Homeschool Freedoms Aren't Free
Homeschool Freedoms Aren't Free
As Illinois homeschoolers are all aware we are the beneficiaries of decades of our predecessors carefully monitoring what is happening in our state legislature and several times a year quietly taking action on small but crucial concerns. On occasion, word is sent out throughout the homeschooling community to please take action on a specific issue because we couldn't make it go away quietly, but these have, thankfully, been rare.
The primary way we have been able to monitor such activity in the Illinois legislature is through a wonderful, dedicated lobbyist. Lobbyists need to be paid.
For decades that lobbyist's salary has been paid by the Illinois Coalition of Nonpublic Schools (ICNS). http://www.icns.net/ Illinois homeschools have one seat on the ICNS board. That seat is filled by a representative of the Ad Hoc Committee of Home Education Legal and Legislative Matters (Ad Hoc). http://www.il-adhoc.org/
Homeschoolers do need our own lobbyist. In order to continue having this lobbyist, we must continue to maintain our relationship with ICNS. Last year, ICNS doubled their dues for member organizations. On top of that, Ad Hoc and the other organizations in ICNS have been asked to contribute extra, on top of our dues, toward paying the lobbyist.
We are urging every Illinois home educator or supporter of home education to please join a local group that is a member one of the statewide groups that has a seat on the Ad Hoc Committee or to join one of these statewide groups as an individual. Your membership dues today will help keep a lobbyist in Springfield tomorrow. These three groups are as follows:
Illinois Homeschool Association, non-sectarian/secular homeschooling support: www.ilhsa.org (see All Around Illinois HOUSE for a virtual group)
Illinois Christian Home Educators (ICHE): http://iche.org/
Roman Catholic Home Educators Network (RCHEN): https://www.il-rchen.org/, 630-858-9215
***If you do not wish to join one of these groups and only want to donate to the lobbyist’s salary you can do so by donating via PAYPAL to admin@ilhsa.org and simply comment LOBBYIST'S SALARY. Your donation will be kept separate and used as per your wishes.
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