Heidi St. John Diagnosed with Tumor

• HSLDA board member and Homeschool evangelist, Heidi St. John, announced on her podcast last week that in February doctors found multiple precancerous tumors in her colon.

• St. John ran for congress in 2022 Republican primary for Washington’s 3rd district; she placed third in a lean-R district due to voters finding her absolutely insane.

• St. John has stated she will be taking a hiatus from advocacy in the coming weeks as she begins intensive treatment.

• The diagnosis is uncannily fitting, as Heidi’s effect on the world can also be described as a tumor in the ass.

Michael Farris Testifies to Trump Anti-Christian Bias Task Force

• HSLDA co-founder and current board member, Michael Farris, testified to the near entirety of Trump’s cabinet on April 22.

• The Task Force, headed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, is part of the Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias Executive Order initiated on February 6 earlier this year.

• Farris’ involvement was to provide testimony to the IRS “discriminatory” investigation into his pastor at NOVA mega church Cornerstone Chapel, Gary Hamrick, for violations of the Johnson Amendment.

Illinois Homeschool Act Stalls

• While there are still five weeks in Illinois General Assembly session, Terra Costa Howard’s HB 2827 momentum seems to have reached a plateau. With little comment from ICHE and HSLDA, it’s future is uncertain.

• In a very out of character move, ICHE and HSLDA issued a statement during Holy Week recess to not contact their representatives.

• Finally up is Ayla’s testimony to the Illinois House Education Committee. An important reminder what Homeschooling’s institutions hope to keep hidden by killing this bill.

Everything Else

Mahmoud v. Taylor

• Last week The Supreme Court heard Mahmoud v. Taylor—ostensibly a case on what content in public schools can be opted-out from, yet in reality is a vessel to exclude LGBTQ and others from public life.

• The Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE) filed an amicus brief in support of the School District.

• I attempted to attend the oral argument, but was 26th in a line that ended up admitting 25 people. Live thread of the day’s events is here.

• The case is in part a do-over of Mozert v. Hawkins County, a case from 40 years ago where Michael Farris represented the plaintiff attempted to remove secular humanism from the classroom. The saga is chronicled in Stephen Bates’ book Battleground.

Connecticut Homeschool Prisoner

• In February, an emaciated man was pulled from a house fire in Connecticut. The man was later found to be a child who had been removed from public school and subsequently disappeared through homeschooling over 20 years ago. The fire was set by himself as a means to finally escape.

• On April 16, he released his first statement since the fire, “Please call me S. This is not the name given to me by my parents when I was born. I am choosing a new name for myself, and I will use that name as I reclaim control over my life and my future.”

Day of the Homeschooled Child

• CRHE will be hosting a livestream as part of Day of the Homeschooled Child on Wednesday April 30th at 2PM EST

Illinois HB 2827 Homeschooling Act

• Lombard Police are investigating death threats toward Terra Costa Howard, the Illinois House Rep who introduced the bill.

• The right-wing media ecosystem has been pushing against this bill. The bill has been attacked by Fox News, Newsmax, National Review, and an increasing collection of reactionary influencers.

• I did some digging on the witness slips and it turns out over 20% of the opponent's witnesses are duplicates. One opponent submitted themselves 70 times.

• The Illinois General Assembly is set to begin again after a two-week recess, which means we will see more Will Estrada and his 26x28 slacks starting today at 12 CT.

• Three notes have been attached to the bill in an attempt to obstruct its progress. Notes are required to receive a response from the sponsoring representatives to continue, and depending on the response, the bill can be amended and set back to its starting point.

• Two of the notes have received answers, one of which addressed the concern of additional costs the bill would have on the State Board of Education. The answer was an eye-popping $1,600.

• If you live in Illinois, call, email, and visit your rep.

• "Didn't you say you are cutting the hearing from March to a condensed version?" Look, I'm working on it! In the meantime, I have begun collecting legislative hearings on homeschool bills on YouTube. You should absolutely listen to Ayla's testimony while I work on getting the cut finalized.

Other Homeschool Legislation

• Georgia: SB 63

  • Passed both chamber without any dissenting votes.

  • This one is fine. It allows the SAT and other tests administered by the public school system to be available to homeschooled children.

• Montana: HB 778

  • Passed the House unanimously.

  • I'm not familiar enough with the bill, but it is one that the HSLDA supports. It separates non-public and homeschooling students into distinct categories, as the state currently does not distinguish between the two. HSLDA attorney Kevin Boden has been the lead in this one.

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Nick Freitas Retiring

Nick Freitas announced he will not run for reelection for Virginia's House District 62, tombstoning a ten year career without any introduced legislation signed into law. The Culpeper delegate is exceptionally vocal about "government schools" and urges parents to "take your kids out of government run schools." Notably, he has served on the Virginia House Education Committee since 2023.

Freitas has not announced what his next moves are, but his podcast, Twitter, and YouTube channel have gained a substantial following since launching in the early stages of the COVID pandemic. Initial speculation has been that he is eyeing higher office once again (he has lost two attempts prior), but my intuition says he is planning to accelerate his media brand. Notably, he hit the homeschool convention circuit for the first time this March.

Those interested in Culpeper politics can follow Culpeper County Democrats on BlueSky.

Here's a CSV of 2500 Homeschool Groups

A few weeks ago, the HSLDA launched a web app to search through roughly 2500 local homeschool groups. Completely unrelated— I have made available a list of 2500 homeschool groups to use as you wish. Make a Power BI dashboard or something… Hey, maybe we'll publish it if we think it's neat.

My true talent lies in data, not writing. Over the coming months, I will be publishing similar data for interested researchers. They will be housed in the FileCabinet tab in the future.

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Everything Else

• Wisconsin Supreme Court

  • Susan Crawford won a seat on the Supreme Court of Wisconsin over her Elon Musk-backed conservative opponent. The HSLDA was particularly motivated against Crawford due to her husband, Shawn Peters co-authoring a 2019 book critical of homeschooling, Homeschooling: The History and Philosophy of a Controversial Practice.

• SB 1031

  • HEAV doesn't give a source, but the organization sent out a notification last week that Senator Pekarsky intends to reintroduce another homeschool bill in the next session —which could feature a more favorable government makeup. The Virginia bill to remove the religious exemption of children from education was thoroughly beaten down after missteps in the Senate education committee. You can read about the bill from our story earlier this year.

• Instagram

  • We are on Instagram! Follow it! Will be standing it up in the coming weeks.

• InfoWars

  • If you missed it, we also published the HSLDA's forgotten appearances on Alex Jones' infamous radio show, InfoWars. You can watch the video here, as well as download the audio and transcript.