Author: CHEWV

by Coleen Bumgarner

During CHEWV’s first fifteen years, Coleen Bumgarner worked to establish support groups and contacts throughout the state of WV.  Here she recounts a little bit of what it was like to be a “pioneer” in those early years of homeschooling!

When CHEWV began in 1990 there were few homeschooling families, and the few that existed were scattered across the state.  Finding others committed to homeschooling or interested in homeschooling happened by “word of mouth” or by meeting at events.  Remember, social media and internet blogs weren’t available back then!  So the task of building bridges throughout the state was rather daunting.

My husband and I served as support group liaisons for CHEWV and occasionally a name or phone number would come our way, but with little other information.  It was definitely a challenge finding other homeschoolers in the hills and hollers of our Mountain State!  In fact, due to the geographical shape of WV, some families had already connected with neighbors in Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Virginia.  To complicate matters, the families we found were often secretive or elusive about educating their children, fearing for their freedom and parenting rights.  Understandably, it was hard to convince them to associate openly with other families. It often felt like they were playing the children’s game – Catch me if you can!

CHEWV responded by sponsoring regional meetings and workshops (with free food, of course!) for those who were willing to take on leadership roles and other responsibilities.  We knew homeschooling needed to be a viable and accessible option across our state!

In the early years, most support groups published hard copy newsletters and sent them out by mail monthly.  I tried to get on all the mailing lists so that I could, in turn, share information from group to group. My passion was to connect these random groups, so every month I sent out packets (large manila envelopes!) to the folks I knew.  I collected articles from magazines, made copies, stuffed envelopes, and sent them out to any contacts I had – along with a prayer that someone might benefit.  Bridges were slowly being built in the homeschooling community scattered across our mountainous state.

Today, we can’t even imagine what it was like in those early years – like having only ONE homeschooling magazine and only TWO curriculum choices (yes, just two!).  Then the arrival of the internet changed everything!  The need to connect homeschoolers also changed overnight.  It was suddenly easy to find help, get a question answered, and discover other homeschooling families.  Support group dynamics also changed drastically.  Those early support groups gradually morphed into mega groups able to offer dance, theater, athletics, and all manner of activities.  Yes, the changes that have occurred since those early years have been staggering.

CHEWV’s early quest of finding support groups has changed as well.  As the labor-intensive monthly mailings became a relic of the past, we turned to our website, email, and Facebook page to connect families.  These avenues provide instant and more accurate information for our members and friends.  Yes, our state is still geographically challenged and there are still some pockets where homeschooling families feel isolated, but CHEWV continues to seek out these families and offer support through our expanded outlets in the media.

Phil and Coleen Bumgarner served on the CHEWV board from its founding until 2005 when the last of their three graduated.  They count CHEWV friendships as “tried and true,” remaining precious and dear through the years. 

The First Decade and the Portfolio Option

by Mike Hutchison, former Executive Director of CHEWV

With a vision to serve the homeschooling community, CHEWV commenced its service in 1990.  Starting with a board of ten couples, the first real invitation to join CHEWV came with the invitation to the first conference, with nationally-known speaker Gregg Harris.  From there, the service and membership began growing; within the first ten years, membership grew from 40 families to over 600 families!    

During CHEWV’s first three years, homeschooling became more popular all across the country.  While attracting the attention of more parents, however, it drew increasing antagonism from teachers’ unions and legislators.  In 1994, U.S. Congressional Bill HR 6  threatened to derail homeschooling nationwide.  It was during the HR6 campaign that CHEWV’s phone trees and statewide communication system was set up.  The voice of our homeschooling community, heard loud and clear in the halls of Congress, made an indelible impression on our representatives in Washington!  While primitive by today’s technology, that system would serve CHEWV for many years until replaced by email and electronic communication.   

West Virginia legislative pressures heightened as the state’s teachers unions sought more control over homeschooling families.  At the same time more families with special needs children began to consider homeschooling as an option to help their children flourish with more one-on-one, personally tailored instruction.  CHEWV, in concert with HSLDA, decided to seek legislation in the 1994 session to add a portfolio evaluation assessment option to the annual standardized testing requirement.  It seemed reasonable to seek a legislative remedy for the discriminatory provision of the law which made it impossible for special needs children to be homeschooled.

While a portfolio assessment option seemed straightforward and reasonable, the 1994 legislative campaign became very difficult as the state teachers unions and state Department of Education became adamant that parents were not qualified to teach special needs children and, in fact, should not be teaching any children at home unless they were state-certified teachers.  God favored us with a sympathetic chairman of the House Education Committee, but the Senate Education Committee chairwoman, a school psychologist, was adamantly opposed to any more parental freedom than the law already allowed.  As this was before CHEWV had a formal lobbying presence at the Capitol, the CHEWV Board asked homeschooling families from all around the state to advocate face-to-face with their own delegates and state senators.  Families responded by flooding the Capitol, many bringing cookies as they sought individual meetings with their district legislators to lobby for passage.

As had been experienced in 1986, it was only by the grace of God that the portfolio option was passed that year.  At one point near the middle of the session, the Senate Education Committee chairwoman told CHEWV that the House Bill would certainly not make it through her committee.  What did God use to change her mind?  God used our children!  Conversations with our children and their respectful behavior softened her heart over the last four weeks of the session.  In one of the many trips to the committee meetings and just three days before the end of the session, she shocked us when she asked the committee to report the bill to the Senate Floor – albeit with no recommendation for passage.  On the next-to-last day of the session, when we were again at the Capitol, she called us aside and told one of our children not to worry about the bill – that it would be okay!  The Senate passed the House Bill unanimously on the last day of the session – and it became law!  The heart of the king (in this case the committee chairwoman) was still in God’s hand!  Nowhere is it more evident than when Exemption B (b) of the West Virginia Code was liberalized to allow more freedom to West Virginia’s homeschooling families.  Like David, we are small and have no legislative power on our own.  But as with Goliath, God takes down seemingly insurmountable obstacles through the active faith of His people!

