"Texas has no laws or regulations related to home schooling." The words above are from the Texas page of the federal government's "State Regulation of Private Schools" website: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/RegPrivSchl/texas.html HomeSchooling TEXAS has been saying it for years. It's nice to know that those in government know it, too. It is way past time for all other individuals and organizations giving out 'legal' information to Texas homeschoolers to get their facts straight. Misinformation about this has been circulating in home education circles for many years, thanks to certain individuals who benefit by promoting that misinformation. Let's get it straight: "Texas has no laws or regulations related to home schooling." That includes the Leeper court decision (see below) for those of you who have been believing or telling others that parents must teach certain 'subjects' to their children in their privately funded homes. In fact, your home is not a 'private school' and claiming that it is offers you no protection from state interference and may offer you the exact opposite.

TEXAS EDUCATION LAW & ITS APPLICABILITY:

The Texas Constitution
The Texas Constitution, Article 7 - EDUCATION, Section 1:

The Texas Constitution

Article 7 - EDUCATION
Section 1 - SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE OF SYSTEM OF PUBLIC FREE SCHOOLS

A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.

The Texas Education Code, Title 1. General Provisions, Chapter 1. General Provisions, Sec. 1.001, APPLICABILITY

Texas Education Code

TITLE 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS

CHAPTER 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 1.001. APPLICABILITY

(a) This code applies to all educational institutions supported in whole or in part by state tax funds unless specifically excluded by this code.
(b) Except as provided by Chapter 19, Subchapter A, Chapter 29,or Subchapter E, Chapter 30, this code does not apply to students, facilities, or programs under the jurisdiction of the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, the Texas Youth Commission, the Texas Department of Human Services, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, or any juvenile probation agency.

Texas Federal District Judge Melinda Harmon ruled that:  "...parents give up their rights when they drop children off at public school."

LEEPER LEGAL MYTHOLOGY:

The worst, most destructive piece of propaganda being spread in homeschooling circles is the statist claim that the Leeper decision is the "basis for our right to homeschool". Judge Murray, who wrote the Leeper decision, made no such spurious claim. He merely agreed that home education had always been considered private education in Texas.

The basis for our duty & responsibility in rearing our own children lies in the fact that... WE ARE THEIR PARENTS.

With Leeper, homeschoolers initiated a court case asking for A STATE DEFINITION OF HOMESCHOOLING as private schooling. While this was a very bad idea on their part, we can be glad that Judge Murray was inclined to uphold Texas' constitutional law.

Please take a moment to read this oft-quoted excerpt from the Leeper decision where Judge Murray describes a private or parochial school within the meaning of the exemption section of the Texas Education Code. We have already seen that only those educational institutions SUPPORTED IN WHOLE OR IN PART BY STATE TAX FUNDS fall within the regulatory power of the Texas Education Code.

Is your home "supported in whole or in part by state tax funds"? Are you one of those schools he was describing? Have you been tricked into thinking that there would be some kind of "security" in calling your home a "private school" as mentioned in Leeper? Might you want to research this for yourself and rethink that position?

Please consider this: in order for the exemption section of a code to apply to you, you must be one of those to whom the code applies in the first place. The only other way to find yourself down in that exemption section is for you to voluntarily bind yourself by it.

LEEPER GAME SCORE:
ATTORNEYS  360,000 / HOMESCHOOLERS  0

In the Leeper appeal, the court upheld the ruling that the state pay $360,000 IN ATTORNEY FEES FOR THE PLAINTIFFS.

The Leeper case, which mainly accomplished a further muddying of the waters for most folks, cost us dearly.

I don't particularly appreciate a "carefully selected" group of statist homeschoolers deciding to make us foot the bill for an unnecessary lawsuit. Even less do I appreciate the arrogance of this group of politician, curriculum vendor, and umbrella school plaintiffs in presuming to speak for all home educators past, present, and future by filing this as a class-action lawsuit.

But these things can likely be written off to (at least some degree of) ignorance on the part of those just mentioned.

The attorneys, who should (and do) know better and go around promoting and facilitating lawsuits concerning things the state has no constitutionally enumerated power over in the first place, are reprehensible. And dangerous. And way too expensive!