Monday: Homeschool Bill HB 497 on Dual Enrollment

From Delegate Rob Bell…..

Dear Homeschool friend,

I received word that one of my homeschooling bills, House Bill 497, will be coming before the House Committee on Education Subcommittee #3 early Monday morning (January 22nd).  House Bill 497 would require school districts that offer “dual enrollment” to public school students to also offer these classes to local homeschoolers without having to pay tuition or fees.

I invite you and your family to come testify if you are able. The committee begins at 7:15am and will be meeting in the House Committee Room in the Pocahontas Building. You can find information about directions and parking here.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Rob Bell
Delegate, 58th District

2017 GOP Primary Candidates Listed, Chuck Smith Fails to Make Ballot for AG

On Friday the Republican Party of Virginia released the list of 2017 Republican Primary candidates who qualified for the June 13 ballot.

Missing from the list was Virginia Beach attorney Chuck Smith who was vying to run for attorney general.

From the RPV press release:

Earlier today, RPV Chairman John Whitbeck sent a letter to the Virginia State Board of Elections certifying the following candidates met the legal requirements to appear on the June 13 Republican Primary Ballot.
They are (listed in order of office and pre-check qualification):

McAuliffe Vetoes ‘Tebow Bill’ for Third Time

Really, Governor? Vetoed again?

On Monday Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe again vetoed — for the third year in a row — Delegate Rob Bell’s “Tebow Bill” that would allow homeschooled students accessibility to public high school sports.

The governor has, it would appear, capitulated once again to the high school sports league and teachers’ union even though homeschool parents pay every tax dollar as parents with public school students.

Florida has had its own version of the Tebow Bill for over 20 years … 29 states in all allow access to their sports programs for homeschooled students.

This was the twelfth year Bell carried the bill to the General Assembly, and in 2015, 2016, and 2017, it passed both the House and the Senate only to be shot down by McAuliffe.

So Rob Bell can fold up shop for another year, and Virginia homeschoolers can only hope he is willing to carry the bill yet a thirteenth time. There’s an election before next year, and McAuliffe will no longer be sitting in the governor’s office.

Concerns Addressed as Optimistism Grows for Passage of ‘Tebow Bill’

Last week when I wrote about Delegate Rob Bell’s HB 1578 aka the Tebow Bill  passing the Virginia House of Delegates, some commenters had questions about allowing homeschooled student access to the public school sports programs even though homeschooling has been a legal educational choice for almost 40 years.

In that original post (see Rob Bell’s ‘Tebow Bill’ Passes the House, Now Moves to Senate), it was noted that 29 states already have a Tebow Bill in place. In fact, Florida’s legislation that allowed a youthful Tim Tebow to excel with his local high school team was passed in 1996, long before he was involved, so they have 20 years of experience working with the homeschool community. Because of Tebow’s participation, that school system can lay claim to a Heisman Trophy winner.

2017: Rob Bell Drops Bid for Attorney General — Updated

Rob Bell at Powhatan Mass Meeting earlier this year. Photo by Lynn R. Mitchell.

I didn’t see this one coming until an email dropped into my in-box today with the announcement from Delegate Rob Bell that he has ended his campaign for attorney general in 2017:

Now that the 2016 election is over, it is time for the 2017 Virginia statewide campaigns to begin in earnest.  After careful consideration, I have decided that I will not seek the position of Attorney General.

I have spent the last year traveling the state and laying the groundwork for a campaign.  However, as you may know, I have two young children, one of whom has special needs.  This school year has brought significant new challenges that require my personal and immediate attention.  Despite my best efforts, it has become clear to me that I can’t possibly fulfill my responsibilities as a father while making a statewide run.

I am therefore ending my Attorney General campaign.  I am profoundly grateful to everyone who has offered support, time, or encouragement.  Unless told otherwise, I will be returning the donations I have received.  Though I won’t be a statewide candidate I do look forward to strongly supporting the Republican ticket, especially against Mark Herring.

