Teachers Unions vs. Parents: Battle Over Future Of Homeschooling

Homeschooling advocates are sounding the alarm about an Illinois bill that would force homeschooling families to register with their local school or face truancy penalties including up to a $500 fine and 30 days in jail. "These guys really don't want to separate families from their parents, do they?" Illinois Family Institute Executive Director David Smith asked in disbelief on "Washington Watch."

Yet, last week, the Illinois House Education Committee approved the bill on a party-line vote. This decision came after "Illinois parents showed up in force at the state Capitol to voice their displeasure," noted FRC Action President Jody Hice, filling out 50,000 witness slips in opposition to the bill, compared to 1,000 in support.

This show of force reprises an earlier event that echoes down the halls of homeschooler lore. In the early years of the homeschooling movement -- when it had not yet become popular, widespread, or even well-known -- a spending package in Washington, D.C. threatened to end the movement in its cradle with a five-word amendment to federal law, "all teachers must be certified." The story goes that the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) alerted their membership to this danger through phone chains, and soon so many calls flooded in that it shut down the switchboard for the U.S. Capitol.

I don't know how to verify this tale, because I don't know whether it ever attracted media coverage. I heard this story circa 2008, from a former homeschooling mom whose kids had already graduated. I therefore estimate its approximate date to the late '80s or early '90s. This was long before YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, before the widespread use of email, online news, and possibly even before CNN aired the first live war footage. In terms of the media landscape, this event happened so long ago that there may as well have been dinosaurs roaming the earth.

Whether this story is accurate, exaggerated, or mythologized, it emphasizes a characteristic that remains true of homeschooling parents today, as the Illinois case illustrates: they mostly want to be left alone, but they will engage in intense (and peaceful) political action if they perceive that their freedom is threatened.

Behold, the threat. "If this bill is passed into law, it's going to be expanded in future years to put even more restrictions on homeschool and private school families," testified HSLDA senior counsel Will Estrada. He said that the bill's language was "open-ended," allowing "unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats to be able to write different sections of regulations."

Behold, the call to action. "Call your state representative. Call Speaker [Chris] Welch's [D] office," Smith urged. "He's a politician. He's savvy. If he gets a lot of calls coming into his office, he may tell his caucus, 'Hey, guys, this bill is really unpopular, and we probably should tread lightly going forward.'"

Of course, homeschooling in America is different in 2025 than it was 30-40 years ago. More curricular resources, more favorable laws, and more hybrid learning options have lowered the entry barriers to homeschooling, increasing its appeal to a more diverse audience, including both religious and secular families of every demographic category. The 2020 pandemic lockdowns contributed to the rise and diversification of homeschooling, as families were forced to homeschool for a time, and many discovered how easy it was.

However, one common denominator holds true: homeschooling parents demonstrate an above-average commitment to the education, welfare, and success of their children. This is not to denigrate the caring parents who choose other educational options, for a variety of good reasons. This simply recognizes the reality that homeschooling is inherently an "opt-in" option, whereas free public education is the "opt-out" option.

Whether the reasoning is religious, political, social, or educational, homeschooling parents always make a decision to educate at home that involves sacrifices other parents may not ever consider.

Parents have a natural interest and obligation to ensure the education of their children. But, by choosing to teach their children themselves, homeschooling parents become doubly invested in the education of their children, fulfilling the roles of both teacher and parent.

And herein lies the source of the conflict: teachers unions often don't take kindly to the fact that homeschooling parents commit to educating their own children.

To understand this point, we must understand that teachers unions are, first and foremost, unions. By their history, nature, and purpose, labor unions have an inherently adversarial relationship with "management." In the case of any public sector union, including teachers unions, the "management" in question is the government, the elected representatives of the people. (Thus, all public sector unions have an inherently adversarial relationship with the people, as various DOGE lawsuits make clear.) Many -- perhaps a majority -- of "the people" are parents, making teachers unions an inherent adversary of parents.

However, teachers unions hold a double animosity toward homeschooling parents. Parents who choose to homeschool are fulfilling the role of a teacher for their children. In other words, they are non-unionized labor taking away unionized jobs. To teachers unions, homeschooling parents are scabs.

In this regard, teachers unions play quite a different role from the individual teachers themselves. It should go without saying that the best teachers work together with parents to achieve their shared goal -- the education of the child. It should also go without saying that the best teachers should be appropriately rewarded for their hard work by receiving a decent income. But labor unions are often captured leftists who mislead the organization away from its purpose, and teachers unions are no exception.

In some states, the teachers union has grown so politically powerful that they can effectively dictate state policy while providing sub-par education. In Illinois, the Chicago Board of Education dominates the city of Chicago, including Mayor Brandon Johnson (D), and the city of Chicago dominates the entire state.

"They're failing our kids academically. They're failing to protect them physically," Smith complained, saying that the state spends $19,000 per student, but only 32% of students are proficient in English language arts, and only 27% are proficient in math. Somehow, Illinois still manages a graduation rate of 88%. Adding injury to insult, "one in 10 students are sexually assaulted in our government schools -- one in 10 -- by an adult in the school system," Smith continued. "And then there's more who are, you know, assaulted by peers."

With such results, no wonder many Illinois families choose to homeschool!

Proponents of the homeschooling bill are "using as their excuse ... horrible stories of abuse and neglect," said Smith, but he argued that the state's own failures make it "utterly disqualified from overseeing homeschool families."

In reality, "The record of homeschoolers shows that we do well academically, socially, emotionally," Estrada argued. "And so, why are we messing with them? That's the question. This bill is a solution in search of a problem."

At least one elected Democrat agrees. "I am mostly influenced by the many families in my district that I know -- that I've known for 20-30 years," said Illinois Representative Fred Crespo (D), explaining why he would not support the bill. "Some of these kids are now even parents themselves, and I think they've done a phenomenal job." Smith hopes to stop the bill by convincing 10 more Democrats to agree with Crespo, simply by persuading them through the example of good homeschooling families.

Originally published at The Washington Stand