CHAP Legislative Efforts Video

"The US Supreme Court has ruled that the state does have an interest in education. According to the court the state needs an educated populace to drive the economic engine of the country. It also needs an educated populace so that its people will not be on the welfare rolls. It should be noted that all the evidence available indicates that homeschoolers have higher academic achievement than public school students, and are less likely to receive welfare than public school students. Homeschoolers are meeting the state interest of an educated populace." 
                                                                                               ~ Dr. Bruce Eagleson

ONE WEEK UNTIL THE VOTE

By Corie Moore

We had a wonderful time meeting so many of you at the CHAP Convention. We appreciate each one who stopped by and signed the petition, and for all kinds of help everyone has extended in our legislative efforts.

We have the confirmation! House Bill 1013 is scheduled for a vote in the Education Committee on Wednesday, June 4. We believe we have enough votes to pass it but pray that it will be a solid majority vote. We now have to double our efforts to get it through the full House and Senate before the end of June. But when they realize that it's going out of committee, it makes our urgency legitimate. Please stay with us to the finish line.

Our next goal is to get as many Representatives as we can to sign on to the bill from both parties. It's great to be able to say that it has bipartisan support with 17-Republican and 3-Democratic co-sponsors to date. We need a minimum of 102 votes to pass it in the House so please call your Representative and ask him/her to sign on (co-sponsor) the bill. This is how they show that they support the bill. If you're willing, call a few other Representatives as well. You can also identify who your State Senator is and call their office to prepare the way for the bill when it reaches the Senate.

The legislators are still in their district offices and will not return to the Capitol until June 2. You may call or visit them in their district office.

Keep in mind that if you wait until they return to the Capitol that the legislature is normally in session Monday to Wednesday, from 11:00 AM. They may have caucus or committee meetings earlier, but there's a greater chance of reaching them in the morning or late afternoon. On Thursdays and Fridays, they go back to their district offices -- except for the last 2 weeks of June when they will remain at the Capitol to wrap things up before the summer break. If you are able to successfully contact and get them to commit to the bill, please email us at cmoore@chaponline.com with the details of your conversation so we can track our progress.

If you need help in understanding the bill a little better and knowing what to say to the legislators, there are ideas and updates on our blog.

CHAP will keep an updated list of sponsors here. 

Some of our legislators need more information about homeschooling and what HB1013 is about. We have useful maps and informative fliers to help your family learn how to lobby and educate your legislators. You can also view the video on CHAP's Legislative Efforts along with downloadable and printable maps and informative fliers about the current status of Pennsylvania homeschool laws. They are here and we appreciate you sharing it. 

KEEP THESE LINKS HANDY:

www.CHAPonline.com

www.hslda.org/hs/state/PA/default.asp

www.CHAPLegislativeAction.blogspot.com

To know who your legislators are and their contact information:

www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/#address

OR http://openstates.org/pa/

Pennsylvania Capitol Tour

We are deeply grateful to Representative Rick Saccone for this virtual tour of the State Capitol. If you are like me, you most likely have never heard of these facts in your tours of the Capitol. Quite possibly, you may have never heard that there are these many Bible passages all over the Building either. I've taken the tour on several occasions and didn't know that in the Senate Chamber alone are 24 Scripture references. After watching this, there can be no denying that our great nation and state were built on Christian foundations.