In section 8509 Private schools:
Nothing in this act Shall be construed to affect any private school that does not receive funds or services under this act nor shall any student who attends a private school that does not receive funds or services under this act be required to participate in any assessment referenced in this act.

Section 8507:
Nothing contained in this Act shall be construed to authorize the making of any payment under this act for religious worship or instruction.

Editor´s note: This means that if you don´t take federal money you are exempt but if you do then you have to comply with the law of ed reform. The wasl and everything else that goes with it. In form of vouchers or any federal money, the strings will come. In the goals 2000 act our exemptions stated that we were just exempt but now they have reworded it to only exempt if you don´t take the money.
In Section 1120, there is a whole section on participation for private schools. So the strings are ready to be attached. The only way for private and home schoolers to stay out of ed reform is to refuse the vouchers and federal money under this act. HR1 calls for more compliance measures than in goals 2000 legislation. The Washington A+ Commission is working out things with HR1. They will have to change the state´s standards (our curriculum). It will have to be submitted to the Secretary of Ed. So much for local control.
This is complete federal control of education and it is under a republican president. The law is not written well they did not spend much time on it. They hurried it through after 911. Family Research Council wanted to buy some more time and told congress not to hurry through this legislation but they did anyway.
We will never get to the point of taking vouchers without strings attached. Unless the money never leaves your pocket in the first place, there are no protections.
PRIVATE SCHOOLS:
Back to money the Catholic schools take federal dollars and they are doing the WASL and the states assessments. They also have social programs like the DARE program and the violence prevention program that is nothing but value clarification. They are acting just like a public school.
I talked with the Catholic schools this last summer and asked they why they are doing the WASL etc. They told me that there was nothing wrong with it and they want to do what the public schools are doing. They don´t want to be left out of the system. Also they want the federal money.
According to the national education statistics Catholic schools enrollment is down and other private schools that are church oriented are up. When I talked with them this summer and kept demanding a better answer than they were giving me it was like talking with a pubic school administrator they got very defensive.
HOME SCHOOLS:
Also the cyber schools for home schoolers in the school districts started out with no strings attached the first year but since then year after year the strings have come. The home schooler gets around 200 dollars to be apart of the schools. I went to a meeting at the Lake Washington school dist two years ago and the state board of ed was there and the home school liaison said that they were aligning the curriculum and taking the WASL.
So there you have it take the money and you are no longer a home schooler or a private school anymore just in name only.
We will have to watch in Olympia to make sure they don't mess with the education code which they tried last session by redoing all the home and private school laws. Thanks to the Republicans, who called them on it and stopped it!

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