Texas Home School Coalition

Political Action Committee

Celebrating over 2 decades of political action

to protect and promote home education in Texas!

2008 Election Review

Be of good courage and stand ready to take action if and when it becomes necessary.

The 2008 General Election is now history, and the question many are asking is how will the results affect home schoolers? Let me give you my opinion on where we are at this point in time.

At the national level this was an historic election, with the Democrats, as I write this, having fifty-seven seats in the U.S. Senate, with seats in Alaska and Minnesota still undecided. Their goal was to have a filibuster-proof sixty seats, but even if Republicans win both remaining seats, the Democrats will likely be able to break most filibusters by reaching out to several liberal Republican senators.

In the U.S. House, Democrats expanded their thirty-six-seat majority by another twenty or so seats, and the liberal leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi has signaled that they will follow the agenda of President-elect Barack Obama.

All of this news means that Democrat President Barack Obama will have a virtually unfettered hand in setting the national agenda for at least the next two years. Many in the home school community have raised concerns about comments he made during the campaign regarding his support for requiring all teachers to be certified and pushing for “universal kindergarten.” While education is regulated directly at the state level, federal control is usually accomplished by linking such requirements to funding from the federal government. 

In fact, in 1994, with Democrats controlling both houses of Congress and the White House, Congress attempted to require just such action, under a bill called HR 6. This bill would have required states to adopt laws requiring all teachers to be certified in every subject that they taught, in order for the state to receive federal funding for education. Such a law would have effectively outlawed home schooling. We and other home school leaders across the country encouraged home schoolers to call their congressmen, and the result was an overwhelming response from the home school community―more than a million phone calls overwhelmed the congressional switchboards. When the measure reached the floor of the House, it was defeated by a vote of 434-1, the author of the bill being the only yea vote. We must remain vigilant to watch for such attempts in the coming years and respond appropriately in order to safeguard our freedom. 

            In Texas, although eighty-six percent of the candidates endorsed by THSC PAC won, we lost several home school friends in the Texas House of Representatives. Before this election Republicans maintained a seventy-nine- to seventy-one-seat majority. As I write this today, that margin is seventy-six/seventy-four, with one of our friends clinging to a twenty-vote margin of victory pending a possible recount. With the Texas House this close, there will be a battle for the speakership, and Tom Craddick, the current speaker, is working hard to maintain that office. That position is chosen by the 150 members of the Texas House, and the campaign for that job is currently ongoing. Many Democrat House members are trying to get all of their members to support a Democrat for the office, while the majority of Republicans are trying to unite behind a Republican candidate. The outcome of this campaign will have a great impact on the viability of our legislative agenda to restore parental rights and protect home school freedom in the coming legislative session. We will continue to monitor this situation and update the home school community as consequential things occur. 

In the Texas Senate, State Senator Kim Brimer in the Fort Worth area was defeated by a candidate strongly supported by the Texas teacher unions. A special election in the Fort Bend area for Senate District 17 is headed to a run-off between Democratic candidate Chris Bell and Republican Joan Huffman. The current makeup of the Texas Senate before this election was nineteen to eleven in favor of Republicans. That margin will be reduced by one or two, depending on the outcome of this special election. 

This election cycle is a stark reminder that elections matter and that the participation of people in those elections determines the direction of public policy at the national and state levels. Many people are discouraged and disheartened. However, regardless of how dismal things might appear at the national level, things are much better in Texas for home schoolers than they were twenty-five years ago, and we still have a representative government that we can impact if we pay attention to what is going on and act when necessary to protect our rights and our freedom to teach our children at home.

I urge you to be of good courage and stand ready to take action if and when it becomes necessary. We plan to be vigilant and responsive to any effort to erode parental rights and home school freedom at the local, state, and national levels. We will keep the Texas home school community informed through our Legislative Updates via our e-mail network.

I hope you will stand with us. If you are not currently on our e-mail list, I encourage you to sign up to receive our updates and newsletters. You can do that by sending an e-mail to request your free subscription(s). 

In your service and His,

Tim Lambert