On the recordMay 23, 2019
This past Saturday, I had the great pleasure of addressing a number of homeschool graduates in Cary, North Carolina, 55 of them, in fact. I was impressed by these students, and I was inspired by their parents, who have made so many sacrifices and who have dedicated immeasurable time to ensuring their kids get a good education. Today, we were supposed to be voting on legislation that would help homeschoolers. Tens of millions of Americans choose 529 savings plans to cover K-12 expenses. This money can be used for public schools, private schools, and religious schools, but it cannot be used to cover homeschool expenses. This bill was supposed to fix this inequity by enabling homeschool parents to use their 529 savings plans. This would help erase and ease the financial burden on homeschool parents and give homeschoolers the same opportunities and resources enjoyed by other kids who go to private and public schools. As Chairman Neal said, Republicans and Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee came together, passed this bill out of our committee. Then it went to the Rules Committee, and Democratic leadership intervened. At the last minute, the bill was changed, and the language ending this discrimination against homeschoolers was removed. Why would anyone object to ending the wrongful discrimination against homeschool families? There are over 130,000 homeschoolers in North Carolina and 1.6 million across the country.…
