Lawmakers discuss abolishing compulsory school attendance, table plan to require home-schooled

children to register with the local school superintendent

HELENA — A bill by the Legislature’s lone Constitution Party representative would abolish compulsory attendance for Montana’s children at public, private or home schools.

Rep. Rick Jore, of Ronan, told the House Education Committee Monday that current law, which mandates all children ages seven to at least 16 attend some type of school, presupposes that the state has the final say in a child’s education.

‘‘Parents are the final authority when it comes to the education of their children,’’ Jore said.

John Taylor Gatto, an author and former school teacher from New York, said compulsory school attendance had its roots in prewar Germany and was a type of ‘‘mind-control’’ used by elitists to ‘‘socially engineer’’ a large group of easily controlled consumers and citizens. He warned the committee not to confuse ‘‘schooling for education.’’

He was joined by several home-schooling advocates in supporting Jore’s bill.

Opponents to the bill, which included representatives from the Board of Education, Office of Public Instruction, the School Board Association and state’s largest teachers union, said the bill would hurt children of neglectful parents.

‘‘The right to an education belongs to a child,’’ said Bud Williams, deputy superintendent of the Office of Public Instruction.

At roughly the same time Jore’s bill was being heard, more home-school advocates were in a Senate committee fighting off a plan to require home-schooled children to be registered with the local school superintendent. The measure was quickly tabled after the debate.

Sponsor Sen. Don Ryan, D-Great Falls, said the plan would have applied to children in the age group regulated by the compulsory attendance laws. He said it would help truancy officers verify which children don’t need to be attending public schools.

‘‘We will have some accountability for the whereabouts of every school-aged child in Montana,’’ Ryan said.

Critics said the state was trying to infringe on their right to home school their children with the extra regulation. Parents who teach their children at home said the current provision in state law that they simply notify the district should be adequate, as opposed to the formal registration with annual deadlines sought by Ryan.

The Senate Education Committee, under pressure from a big turnout from the home-school advocates, voted 8-1 to table the measure.

The House Education Committee took no further action on Jore’s bill.