Past Lobbying

• H1886: MCAS and homeschoolers
• H2572: Drivers licenses and high school enrollment

Helpful State House Websites

• General Court website, with links to "Current Legislation"
• Lawmaking in Massachusetts, an explanation of the process
• Search House Bill Text - find specific House bills by number

MHLA Position on Lobbying

We believe it is important to uphold the credibility of homeschoolers by researching issues before taking any action, and acting only upon those issues that are truly a threat. Some years as many as 10,000 bills are filed before the Massachusetts State Legislature; typically only about 300 become law. Most simply die in committee.

When evaluating news of threatening legislation, MHLA urges you to check facts and question everything. Once a volatile e-mail begins to move through a network, various assumptions and speculations appear in subsequent posts. These both get passed on as facts and put in quotation marks as direct quotes. That's how rumors (and panics) start. Even though a posting may come from a well-intentioned homeschooler, you can’t automatically assume that its contents are accurate.

When MHLA has information about potentially threatening legislation, we will inform Massachusetts homeschoolers via the MHLA eGroup (use link at top of page to subscribe).

The following are some questions you might ask about legislation that comes to your attention:

1. Why has concern recently surfaced? When was the bill filed?
2. Where is the bill? Is it currently in committee? Is it coming up for a hearing? If so, when?
3. Is it being lobbied by a particular group? Who would gain by having this bill passed?
4. How likely is it that this bill would pass? Is it just one of the thousands of bills that will die a natural death in committee?
5. Have other groups affected by this bill taken note of it and taken a position on it? How are they reacting? What advice can they give a) on this particular bill's viability and b) strategies they've used to work with legislators to oppose bills that would compromise their independence?
6. Who would pay for this? How does the Massachusetts Association of School Committees feel about this piece of legislation? If funding is necessary, how would officials react?