Attending the Illinois "Homeschool Freedom Celebration" in La Grange Park
To celebrate killing Homeschool accountability, Koch Brother's AFP threw celebrations for Illinois Homeschoolers & introduced the former GOP LG candidate who called homeschooling elitist & unrealistic
Reporting by Fennick Nym. Research and other contributions by Tony Delvecchio.
Earlier this year, the Illinois legislature introduced the Homeschool Act HB 2827. To address the state’s virtually non-existent requirements to homeschool, the bill would have codified the same guarantees afforded children educated in the public system—such as graduating with educational records and being taught by someone with a minimum of a high school education. The bill stalled and never received a vote on the House floor, succumbing to the Homeschool movement’s well-practiced pressure campaigns against any homeschool legislation. In celebration of its defeat, Americans for Prosperity (AFP) held events across the state in partnership with Illinois Christian Home Educators (ICHE) who worked to kill the bill.
Curious what those celebrating the defeat thought of the bill, I attended the last event in mid-June to speak with the participants. When I arrived, an unattended folding table with a clipboard awaited us while children played in the grass nearby. I began to mingle with the parents and spoke to the few vendors set up along the pavilion’s edge. Throughout the afternoon, the hosts, vendors, and adult attendees all expressed a shared belief in the freedom homeschooling afforded them, while continually warning that it was about to be taken away.
“Well, a little bit of a very nice state because the laws have been so lax … So we don't have to keep records. We don't have to have stuff … None of us. It's a very nice state. I think it's a very nice state. It's a very nice state.”
Speaking with a woman running a booth for a local co-op, she expressed concern over curriculum restrictions for homeschoolers and losing the ability to provide religious instruction. When I confirmed the bill did not impose restrictions or requirements on curriculum and religious instruction, she nevertheless felt any oversight would inevitably lead to this in the future: "Once they get it passed then they have the right to do whatever they want and continue to encroach on the homeschooling moms—or families!—decision making power on the curriculum and how they want to homeschool and all of that." The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) representative I spoke with next felt the same way, agreeing that it was Illinois' lax laws that protected against that encroachment: “The state of Illinois is pretty free when it comes to homeschooling … there is no real registration process. You don't have to let the schools know that you're homeschooling. And with that comes a lot of benefits … and so you don't want to be able to lose that.” I personally felt the benefits of no record requirements in another state, as I applied to colleges and jobs with only a Google Doc transcript as proof of completing high school.
Like the children playing just out of view, the homeschool alumni supporting the bill seemed to exist in the background. The attendees engaged in a ritualistic display of animosity towards the bill’s sponsor, Terra Costa Howard, and stated she and other supporters of the bill (homeschool alumni) were using the deaths of homeschooled children to enact draconian penalties targeting homeschoolers. Per one of the co-op vendors, "I think before they hadn't had any situations like that to use, so I guess they figured they got the opportunity.” I was unsure of which of the seven known deaths she was referring to.
Others were angry that homeschoolers' voices were unheard: “if you want a homeschool bill, then put some homeschoolers in the legislative process and write it with them." Whether they were unaware the bill was co-written by an organization founded and run by homeschool graduates, or simply did not consider them homeschoolers was unclear. This was echoed in a later conversation with AFP’s emcee of the event and homeschool graduate Grace Lattz, who took issue with the sponsor’s unwillingness to have a cordial dialogue and come to a mutually satisfying bill for all parties (Costa Howard actually removed the ban on sex-offenders from homeschooling at the request of opposition).
After speaking with as many guests as possible, the event ended with speeches from the figures and groups that were at the forefront opposing the bill. As much as this was a celebration, the speakers reiterated the need to "keep everyone engaged and in a holding stance, ready to get back in the fight." Chris Butler, an HSLDA affiliate and failed Democrat candidate, introduced a surprise guest who had not attended the prior events. After a mealy mouthed disclaimer that this is not him telling people to vote for a certain party and does not reflect the views of the hosts, he said to rounds of applause: “there is a legislator … who is going to attack homeschooling, and the state … will be better off if that legislator is not in Springfield next session.”
The schools were good in DuPage, now we know they are indoctrination factories ... especially when they find out you're a Christian, they feel that they have to expose your kids to the world, because you're sheltering them too much.
— Stephanie Trussell, Republican candidate for the 42nd district
Butler then handed the microphone to Stephanie Trussell, the 2022 Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor, and she announced her campaign for the 42nd district: “I just want to assure all you homeschoolers that help is on the way. Terra Costa Howard is going to meet her match.” Trussell has never held office, but became the host of a conservative talk radio show for seven years through winning a contest. She told the crowd her bid was a result of a call from Dan Patlack, the president of conservative think-tank Illinois Policy Institute, asking her to run against Terra Costa Howard in the 42nd. Trussell left the Democratic party in 1993 but has never endorsed homeschooling publicly prior to HB 2827.1 In fact, prior to this year, her comments suggest she viewed homeschooling as unserious. In a 2023 Facebook video, she called Homeschoolers “elitist” and not a viable option to “get those kids out of the public schools.”
After lamenting the county’s under performing schools (in reality some of the highest performing districts in the country), Trussell asked the crowd for their support to “flip the 42nd” and closed the event with a promise: “We’re gonna take down Terra Costa Howard.” With each speaker stressing which regulations would not be tolerated, I approached Grace Lattz afterwards to ask what homeschool oversight would be acceptable. She was unable to answer repeat requests for an example, instead deflecting with statements such as “everyone here loves their kids,” which I reminded her was never claimed otherwise. By the time I left, no one had been able to accurately describe what was in the bill they were opposing in the first place, much less give a clear vision of how to hold abuse through homeschooling accountable.
Guys, let's support her and even if you don't live in that district ... people need to hear that she's supportive and not doing this on her own ... We're the fastest growing school choice in our community, and it's thriving, and AFP stands behind us. They want to see us continue to thrive and so let's be there to support them ... [and ICHE] are people that we can trust and that have our best interest.
— Aziza Butler, witness against HB 2827
All of these newfound friends of homeschooling are hoping to transform this opposition into material political gains. They are likely to be disappointed. News coverage uncritically repeated the movement’s touted witness count without noting the non in-state submissions, the rampant duplicate filings—one woman submitted her name over 70 times—and the names of non-voting minors Illinois Homeschoolers urged followers to submit.2 It helped to prop up an event that was strangely hollow, all of its disjointed facets held together by an unprepared coalition of opportunists. AFP, unprepared to share a presence with a homeschooler on the receiving end of the freedom being celebrated, stated their organization was mostly interested in property taxes—implicating their incentive to withhold as many children from a public education as possible. Arriving just before the event ended and apologizing for still being in her work uniform, Stephanie Trussell stated she had only heard about 2827 ten minutes before deciding to run a campaign centered around it. It is an extension of the issues endemic to the Homeschooling movement itself, where fear and outrage against exaggerated threats are manufactured to further their own interests with little regard for the people they claim to represent.∎
Trussell’s primary exposure to homeschooling seems to be through a friend group she often mentions. One of those friends appears to be InfoWars guest and ICHE conference speaker Latasha Fields.
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