Serving on the Board of IAHE, we receive a plethora of inquiries and concerns related to home education which allows us to have our finger on the pulse of home education in the great state of Indiana.  Unfortunately, in the past couple of years, our office has fielded calls from frustrated parents related to discriminatory hiring practices of a few companies.  Even though their student had successfully completed college classes, the company took issue with the fact that the high school diploma was from a home school.

HSLDA’s recent article regarding a discriminatory practice in one Indiana company has caused me to wonder if the issue is not a much deeper concern?  During the last legislative session, IAHE was able to remove home school language from HB 1003 which was a data bill associated with the Indiana Network of Knowledge or INK which is Indiana’s state-wide longitudinal database.  This particular bill linked education and business.  IAHE has evidence (see slide 35) that there is a desire nationally to include homeschool data in state-wide longitudinal data systems.

Will homeschoolers be “nudged” to surrender their private data to the state which in turn could provide it to private business?  The state has a responsibility to be a good steward of taxpayers’ dollars, but homeschoolers do not entangle themselves in government’s strings; and therefore, should not be included in the state’s database.  The issues of discrimination and data collection are concerns that IAHE plans to keep on our radar.

IAHE Indiana Association of Home Educators