Journalist: Destiny Lugo (ORU)
The “Oklahoma Forward Act”, a House Bill No. ECU-503, aimed to ensure that parents or legal guardians of children being homeschooled must, “Possess a high school diploma, General Education Development (GED), or equivalent credential…”. The author defined the GED as, “a series of four subject exams: mathematical reasoning, science, social studies, and reasoning through language arts that certify a test-taker has high school-level academic knowledge”.
These parents and legal guardians were also to keep records showing attendance of a minimum of one hundred and sixty days of teaching, a portfolio of completed student work, and the test scores of, “…required assessments or evaluations”. The aim of the bill was not to restrict but to strengthen and close education gaps.
The penalty section included that The State Department of Education would give oversight and guide the process of local public school districts being responsible for receiving all of the required documentation. If there would be up to three violations where there would be failure to meet the terms of the act, then “A civil fine of One Thousand Dollars ($1,000)…” would be applied.
If issues would persist then the penalties could go up to, “A court of competent jurisdiction may order the student to be enrolled in a public or accredited private school and may impose additional monitoring requirements.”.
This bill provided incredible representation and thought for a not often considered schooling population; the homeschooled population. The author’s desire was for this bill to help improve the lives of Oklahomans whose academic process is not recorded and tracked in the traditional sense of the word.
There were delegates in the room who agreed that the status quo was enough as homeschoolers also already take standardized tests and are not discriminated against in college application review processes. “You’re not at our school, and then we have to manage you?” said Titus Montgomery (OSU). Some disagreement was given a voice, but there was an overall agreement with the content of the bill.
The unique and multi-faceted position of homeschoolers in a world of public and private schools demands unique solutions, and the author most certainly provided excellent answers to pressing educational system questions.