Virginia Democrat Stella Pekarsky would ban homeschooling unless parents prove it’s for religious reasons

This month, Virginia State Senator Stella Pekarsky (D-Fairfax) introduced a bill in the Virginia Senate that would restrict homeschooling options for families.

SB1031 is currently being considered by the Virginia Senate. It states that students in Virginia who are granted exemptions from attending school must have “bonafide religious training or beliefs [that] are conscientiously against attendance . .” The legislation also specifies that this “bonafide religious training or beliefs” does not include political, sociological, philosophical or a personal moral code.

Pekarsky’s proposed legislation limits the reasons Virginia families can choose to homeschool. Virginia’s homeschool law only requires an intention to homeschool, and not a “bona fide” religious objection. Is it really appropriate for the government to determine whether a citizen’s religion is “bona fide?”

Students fled Virginia’s public schools during Covid

SB1031, aside from its questioned constitutional legitimacy, would negatively affect many Virginian families if it were passed. According to information provided by the Virginia Department of Education for the 2024-2025 school year, 56,008 Virginia students were homeschooled, and only 6,755 had religious exemptions. Pekarsky’s proposed legislation will limit the freedoms of families who homeschool their children for reasons other than religious beliefs. She and her friend who are in the teacher unions that funded her campaign may want to tax the 49,253 remaining students. Many of them would be forced to attend public schools.

This legislation is particularly offensive to me as a mother of three who homeschooled for the 2020-21 school year, when Pekarsky along with the other eleven Democratic-backed members of the Fairfax County Board of Education closed all the schools in the district. If SB1031 had been passed before the irresponsible school board members closed our children’s classrooms, then thousands of parents who wanted to do more for their kids would have been unable to remove them from the district’s ridiculous circus of online education.

Online “learning” was the catalyst for grassroots change. Homeschooling rates have increased dramatically since the pandemic. In Virginia, 38 282 homeschooled children were in 2019-2020. Homeschooling rates have increased in Virginia by over 28 percent in the last five-year period.

Homeschooling has increased in Fairfax County from 3 247 students in 2019. To 3, 749 students by 2024. Many students attended private schools. The district’s enrollment decreased from 189,000 students to 181,000 students between 2023-2024.

Virginia parents began to search for other options, which led to attrition. Pekarsky was on the Fairfax County school board during a period when test results for public school students declined. This led to a mass exodus of the district’s once-flagship public schools.

Homeschooling is the most likely alternative to public education for middle class families

Homeschooling is by far the most affordable alternative to public schooling for Virginian children. The average private school tuition for the academic year 2024-2025 is $15.321. The average cost per student of homeschooling in the United States is between $700 to $1,800. Homeschooled students score significantly higher than their public school counterparts on standardized tests. Limiting the homeschool option would be an absurd and irrational abuse of power.

Pekarsky and other Democratic politicians are trying to restrict parents’ options to avoid the state-sponsored indoctrination. Fairfax County Public Schools is one example of a school district that engages in social gender transformation without the parents’ knowledge. They also force the children’s speech by mandating pronoun usage, in violation of First Amendment. Pekarsky says that parents’ political objections are not enough to make them homeschool their kids.

Pekarsky’s proposed legislation, which is one of many, demonstrates the Democratic Party’s disregard for middle-class Americans and its disconnect from the American people.

On Jan. 16, the bill was assigned to Virginia Senate Subcommittee on Public Education. The Virginia Democratic Senators would vote against SB1031 if they had learned anything from the Democratic Party’s disastrous loss in November about the mood of Americans.

Stephanie Lundquist Arora is a writer, mother, contributor to The Federalist, and Washington Examiner. She also leads the Fairfax Chapter of Independent Women’s Network.