House Education Committee
Hearing for HB 2560
June 13, 2002
[Unrehearsed remarks; introductions and Rep Rohrer’s overview.]
Rep Jess Stairs: Good morning, if I could have your attention, for not just a *few* minutes, but maybe a few hours during our presentation...knowing this is a very large crowd, I would appreciate kind of giving you an idea of our agenda this morning, and I know you're going to listening -- listen patiently and quietly...I notice, I see, I see a lot of students so maybe they can pretend they're at home, at school, as they take part in their school activities they work earnestly and quietly. So, I would like to begin our hearing; I am Representative Jess Stairs from Westmoreland County, and I'm Chairman of the Education Committee, and I think it'd be appropriate for you maybe to know us a little better, so we'll start to my left at the end of the table, we'll start with Representative Lawless, and I would hope that each Representative would give us their name, and also their county, so you might be able to identify with them. So, go ahead, start, John.
[they introduce themselves; the microphones are apparently not working]
Representative John Lawless from Montgomery County.
Representative Ed Krebs from Lebanon County.
Representative Phyllis Mundy from Luzerne County.
Representative Lawrence Curry from Montgomery County.
Representative Bob Bastian, Somerset County.
Representative Pat Fleagle from Franklin County.
Representative Paul Clymer from Bucks County.
Representative Sam Rohrer from Berks County.
Representative Jerry Nailor from Cumberland County.
I'm State Representative Fred McIlhattan, I represent the 53rd Legislative District, which includes Clarion and Armstrong Counties.
I'm Representative Nick Colafella from Beaver County.
Representative Jim Roebuck from Philadelphia.
Representative Sara Steelman from Indiana and Cambria Counties.
Representative Lynn Herman, Centre County.
Representative Ron Miller, York County.
Representative Bill Robinson, Allegheny County.
Representative Tom Armstrong, Lancaster County. [applause from the audience]
Stairs: I'll have to make an announcement about applause.
Representative Richard Grucela, Northampton County.
Stairs: A reminder to the legislators: our microphone, and there's no light to indicate whether it's on or off, but if you do push the button a couple times, it will work, as mine, as mine evidently is working, although there's no light to indicate that it's working, so when the legislators ask questions a little later on, you can check, check the microphone.
I would -- kind of, let me lay out a few ground rules before we get started. I know this is an emotional -- emotionally charged issue, and we have strong feelings, and I, and I understand that, but...and this is no sports event, where we applaud, you know, the gladiators or the participants...but, I would hope that -- you know, there might be some charged statements that are made, and some things that you may agree with wholeheartedly or you may *disagree* with, and *vehemently* disagree with, but I would appreciate, and I know you have good manners, so I have no problem to -- not to expect it, but we appreciate your restraint from verbal applauses when you hear something you like or hear something you *don't* like, because I suspect that during the course of the hearing -- and this hearing is being held to inform the legislators. And the public is invited, certainly, and that's why we're in this room. If we didn't want you here we would've had it in one of the corner rooms of the Capitol somewhere, where you would have been -- you know, you couldn't've got into it. So, we wanted you to be here, and we also want the members to be able to hear the testimony because, as, as in *this* bill, as, as in all bills, we certainly, we like to be informed and hear the comments from the people who want to share thoughts with us. So it's for our information, and your information also, and we're going to be hearing this information today, there will be no votes taken, it's not the purpose to vote after this meeting's over, we'll probably have discussions and then, and have that voting at a later day. But informational purposes only. So with that in mind, we have two panel groups, multiple numbers of people in the panels, there'll be a number of people speaking, and I have taken the privilege of limiting our speakers to five minutes. Now obviously, I understand some people can talk for hours upon hours on the subject, and I don't doubt that one bit, but I think brevity is the word of the day with a, with a important issue like this, you should be able to state your opinion very clearly and plainly in five minutes and then after that, each present -- presenter has their five minutes, then we'll be -- then they'll all complete their talks, finish the panel, and then the legislators will ask questions, and we, we'll ask questions until we run out of questions, I guess, put it that way.
