the law was last
tackled in 1988. Score:	Now 3		Was 1


7. Reputation Are we respected by the members of the state legislature?
If you have been homeschooling for more than ten years you have probably
noticed that the public attitude toward home education has improved
dramatically in that time. Our reputation is better now than it was in
1987. Score:	Now 4		Was 1


8. Technical, lobbying, and negotiating skills Again the more skilled we
are in these areas the greater the likelihood of success. Homeschoolers
often need further training in this skill set. One of the reasons CHAP
began HELP (Home Educators Lobbying Program) is to increase
homeschoolers skills in these areas. Score:	Now 2		Was 2


9. Ability to form alliances Homeschoolers are not joiners and we tend
to do things on our own. We classically have not been interested in
alliances. Score:	Now 1		Was 1


Where do we stand? The total score that I have given us in these nine
points is a 29 out of a possible 45. When the current law was passed, we
rated a 21 on this scale. Our position is improving. Several of the

areas can be further improved.



What Should You Do? The following are ways that every homeschooler can
help to get a less restrictive homeschool law:

1) Pray! This should be #1 on all of our lists as we seek our Lord's
guidance and His will in this matter.

2) Get to know your state senator and representative now. Be visible
with their staff. Let them know you are a homeschooler, and tell them
that you value your personal freedoms and want less government control
in your life. Always be congenial even when disagreeing with their
positions. Ask how you can pray for them or their families. One family
that we know of developed such a rapport with their representative over
several years that the representative now has a daughter homeschooling
his grandchildren.

3) Plan on attending the first CHAP HELP Day on Tuesday, November 14,
2000 in Harrisburg. The theme will be Home Education Works for
Pennsylvania. CHAP HELP (Home Educator's Lobby Program) will be a super
day for homeschooling families as they learn how to lobby, visit their
legislators, and have the afternoon free to have a field trip in the
state capital city. More details are on the CHAP web page.

4) Buy and read Howard Richman's book the Story of a Bill  and learn
about the previous efforts to change the law. It will give you a glimpse
of the difficulties involved in changing the law. This book is available
from Pennsylvania Homeschoolers (Howard and Susan's business), R.D. 2,
Box 117, Kittaning, PA 16201. The book can also be downloaded for free
from Howard and Susan's web page (pahomeschoolers.com).



Staff
	Editor		Bruce K. Eagleson
	Publisher	Doug Rothgaber



Christian Homeschool Association of Pennsylvania
PO Box 115
Mount Joy, PA 17552-0115
717-661-2428
www.chapboard.org
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