GOP governor and third-place GOP presidential candidate John Kasich has endorsed the idea of homeschooling – even signing into law in 2015 a plan that said homeschooled graduates will be treated the same as “anyone else” for purposes of employment or admission to higher education.
But the nation’s top experts on homeschooling, at the Home School Legal Defense Association, say his state agencies are not in tune with his sentiment – or the law.
The issue is a fully qualified corrections officer, Gabriel Sage, a homeschool graduate, who already has successfully worked at several assignments.
But when he applied with the state, he was told he would have to get a GED before he could be considered and there were no exceptions to the agency’s no-homeschoolers-allowed policy.
Mike Donnelly, HSLDA’s contact attorney for Ohio members, said the attitude was stubborn and unreasonable.
“I’ve never had such a difficult time with a government agency,” he said in a report this week on the ongoing fight. “I have written two letters, and Mr. Sage has made numerous phone calls to seek a response. I explained that Mr. Sage’s education credentials are more than sufficient under Ohio law and at the very least worthy of consideration. But I never got even so much as a courtesy reply to any of my letters. Not a phone call. Not an email. Nothing. I found the Ohio government agency’s conduct to be both unprofessional and unreasonable.”
HSLDA reported it has handled a number of cases involving Ohio colleges and agencies that started out discriminating against homeschooled students.
“HSLDA resolved virtually all such disputes readily in favor of the homeschool graduate,” the report said. “Homeschooling is a legal form of education recognized under Ohio law and in Ohio courts, and there has never been a valid reason to discriminate against homeschool graduates.”
But when Sage, who previously had worked in corrections in a county jail, in Morrow County, and with a contractor at the North Central Corrections Institution, applied with the state for a job in a Trumbull County facilities, he was told to “take the GED or they wouldn’t even consider my applications.”
In fact, the diploma fairness act signed by Kasich “was passed in order to clarify this fact so that homeschool graduates would be treated the same as graduates from any other form of education in Ohio,” HSLDA reported.
Instead came the rejections, multiple times.
“Here is a young man who has significant corrections experience, and the only reason they won’t even consider his application is because of his homeschooled education. Ohio law does not allow this kind of discriminatory treatment, and decisions handed down by the Ohio Supreme Court and Court of Appeals have held that home education is equivalent to ‘recognized and accredited’ education and is the ‘legal equivalent of attending public, private or parochial school.’”
Donnelly continued, “Mr. Sage provided the department copies of the official excuse letters for every year of his high school education, going far above what is required of home educat[ion] high school graduates of July 2, 2015, and beyond. The department’s treatment of Mr. Sage is unacceptable, and I would like to see senior Ohio government leaderhseip intervene to correct this unfair treatment.”
The agency has noted the 2015 law and contends that it requires recognition of homeschool graduates who receive their diploma after that date, but not before.
“The Department of Corrections is using a law intended to help homeschoolers to discriminate against them,” Donnelly said. “Although the law went into effect on July 1, 2015, that is no reason to go against court decisions and common sense. The department’s policy wrongfully and unlawfully discriminates against qualified Ohio citizens.”
WND’s request to Kasich’s campaign for a comment on the case did not generate a response.
Donnelly said his unsuccessful attempts to get a response from the state went to Tami Hamlin, a corrections department coordinator, and Gary Mohr, the department director.
Sage said he’ll keep trying.
“I would really like to work for the Ohio Department of Corrections,” he said. “I have already worked for the state prison system, and it is the next logical step for me in my career in law enforcement. That’s why I applied for this open position.”
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2016/05/03/john-kasich-caught-in-homeschool-dilemma/
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