“Oh, so you’re one of those whackos…”
I was trying to get a read on him as the elderly gentleman approached me. I didn’t sense hostility… but I didn’t sense a kindred spirit, either.
“Yep,” I replied. “Crazy as can be.”
The scene was Senate Room C in the Virginia State Capitol building. I ventured into the Belly of the Beast last week to voice opposition to a senate bill that would eliminate the homeschooling religious exemption in the state.
When we left off yesterday, a custodian had let me into the locked room ahead of the bill’s sub-committee hearing. In turn, I opened the doors for the old man.
As he approached me, he quoted the qualifying requirements encoded in the statute that recognizes the religious exemption for homeschooling in Virginia. Then he asked me directly: “Does this describe you?”
I answered that it did. To claim the exemption, you must submit a written letter to the local school board explaining why you qualify for it. I understood the law well.
“That’s what motivated me to take the day off to be here today,” I explained.
“If one assumes good faith, one would expect every bill proposed to seek to address a clear, objective, and measurable problem. That’s not the case here. This bill would negatively impact a tiny minority group of people… and do absolutely nothing for anybody else. It’s nothing more than an attack on homeschool freedom and religious liberty.”
“You’re right,” he answered – his serious tone unchanged. “But there have been some cases where parents have claimed the religious exemption and then neglected the children. There was even a murder in one family claiming the exemption a number of years back.”
“That’s not specific to the religious exemption,” I stated. “Those sound like instances of individual bad actors. There will always be bad apples… with anything.”
The old man nodded his head.
“I agree with you. But you have to understand how they think. To them, you’re just some whacko who would seek to stop their agenda. The patron who put this bill forward is radically left-wing. She has 30 other bills working their way through the process right now…”
As he was speaking, a mother and her three children approached the conference room’s doors and tried to enter. I briefly excused myself from conversation to let them in.
Resuming my place, the elderly gentleman went on to explain that he had been a homeschool lobbyist for the past 40 years – working for several different organizations in the state.
He told me that he had been expecting this day to come for a long time… because the public education lobby hates the religious exemption for homeschooling. He emphasized the word hates.
By then a steady stream of people started to trickle in. It became customary in the moment for whoever was closest to the doors to let the newcomers in.
It wasn’t long until the room was nearly full. Discussions were vibrant—there was a joint sense of duty in the air.
And that’s when a Capitol employee showed up flabbergasted. He informed us that the doors were supposed to be locked and that we had to wait in the hall until the clerks arrived to let us in.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at the absurdity of it.
Here was a room full of thoughtful, responsible people gathered in a luxurious conference room paid for by their tax dollars… and this man seemed to think it was of vital importance that everyone wait outside.
My instinct was to ask him if we should form a single-file line at the door, but I quashed the urge. Best to focus on the mission.
Everyone gathered their coats and their papers and relocated to the hall.
Once the last person had left, the bureaucrat shut the doors and made sure that they were locked.
Satisfied that his job was complete, he disappeared down the long, winding hallway of the General Assembly wing – off to do who knows what. Meanwhile, we waited for the clerks to graciously let us back into the room we had just spent an hour in.
More tomorrow…
-Joe Withrow
P.S. If you would like to learn more about the Virginia Senate’s attack on religious liberty, the HSLDA is tracking all the updates right here.
You can also find a list of the senators who sit on the Education and Health committee here. These are the people who will decide whether this bill goes to a vote on the Senate floor.
I’ll be calling each of them to encourage them to vote note on S.B. 1031. Feel free to join the effort if you’re so inclined. The darkness cannot survive the light.