Texas Driver License Requirements

There is a new bill in the Texas House concerning stricter requirements for kids to get their license. The new bill would require students to be in class a certain amount of days. Normally something like this would not affect homeschoolers but in this case the writer of the bill, State Representative Ryan Guillen has added that homeschoolers must also be in attendance for 80 days. If they aren't in class for that amount of time, then the parent or guardian is suppose to report this information not to the DPS (who the public and traditional private schools report to) but to the local public school superintendent. Now if I don't normally have any contact with my local school district, why should I want to start now by reporting that my child hasn't attended class? If my child has not attended his/her homeschool classes, then that's my fault. My state homeschool association has this posted on their website:

http://www.thsc.org/hb1091.asp

HB 1091 by State Representative Ryan Guillen would change the law to make it stricter for students to get and keep a Texas driver license. It treats home schools differently from private schools – requiring the current number of days (80) rather than 90% of the classes offered, as is required for private and public schools. 90% of classes would be 153 days for public school or traditional private school attendance. The bill requires automatic revocation of driver licenses for students who fall below attendance of 90% or 80 days for home school students. While public school and traditional private school officials are required to report this to the DPS, home school parents would report to the local public school superintendent rather than DPS as other school officials. This is a major issue for us. Finally, if a high school student over age 15 withdraws from public or private school to home school, it appears that they would be required to wait at least 80 days before they could obtain a license.

THSC representatives have visited with Representative Guillen’s staff and expressed our concerns and opposition to the bill. They were completely uninformed about home schooling and said it was inconceivable that parents should have this kind of freedom from state control. We made clear that we intend to keep it that way. We will continue to monitor this bill and let you know if and when action is needed.

Representative Guillen evidently doesn't like homeschoolers since he states that us parents should be more controlled by the state as far as schooling our children goes. Where does he get off? He doesn't represent me. And I resent the fact that he wants to force me to have contact with a school district who I normally have nothing to do with! You can check out his website at: http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist31/guillen.htm
There you can see exactly which area of Texas he resprents and then maybe you'll understand why he wants to get something like this passed.

I really hope that this bill gets shot down. This is an unfair bill not only for public and traditional private schools but also for homeschoolers because according to the TEA are private schools. Just because they crossed out the word "homeschooler" in parts of the bill, does not mean that we are exempt from that section. To me it only confuses me more. Is my child subjected to the 90% of the day classes are offered or the 80 days preceeding the date of the application? Which is it? Am I a private school or just a homeschool?

You can check out the bill yourself at: http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/80R/billtext/pdf/HB01091I.pdf

I'm so mad about this bill that I couldn't even think straight enough to write a proper blog. Plus the fact that my internet is messed up or something weird is going on with it.