On Tuesday, September 26, 2000 the U.S. House passed a homeschool
resolution honoring home education. House Resolution 578, sponsored
by Bob Schaffer from Colorado had positive, bipartisan support. No
votes were recorded, as it passed by voice vote. Congressman
Goodling, Chairman of the Education and Workfoce Committee spoke in
favor of the measure. Indeed, all speeches were praising the
accomplishments of homeschooling families and they repeatedly
acknowledged the primary role which all parents have in educating
their children.

HOUSE RESOLUTION 578
Congratulating home educators and home schooled students across the
Nation for their ongoing contributions to education and for the role
they play in promoting and ensuring a brighter, stronger future for
this Nation, and for other purposes.

Whereas the United States is committed to excellence in education and
to strengthening the family;

Whereas parental choice and involvement are important to excellence
in education;

Whereas parents have a fundamental right to direct the education and
upbringing of their children;

Whereas home schooling families contribute significantly to cultural
diversity, which is important to a healthy society;

Whereas home education allows families the opportunity to provide
their children a sound academic education integrated with high
ethical standards taught within a safe and secure environment;

Whereas home education has been a major part of American education
and culture since the Nation's inception and demonstrates the
American ideals of innovation, entrepreneurship, and individual
responsibility;

Whereas home education was proven successful in the lives of George
Washington, Patrick Henry, John Quincy Adams, John Marshall, Robert
E. Lee, Booker T. Washington, Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln,
Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Mark Twain, John Singleton
Copley, William Carey, Phyllis Wheatley, and Andrew Carnegie, who
were each home schooled;

Whereas today the United States has a significant number of parents
who teach a total of approximately 1,700,000 home schooled students,
thus saving several billion dollars on public education each year;

Whereas home schooled students exhibit self-confidence and good
citizenship and are fully prepared academically and socially to meet
the challenges of today's society;

Whereas scores of contemporary studies, including a 1999 University
of Maryland analysis of the nationally recognized Iowa Test of Basic
Skills, confirm that children who are educated at home perform
exceptionally well on nationally normed achievement tests, and such
performance is also demonstrated by the fact that home schooled
students scored well above the national average on the 2000 SAT and
the 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000 ACT;

Whereas studies demonstrate that home schooled students excel in
college, with the grade point average of home schooled students
exceeding the college average;

Whereas home schooled students continue to exhibit excellence in
academic competitions, as demonstrated by home schooled students
finishing first, second, and third in the 2000 Scripps-Howard
National Spelling Bee and by a home schooled student finishing second
in the 2000 National Geography Bee sponsored by the National
Geographic Society; and

Whereas National Home Education Week, beginning on October 1, 2000,
and ending on October 7, 2000, furthers the goal of honoring home
educators and home schooled students for their efforts to improve the
quality of education in the United States: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives-

(1) congratulates home educators and home schooled students across
the Nation for their ongoing contributions to education and for the
role they play in promoting and ensuring a brighter, stronger future
for the Nation;

(2) honors home educators and home schooled students for their
efforts to improve the quality of education in the United States; and

(3) supports the goals of National Home Education Week.