Virginia has one of the strongest religious freedom-to-educate laws in the nation, but Democrat Sen. Stella Pekarsky wants that to change. The former Fairfax County School Board member wants to remove the religious exemption for a family to homeschool their children based on a bona fide religious belief. Democrats think they know better than God and voted 3-2 in subcommittee to move Pekarsky’s anti-religion legislation forward.

In 1976, the Virginia General Assembly sought to protect the large Amish and Mennonite communities in the Commonwealth who held sincere religious beliefs against sending their children to government run schools. So, legislators adopted a powerful law to protect religious freedom which states nothing shall “prohibit a pupil and his parents from obtaining an excuse from school attendance by reason of bona fide religious training or belief.”

I attended the Monday, Jan. 20 senate subcommittee hearing in Richmond, along with hundreds of religious freedom advocates and homeschool families. At the last minute, Pekarsky submitted a substitute to her initial bill but did not provide that substitute online or to anyone attending the hearing.

Sen. Pekarsky’s initial bill would have edited language so that parents may (not shall) be granted a religious exemption. Virginia law currently 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.” Pekarsky’s substitute that wasn’t provided to the public until after the vote completely struck the religious exemption all together.

Under Pekarsky’s updated bill SB1031, families could not use bona fide religious belief as a reason to homeschool their children and would need to meet government approvals and testing requirements. Those measures would include:

• The parent must meet certain degree qualifications to be able to instruct their child.
• Parent must annually notify the school superintendent of intent to homeschool for religious reasons.
• The parent must submit a list of curriculum topics for study to the superintendent.
• Students would submit to annual testing requirements and must prove academic achievement annually as determined by the superintendent.

Families want the Government to Leave them Alone

There are currently 6,400 children utilizing the religious exemption statute in Virginia–just a tiny fraction of the nearly 1.4 million total students in Virginia. Yet Virginia Democrats want to assert control over religious minorities such as the Amish and Mennonites. Ancestors of some of these religious minorities fled to America in the 1700s to escape religious persecution–to our shame, they must still fight for those freedoms.

As I observed and spoke with families attending the senate committee meeting, I was struck by how well-mannered and respectful the children were in attendance. They sat patiently through the hearings for hours and not one of them was drugged with electronic devices–most were reading books.

Sen. Pekarsky argued that some parents have abused the religious exemption law and haven’t provided a proper education to their children. Dr. Michael Huffman, a Pastor representing the Virginia Assembly of Independent Baptists, countered by pointing out that 20 percent of public high school graduates struggle with reading comprehension. Democrats haven’t pushed for more accountability for public schools–only for religious minorities.

As a former member of a Virginia school board, I regularly saw religious exemption requests on our agenda. In my 8 years of service on the board, not one board member ever voted no, nor did such requests create controversy. As one parent stated in the hearing, “this bill is trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist.” Why does Sen. Pekarsky want to take away religious freedom from parents?

The First Amendment states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” It seems self-evident that a religious conviction to provide a home-based education falls under this clause, while it should not require a state religious exemption law to have the right to homeschool on religious grounds. However, the existing Virginia law protects religious minorities from unfair and targeted prosecution.

The U.S. Supreme Court in Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972) established that “Under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, a state law requiring that children attend school past eighth grade violates the parents’ constitutional right to direct the religious upbringing of their children.” The case involved a challenge of the exemption of a 16-year-old student. While limited in scope, the decision could certainly support an argument that the high court sided with religious freedom.

Fortunately, Virginia has a Republican governor who will surely assert his veto power over this legislation that attacks religious freedom. This legislation demonstrates why Virginians need to carefully choose who to vote for in the upcoming 2025 General Assembly elections.