December 6, 2018 (Home School Legal Defense Foundation) – “Don’t try to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. I ask you not to repeal the religious exemption,” said Paul Millhouse at a Loudoun County School Board meeting last Tuesday. The multitude of hands raised in silent applause after he finished speaking revealed the audience’s agreement with his statement.
Millhouse, who lives in Loudoun County, was one of over two dozen Virginia residents who came to the meeting to defend their right to homeschool under the state’s religious exemption to compulsory school attendance.
On November 13, Loudoun County Public Schools announced that they intend to ask the Virginia Legislature to alter the religious exemption, under which thousands of families currently homeschool.
The county board’s proposal seeks legislation that would require families to educate their children only through “an alternative public, private, parochial and/or approved home instruction setting.”
Curtailing Freedom
If the exemption were changed in this way, parents would no longer be permitted to opt out of the public school system on the basis of their religious convictions.
As Home School Legal Defense Association Senior Counsel Scott Woodruff explained, “This action is very disturbing because it means that the school
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