Will Estrada is senior counsel with Home School Legal Defense Association.  Will began working for HSLDA as a legal assistant in 2004.  In 2006 he graduated from the Oak Brook College of Law and Government Policy and then directed HSLDA’s Federal Relations department.  He then gained experience at the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services from 2018-2021 and resigned to become the first full-time President of ParentalRights.org and the Parental Rights Foundation.  In June 2023 he returned to HSLDA serving as a senior counsel and contact attorney serving homeschool clients in multiple states.  He is a member of the U.S. Supreme Court Bar First Circuit Court of Appeals, 11^th  Circuit Court of Appeals, California and District of Columbia.  Will himself is a homeschool graduate.

In Illinois, thousands of homeschoolers arrived at the capitol in Springfield on March 19^th to voice opposition to House Bill 2827.  This bill would make it a crime  to turn in homeschool paperwork late.  It would also allow unelected bureaucrats to promulgate freedom-restricting regulations that would affect homeschoolers and private schools alike.

Officials had to close the capitol after an estimated 8,000 people had been admitted, while hundreds more rallied outside.  On the legislature’s website, almost 50,000 people filed witness slips in opposition.  Another 400 filed in favor of the bill. 

The 1950 Illinois Supreme Court case called, People v. Levisen, established that parents could educate their children at home with certain restrictions.  These included teaching required subjects and if the family was challenged, the burden of proof was on the family to provide evidence.  This has worked well for 75 years.

Last year some opponents did a “hit piece” on homeschooling claiming that it is a shield for abuse and neglect.  Right after that, Will noted that the sponsor, Illinois State Representative Terra Costa Howard, was quoted as saying, “We need to go after homeschoolers.”        

As you’ll hear, this is not a simple misunderstanding over a registration form.  This involves an annual, mandatory filing that includes criminal penalties such as jail time under this legislation.  

Discover more on this issue, and hear what your fellow listeners had to say, on this important Crosstalk program.  

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