The Birth of Legal Homeschooling: Not to be Taken Lightly

by Gene and Jan Board, one of CHEWV’s founding board couples.

It has been thirty years since we started homeschooling–a generation has passed and many things have changed.

When our family started homeschooling in the 1980’s, we used exemption K, the Parochial School exemption.  In our zeal, we named our little school, had letterhead stationery, assigned a boys’ and girls’ bathroom, and even had a school newspaper (with a very plucky reporter). We already owned a yellow vehicle, so, as our children remarked, we even boasted a “yellow school bus.” It was novel and exciting.

Until it became evident that we could no longer use exemption K and things began to collapse. Should we move to another state that allowed homeschooling? Or should we band together with other families (if we could find them) who would start a Christian School? Doing so would require a huge expense for a building, staff, and materials.  Plus, we felt compelled by God to teach our own children at home. Yet to continue homeschooling under the old exemption K would be breaking the law, and the consequences of that were frightening.  We could go to jail and our children put into foster care. A lengthy and expensive litigation process would be required to get our lives back if we survived such an ordeal.

We spent much time in prayer and research and felt that our only logical choice was to seek a new law that would allow all families like us the freedom to homeschool their children.  Less than a week later we received a call from a stranger, Don Fox, who asked us to meet with a small group concerning the possibility of creating a new homeschool law.

I was so naive about the entire process.  I thought our little group would make a quick trip to Charleston, give an impassioned speech, shake some hands, and presto, a bill would become law. That was not what happened!

When we first met in Charleston as a group, the sponsoring delegates sent a legal clerk to write the bill that would be submitted.  We knew what we wanted the bill to say and do, but the legal wording was a different matter.  I called a homeschool mom in Virginia who read their state’s brand new homeschooling law to me as I copied it down. We made changes and were on our way.

This was before email, cell phones or social networking. We had home phones, fax machines, phone trees and letters (the kind that require stamps). When a hearing was scheduled, usually only hours in advance, it would take a while for us to get the message. These various committee meetings – Education, Finance, Judiciary, etc – were often bright and early, so by the time we got the message, packed, and drove down to a motel, it was the wee hours of the morning. It required planning to jump up, park and get into the Capital by 8am.

When we got to the meeting, we could only speak if called upon, and only for an allotted time. If someone from the other side of the issue reported something wrongly, we could not correct the information unless we were called upon.  At the first Education Committee meeting of the House, the chief lobbyist of the teacher’s unions pointed out that homeschoolers had made recent news because they were in a show down with State and Federal Marshals in another state. Obviously, these were not the role models we were hoping for, and they were using a very broad brush to define homeschoolers. So we compiled reams of information and dutifully put it on the desk of the delegates and senators. We then watched from the gallery as many on the floor below looked briefly at our cover sheet only to immediately throw it in the waste basket by their desks.

We needed to make them aware of a constituency that they never knew existed.  One way to do this was to take our children to Charleston as living examples of what we wanted to achieve.  They went with us when we talked one on one with our representatives.  They were grilled and observed and questioned.  We would do “school” in the cafeteria and several legislators would stop by the table to see what the kids were doing.  The kind ones would sit and talk with the children and even help them with math problems.  Others used the opportunity to tell us why they didn’t think this was a good idea. Gene and I had to register as lobbyists because we were talking to more that just our own representatives. We were welcomed in some offices and told to leave in others.

We learned the importance of having homeschoolers from all districts talking with their own representatives. It makes a difference when we can directly affect their re-election! But at this time, there was only a handful of homeschoolers in the entire state…  

These committee meetings were scattered throughout the 60 days the legislature was in session, and we never knew how long we would be needed in Charleston. Our senator, who was sponsoring the bill in the Senate, had been allotted two motel rooms.  One was used by him to house constituents who were visiting him.  If no one asked for the room by eight in the evening, he would allow us to stay there.  We were not always able to stay free, but we were so thankful for those times when we could. At one point, I found myself doing laundry in a laundromat while the children sat in a warm car in their underwear and winter coats! Eating out all meals proved expensive, so when I could I would bring food from home. Gene ran his business long distance via the phone and his business partner. Those trips to Charleston became our “vacation” for the year, but what an educational trip it turned out to be!

Probably the most defeating moment came toward the end of the session.  It was clear that the homeschool bill had enough backing in the House of Delegates to pass and then move on to the Senate. But in various meetings with the Speaker of the House, it became evident that he would not bring our bill up for a vote because the public school teachers had a real problem with children being taught by parents at home, and they had his ear.  Without intervention the bill would die. A compromise was struck that would put qualifiers on both children and parents. As horribly restrictive as this was, it did allow the bill to become law and, for the first time since the nineteenth century, it was definitely legal to homeschool.  While this WV law was the most restrictive of all the states’ homeschooling laws at the time, subsequent legislative action made it more lenient. An even better law is still needed today.

Our family did make large sacrifices for that first homeschool bill, but all praise belongs to God. We were just obeying what we felt God had called us to do. Had we chosen not to get involved, God would have used someone else to carry out His goals, but we would have missed so much! Through all the hassle and fear and discouragement, we learned that God is able to do abundantly more than we ever ask or dream! It was so encouraging to see what a few amazingly determined and persistent people could do when they felt led by God to do something bold for the benefit of others.

In the end, we spent 22 days of that session in Charleston and were asked to be present when the bill was signed into law. Finally the question of “Who owns the child? The state or the parents?” was answered as legal homeschooling in WV was birthed.