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Michigan legislature is in the news with three bills that have been introduced that would expand the age of compulsory attendance for children in Michigan. Senate Bill 162 would lower the compulsory attendance age from 6 to 5. It will also make kindergarten mandatory. Senate Bill 11 and House Bill 4042 would raise the age of compulsory attendance from age 16 to age 18. If these bills passed, students in Michigan would be subject to government control for an additional three years.
What does this have to do with you and why should you care? This is why it is important to teach our children history. Remember if we don’t know history, it is likely to repeat itself. In 1852 Massachusetts enacted the first compulsory attendance law, the rest of the states soon followed and by 1929 all of the states had created some type of mandatory attendance requirement.
Many people who homeschool are up in arms about this, but should other people be concerned as well? What if you don’t feel your child is ready for school at the age of five and you want to wait until your child is six? Apparently, if this legislation is passed, this will no longer be a decision that you can make. I have several friends that send their children to the private Adventist school in our town and they typically do not start kindergarten until age six as well.
Personally I have been Homeschooling my children for the past ten years although we periodically use the local public school for academic testing, speech services, sports and for foster children to attend. I’m not particularly alarmed about the age restrictions as I typically begin teaching my children as soon as they show interest, usually around age four. However, we do need to be concerned about the rights that we, as parents, give away to the state to regulate. While this one doesn’t bother me so much, will it open the door for more regulation that will?
You can read more about these issues on compulsory attendance legislation at the HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) web site at the links below.
Raising the Compulsory Attendance Age Fails to Achieve Significant Results
Analysis of the current trend of state legislatures to raise the compulsory attendance age, sometimes as high as 18, and the lack of results that have resulted.
Mandatory Kindergarten Unnecessary for Children
Information on the advisability of making early education mandatory, based on both domestic and foreign statistical data.
