HR 3753/S 1691 at The Military Homeschooler

Some online friends can't get to Happy As Kings, so I'll re-post the info here. I'd be tidier about it, but I'm on the run, and late to boot.


1st entry:

HR 3753/S 1691 at The Military Homeschooler

I'm working on updating my website, but the writing is taking longer than I thought because Section 10 of the bills is completely new this time around (most of the homeschool 'nondiscrimination' bill was introduced in 2003 and mercifully killed; the military section is new)
Still, the thinking ought to be thrown 'out there' asap. So here's what I've got so far:
It's not up yet, but this is what I've got for the front page :

Possible federalization of homeschooling

HR 3753/S 1691 Home-school NonDiscrimination Act of 2005
In 2003 the first version of the legislative bill titled the Home-school NonDiscrimination Act was introduced to Congress. It died in committee. This one should die faster since the 2005 version contains a new section, number 10, which, in the context of Vietnam-era GI-speak, should tell you something. (search for 'number ten' using Ctrl+F)

Section 10 of HR 3753/S 1691 would create a new section of public law concerning enlistment only of homeschooled kids. No other group of potential recruits has such a section. The possibilities for precedent, may be unprecedented in terms of federal attention to homeschooling families. In combination with the other sections, recycled without noticeable change from 2003, homeschooling parents who are concerned about regulation of homeschooling should homeschool themselves about the effects of the bills.

The linked page has information about objections to the 2003 version, not much which will have changed in two years. A 'fisking' (to use blog-speak), of the new 'number 10' military section is added.



2nd entry:

HR 3753/S 1691: federalization of hmschl page

(drat the copied formatting -- this won't go over to the left. anyhow, this is what will be on the current Federalization of Homeschooling page. It isn't up yet because publishing a site in fits and starts is ... not as useful as I'd like and leaves unlinked pages 'twisting in the wind.' Blogs, though !! [insert happy face] Blogs get to be as fractured as they like.
Later on I'll be working on the fisking of Section 10 to be published at the web site. In the meantime, you can mull this over.)

Oh, and email or fax your legislators about this.

2005 Events: HR 3753/SB 1691

History

In September of 2005, events from July 2003 replayed themselves with Rep. Marilyn Musgrave of Colorado introducing into the House of Representatives a bill titled "Home School Non-Discrimination Act," humanizingly given the acronym of HONDA. This was an omnibus bill that was killed in committee in 2003. In its resurrected form it is much the same, but with the inclusion of a new section "Recruitment and Enlistment of Home-schooled Students in the Armed Forces." The new section is nonsense.


Why homeschooled grads are classified as Tier II recruits

Homeschooled graduates are already able to enlist in the armed forces, but they are not traditionally granted the same categorization as publicly and privately schooled graduates. Studies have shown that recruits with non-traditional diplomas do not have the same success rate as recruits with public- or private-school diplomas. It's the one area where public-schooling is superior to homeschooling.

At the urging of HSLDA, a five-year study was commissioned to determine the enlistment track record of homeschooled graduates. The determining factor of 'success' was completion of the first hitch. Unfortunately, homeschool grads did not have as good a record of 'success' (in context of completing that first hitch) as do publicly-schooled grads. The Tier II label was not discriminatory, merely descriptive.


Why pacifists should care (answer: because they're taxpayers)

The phenomenon of public-schooling as the best predictor of success in the military was determined through studies conducted since 1959, and a tier-system was put in place to ensure that the nation's military services accept and pay to train the people with the greatest chance of making full use of that training by completing a first-term enlistment and possibly re-enlisting. This makes the best use of the taxpayers' money, whether those taxpayers have any intention of supporting the military system or not. I assume that even people who do not support many military operations want those operations to be carried out as inexpensively as possible until the day that peace prevails.


What procedure does DoD see as producing a "High School Graduate?"

Homeschooled graduates are not 'second-class citizens' but only people who, if the military is their target, need the tools to realize their dreams. Unfortunately this begins early because the military's definition of 'High School Graduate' is 12 years of graded instruction. The 'grading' is doubly defined because it refers to 'taught subjects' that are graded by the instructor, and that the children progressed from First Grade on up to Twelfth Grade. For school-at-home families, this won't be as much of a problem as it will be for eclectic or unschooling families.


How can homeschooled grads acquire Tier I status, with the intention of increasing their chances of enlistment 'success?'

For families who did not use a school-at-home program for all twelve grades, the work-around for the potential recruit is to acquire 15 college credit hours, the equivalent of being a full-time college student for one semester.


Fisking Section 10

Section 10 of HR 3753/S 1691 is longer than the sections from the 2003 version of the bills. Section 10 is longer because it would create a new section of public law: Title 10, Chapter 31, a portion that controls military enlistment. Because of the length, I've used up another portion of my 5MB of member-space on the freebie site of my ISP's server with a separate page for the 'fisking' (a blogger term meaning to examine a piece of writing column inch-by-column inch).
To use blogger style: the fisking is here. [blog note: that's what I'm working on right now -- or will be after I get back home today]

Does anyone ever pay attention?

While we were driving home we were listening to the Oldies station, one that flogs the songs of the sixties and seventies as "sing along" music. This music used to be so cutting edge the grownups turned it off, hated it, banned it. It was evil, and sure to send all of us who listened to it straight to hell, which is probably a reasonable adult reaction to whatever the kids are getting up to. Regarding music, it seems to be a normal cycle that whatever used to be hot is now music for children, although I beseech the Musical Muse that Snoop's songs are never recycled in this fashion. Whatever.

Still, you'd think that the D.J.s spinning those platters would have some familiarity with the sounds they're transmitting over the air waves, and have appropriate tag lines for the songs. I think they're all talking on cell phones while they jockey the discs around. The song that was playing this evening when we coasted into the driveway was Gilbert O'Sullivan's ballad, Alone Again, Naturally. This has to be one of the saddest songs ever written. The singer wants to commit suicide at the beginning of the song, and at the end is mourning the deaths of his parents. So what does the D.J. say when the song finishes? He all but chirped something to the tune of, "Songs that make you happy!"Happy?! About suicide and losing your family?!? It's fine that they play diverse songs from the sixties and seventies, even Alone Again, Naturally, but, for crying out loud (which was what Mr. O'Sullivan was doing), make some connection between what's played, and what the D.J. says!

Yes, I can't think of anything much more trivial to get irked about, but it's just indicative of the general attitude of many people who are floating along in their bubbles of Magical ME! that nothing else registers. They all seem to have cell-ulite where their brains ought to be.