Sherwood Boehlert: “I rise today in strong support of the Armey amendment. During the past week, there has been an outpouring of concern…”

“I rise today in strong support of the Armey amendment. During the past week, there has been an outpouring of concern from across the Nation that H.R. 6 will adversely impact parents who choose to teach their children at home. Those concerns must be addressed and the amendment before us does just that. The United States is entering an era of global change--political, economic, and scientific. We need to ensure that our children have the skills to interact, compete, and lead in those developing international community. Why in the world would we want to advocate a bill that even remotely threatens innovative education programs that have proven successful? And home schooling has proven to be successful. Despite the good intentions behind the teacher certification provision in H.R. 6, interpretation is everything. A family's decision to teach their kids at home could become a logistical nightmare if local education agencies choose to apply teacher certification requirements to nonpublic schools. Let's not encourage yet another situation where the Government tries to impose itself on a system that is meeting the needs of millions of Americans. Home schooling is a unique approach to education that has demonstrated positive results for those who chose it. To the best of my thinking, there has not been, nor is there now, an organized attempt to undermine the home schooling system.”