A large number of homeschooling parents are expected to attend a public hearing this morning in Augusta to speak against a proposed new bill that would require standardized testing for homeschooled children.
The hearing on the bill, L.D. 405, will be before the Legislature's Education and Cultural Affairs Committee. It will begin at 9 a.m. in Room 208 of the State Office Building.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Peter Mills, a Republican from Skowhegan, calls for having homeschooled students take the Maine Educational Assessment Test, a standardized test that public school students in Maine take each year when they are in the fourth, eighth and 11th grades.
The bill also calls for giving school districts state funding for homeschooled students. The students would be included in the state school funding formula calculation for their home district at one-fourth the funding rate of a full-time student.
Diana Chapin, a Morrill resident, is among the many parents who homeschool their children who are opposed to both provisions.
She said the MEA test would be "an unfair and inaccurate assessment of a homeschooling student's real knowledge." Homeschooled students often don't follow the set curriculum of public schools, she said.
Chapin also thinks that funding school districts for homeschoolers is an inappropriate use of public funds because many homeschooled students make no use of services provided by the school district.
She said that homeschooling is a fundamentally separate mode of education from the public schools.
Approximately 4,000 Maine students currently get their education at home