What is the biggest concern people have about using PEP?

(This question was asked in the July 17, 2023 livestream video on our Facebook page, but I'm compiling a condensed version of Brenda's answer here. If you want to hear Brenda's full explanation, you can find this question at timestamp 4:34 on that video.)

This is a long one, but it's important! You can use the bolded parts as key phrases to skip to the part that's most important to you, but I highly suggest you read the whole thing. (Or visit the livestream link above and listen to Brenda explain it directly!)

Brenda's answer:

The biggest concern most people have about PEP is whether they'll be able to maintain their freedoms. We in America love freedom. As home educating parents, we absolutely love our freedoms. This is often a core reason we have chosen to home educate.

The fear that we might lose these freedoms in our education of our children is not a new concept. Back in the late 1990s, someone sent Brenda a book about the plan from the UN to the Secretary of Education, a plan to take over education. (The book is titled "A Research Manual: America 2000/Goals 2000 - Moving the National Educationally to a "New World Order.")

In the time since that book was released, we've seen that larger plan unfold in the public schools, and we've seen it beginning in about 2000 with the first vouchers that came out in Florida called The McKay Scholarship for Students with Disabilities.

However, we in Florida have worked very hard (Brenda was working on the forefront of this as well) to keep the state from over-reaching into private education. Brenda can't stop what's going on globally. She can't stop what's going on nationally. But she CAN have a big impact in the state of Florida.

Brenda believes people need to be informed about what's going on with the larger picture, absolutely. But there are also conservatives, especially our Governor, who recognize that things going on in the public schools are not good.

Scholarships are going to happen, because that is the trend in the nation. The most we can do in Florida -- and hopefully it will spread through the nation -- is to make these scholarships as LEAST intrusive as possible.

So what's happening right now? Is PEP tied in with this trend to control education?

Brenda doesn't believe so. PEP was actually spearheaded by conservatives trying to counteract that control.

The thought seems to be this: The politicians who are conservatives have recognized that the public schools are indoctrination centers, and they're trying to change that. And one of the things they can do is to get as many kids out of the public schools as possible. MONEY is one of the biggest hurdles to people doing that.

Removing that hurdle seems to be the primary motivation behind the creation of PEP.

The Speaker of the House and the Governor wanted to help homeschoolers, because they had been left out of all of the scholarship programs, so the original HB1 was written as a home education voucher.

Brenda fought really hard with the Speaker and the Governor to get them to separate PEP from home education law and call the PEP something different--make it an ADDITIONAL way to meet compulsory attendance--rather than using the term "home education students" in the legislation for this scholarship. Because of Brenda's efforts, as far as the legislation is concerned, these are vouchers for "parent-directed education," not "homeschoolers."

Why does this matter? Brenda worked to make sure of this so that, when statutes come down... maybe in ten years or so... to put more regulation on the PEP program, the program is structured in statute where it is separate from home education, and home education remains a safe haven. All parents have to do is not take the PEP voucher the next year, sign back up under "home education" with the school district, and that's that.

If there becomes a problem with the regulation coming down for PEP students, people can just pull out... and there will no longer be a PEP program.

HB1 was going to happen--it was already an agreement with the Senate President, and the Governor was fully behind it. So what Brenda worked hard to ensure was that the policy would be acceptable for homeschoolers who DON'T want any scholarship money, so that any changes would not affect them... and so that ALL of us have a safe haven in the future in case regulation does increase for PEP students.

How likely is it that additional regulation will be added to PEP in the future? How soon will that happen?

The original plan was for all the standardized test scores for PEP students from the first year would be compiled (together, not attached to individual students' names) at the end of the year, and those overall stats would be released to the public as a measure of the success of the overall PEP program.

Brenda argued for a delay of three years for those scores to be publicly released--on the basis that families using PEP would need a year or two to adjust.

So the legislature gave FIVE years before the scores are published.

Because of this, we know we will likely have a FIVE-YEAR window without any additional regulation for PEP. If any regulation comes, it will probably be after the five-year mark, when they have those scores.

However, Brenda expects that those scores are going to be so good (because of committed parents working individually with their children), they are going to be BETTER scores than what's seen in the public system... because one-on-one education far exceeds the public system.

And if a program is working really well, rarely do they go back and add regulation.

So Brenda's belief is that we've set this up in a way that we're probably not going to see addtional regulation for a long time.

So what's the takeaway on this?

Brenda's advice is this: We DO all need to watch what's going on with legislation. That's why we need a lobbyist in the capitol, so we can get word of legislation coming through before it's passed.

But we also all need to relax. If it becomes bad in the future, withdraw from the program... but at the moment, PEP is a gift, and it will help many parents who are struggling. Many homeschooling parents are living on one income, so having the extra money from PEP will add breathing room to their budget, since what they would usually have to spend on educational materials, they can spend on other things.