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Virginia Democrat’s Bill Would Restrict Religious Homeschooling Option

Virginia Senator Stella Pekarsky, D-Fairfax, introduced a bill to restrict families’ access to homeschool options.

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This month, Virginia State Sen. Stella Pekarsky, D-Fairfax, introduced a bill to the Virginia Senate to restrict families’ access to homeschool options.

SB1031, currently under consideration in Virginia’s Senate, increases regulations for Virginia’s families who choose to homeschool their children for religious reasons. Pekarsky’s legislation impedes upon families’ religious freedom to homeschool their children.

Currently, Virginia law states that “A school board shall excuse from attendance at school: Any pupil who, together with his parents, by reason of bona fide religious training or belief is conscientiously opposed to attendance at school.” It adds: “For purposes of this subdivision, ‘bona fide religious training or belief’ does not include essentially political, sociological or philosophical views or a merely personal moral code.”

SB1031 would weaken this religious option to allow a division superintendent to grant a religious exemption.

Really, is it appropriate for the state government to be assessing citizens’ religions as “bona fide” or otherwise?

The bill further shifts the focus of decision-making power from elected school boards to unelected superintendents and staff to judge families’ religious convictions.  

The bill would also add conditions for approval, such as proof the parent is qualified to teach and proof of the child’s improvement in learning, that, while required of other homeschoolers without the religious exemption, add more ways for bureaucrats to deny religious freedom.

Students Fled Virginia’s Public Schools During Covid

Aside from its questionable constitutional legitimacy, if passed, SB1031 would negatively impact many families in Virginia. According to data from Virginia Department of Education, in the 2024-2025 academic year, there are 56,008 students homeschooled in Virginia, with 6,755 students holding religious exemptions. Pekarsky’s proposed legislation would limit the First Amendment rights of the families who seek the religious exemption, and potentially deter or prevent them from homeschooling in the future.

As a mother who homeschooled my three children for the 2020-21 academic year when Pekarsky and the other 11 Democratic-endorsed members of the Fairfax County School Board closed the district’s schools, I find this legislation particularly abhorrent. For various reasons, many families selected to homeschool during Covid-19. Had SB1031 been passed prior to the school board members’ irresponsible decision to shut our children out of their classrooms, given the increased regulations, there might have been fewer families able to pull students from the district’s laughable circus of online learning.

Online “learning” in public schools was a catalyst for change at the grassroots level. Beginning with the pandemic, enrollment in public schools declined and homeschooling rates increased significantly. In 2019-2020, there were 38,282 homeschooled students in Virginia. In the last five years, homeschooling rates in Virginia have increased by more than 28 percent.

In Fairfax County, where Pekarsky began her political career before failing up to Virginia’s Senate, homeschooling increased from 3,247 students in 2019 to 3,749 students in 2024. Many other students enrolled in private schools. During that time, the district’s enrollment declined from 189,000 students in 2019-2020 to 181,000 students in 2023-2024.

A combination of school closures and the window into all the academic things our children were not learning, and all of the political issues forced upon them, made Virginia’s parents search for better options and led to public school attrition. As public school students’ test scores declined over Pekarsky’s tenure on the school board in Fairfax County, there was a mass exodus from the district’s once flagship public schools.

Homeschooling Is the Most Likely Alternative to Public Education for the Middle Class

Of the alternatives to public schools for Virginia’s children, homeschooling is the most affordable. In academic year 2024-2025, the average annual private school tuition in the state is $15,321. Meanwhile, the average annual per pupil cost of homeschooling nationally is between $700 and $1,800. Given that homeschooled children perform significantly better on standardized tests than students attending public schools, limiting and further regulating the homeschool option is an irrational and absurd abuse of power.

As Democrat-endorsed local public school officials continue to push a political agenda in our public schools, including gender-identity education beginning in third grade, Democratic politicians, such as Pekarsky, are trying to limit parents’ avenues to escape the state-sponsored indoctrination of their children. Many of these parents undoubtedly have religious objections to what is being taught in these schools, or newfound religious objections to attending school altogether. In school districts such as Fairfax County Public Schools, for example, school officials engage in the social gender transition of students without their parents’ knowledge and further compel children’s speech with mandated pronoun usage in violation of the First Amendment.

Pekarsky’s proposed legislation is just one example of many demonstrating the Democratic Party’s devaluation of religious freedom, disregard for the middle class, and disconnect with the American people.

If Virginia’s Democratic senators learned anything about the pulse of the American people, demonstrated by the Democratic Party’s catastrophic loss in November, they would vote against SB1031.

This article has been updated since publication. 


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