But we would like to begin, with our first speaker, the sponsor of the bill...
[Rep Herman asks to ask a question.]
Stairs: Yes, you had an added question.
[Herman asks about the availability of a copy of the testimony; his microphone was not on.]
Stairs: It's my understanding the stenographers should have this available in a month, or sooner, or hopefully sooner, but it may be a month; of course this is broad -- being broadcast live across the Commonwealth, and tapes will be available probably in a matter of a day or so, so I don't think it will be any great difficulty to -- and I know PC -- PCN replays their programs, so I'm sure the people who are here today go home tonight, and, or over the weekend, may be seeing this and they can tape it of course, in their homes, too; but, yeah, the information should be available soon, that's my hope anyway.
Representative Rohrer, if you would please, you are the sponsor of House Bill 2560, and I would hope you could give us a few remarks to explain the bill to us.
Rep Rohrer: Thank you -- [working to turn on microphone] All right, I think we have figured out the technical glitch here, only one mike can be open at a time. So, so just for information's sake, when we're done speaking, we'll hit the button and then everybody else should be able to turn on.
Thank you Mr. Chairman, for the scheduling of this hearing today. It is indeed a, a real pleasure to see such good attendance here today, and the interest in this very, very important bill. House Bill 2560 is an attempt to revise for the first time in 14 years the homeschool law that prevails in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Many of you sitting out here today perhaps have homeschooled prior to that, most perhaps since that time. *I* was not here in 1988, when by court order at that point the Commonwealth was instructed to imp -- implement and put into place a law. In 1988 a lot of things were different than now, a lot of things were unknown. The future of what *would* happen, of what would be the impact of *this* bill, on, on the whole area of home education, let alone the whole area of education in general -- a lot of things were not known in 1988 that in 2002 we can look back and see a lot of things. But there *have* been no changes since 1988, we *are* now in a place of being able to look back, and be able to say how has this bill done? How has it impacted home education in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and how, how easy, or lack thereof, or difficult, or however you want to look at it, has it been for parents who choose to home educate in this fashion? And really which brings me to the intent of why the bill was introduced.
After many, many years, and hearing from, really, hundreds and then thousands of home educators across this country, and finally speaking to superintendents of public schools, and Departments of Education, and others that are involved from different aspects of this, it really came *clear* that some changes were in order and needed to be made in order to make the situation improve on all aspects, on all fronts. And so I, along with two other House members who are home educators, Representatives Tom Armstrong and Joe Petrarca, have spent many many, many months with, with home educating individuals from organizations and parents alike across this Commonwealth, in an effort to come up with a, with a bill that would best address the current needs that face us in this Commonwealth today. And essentially that's what 2560 does. And, and I know, as we all know sitting at this table, we have heard from thousands of parents across this Commonwealth, there are many questions, there are, there are some issues that really we are looking forward to being discussed today at this table in front of us, and that's really why we are here. After not having done anything with this bill for 14 years, and really, frankly, probably I would say most House members, themselves, and Senate members, really don't even understand how these things function in this area, just because it has functioned in the fashion that it has. And so a lot of this is real education; I know a lot of the members really -- including myself -- wanting to hear, frankly, what is presented this day. So with that: I'm not going to speak any more; I am glad for Representative Stairs's staff in particular, who have helped so hard in helping me to put together this group, and I know they've worked some long hours in putting this together, and I am looking forward to good testimony this day. So, with that, Mr Chairman, I'm ready to begin.
Stairs: Now we have a system worked out where I have to turn off [the microphone] and then you can turn on, okay, we've got it figured out here, so we're making progress.
We'd like to begin our first panel presentation, and the first panelists, if they would please come forward and face...and face across from us in the podium here please? And I'll let the panelists introduce themselves, but we've got a school board member, a school superintendent, a staff member from the National Home School Legal Defense Association, and the National Home School Research Institute. So that should be our panelists and they -- when they arrive on the stage they can introduce themselves, and each one will have a five minute presentation and then we'll ask, then we'll ask questions.