For several years, I have had the honor of serving in the General Assembly seat once held by Thomas Jefferson. I look forward to continuing my work in the House of Delegates and spending Thanksgiving with my family.

Delegate Bell ran for attorney general four years ago when he graciously stepped aside to cede the nomination to State Senator Mark Obenshain who went on to unsuccessfully challenge Democrat Mark Herring.

Generally when a candidate steps aside to make room for another, it is assumed the nomination will be his or hers the next go round. Bell has been everywhere campaigning — at Republican events, meetings, conventions, mass meetings.

Early in 2016 a challenger came on the scene, a newcomer out of Richmond named John Adams. Little known at the time, he has proven to be a ferocious contender, gradually honing his skills at campaigning as the months passed.

Still, to see today’s email from Rob is stunning, although understandable. As a mom who spent 16 years homeschooling her children, I can certainly vouch for family coming first. It is commendable to see someone who is climbing the ladder of success give up a dream for the betterment of his children who almost always suffer from parents being away for the time commitment necessary for public service.

Delegate Bell isn’t going anywhere. He will be in Richmond for the 2017 General Assembly session. His decision brings to mind the saying, “When a door closes, a window opens.” It will be exciting to see what opportunities will open for him down the road.

Update: A statement was released by AG candidate John Adams:

“Rob Bell has fought tirelessly for conservative causes in the House of Delegates since he was elected in 2002.  And over the past 10 months, I have been crisscrossing the Commonwealth, often right alongside Rob, as we campaign to defeat Mark Herring.  I have gotten to know him well out on the trail, and my respect for him has only continued to grow.  He is a superb public servant, and a fine man.

“Rob has been committed to defeating Herring for a long time.  As we move forward, I will draw on the example Rob has set as a tenacious and relentless fighter in the battle to win back the AG’s office.  I look forward to seeking Rob’s advice and counsel as we continue to campaign to restore the Attorney General’s Office to its rightful place in our system of government.”

That leaves the already-announced John Adams and Chuck Smith in the race but there are questions about whether this will open the field to others. Stay tuned….

Cline, Bell, Bell endorsement suggests passive support for 24th District anti-primary lawsuit

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Three Virginia House of Delegates members — Dickie Bell, Rob Bell, and Ben Cline — appear to have passively endorsed a lawsuit that was brought against the 24th Senate District (represented by State Senator Emmett Hanger) by endorsing the re-election of the tea party-leaning GOP chairman who voted for the lawsuit.

The endorsement was announced in an email distributed on Friday, five days before the filing deadline for others who may have been interested in the chair position.

The lawsuit, changing the statute to require a convention, thus removing the incumbents’ choice of re-election nomination (primary, firehouse primary, caucus, etc), was struck down by the courts in 2015 but is now under appeal.

If the delegates like the idea of having only conventions and doing away with primaries for the state party, perhaps they should step to the plate and write a bill to have it passed in the General Assembly instead of tacitly supporting renegade groups like the 24th legislative committee, and allowing them to tie up the Republican Party with lawsuits.

More precisely, why are the three delegates supporting Staunton Chairman Matt Fitzgerald, who voted to move the lawsuit forward and runs with Waynesboro Chairman Ken Adams who spearheaded the entire thing that was backed by anonymous consultants and financiers from other areas of the Commonwealth? This lawsuit, filed in the tumultuous 6th Congressional District represented by Bob Goodlatte, may hurt future elections and the Republican Party. By always requiring conventions, there would be no primaries, thus disenfranchising other voters such as military members, the elderly, families with small children, long distances to travel, and employees who cannot get a day off work. (Absentee ballots are not allowed for conventions but are allowed for primaries.)

Fitzgerald was also part of an anti-Goodlatte group who secretly met to plan the hijacking of the hours-long, hostile 6th District meeting in December. Yet he received the endorsement of not only the delegates but others. See the Fitzgerald endorsement email here.

For those who wish to participate in the Staunton Republican Committee mass meeting to be held on February 18 at 7:00pm at the Staunton Public Library, a prefile form is required and must be received by February 15. The Staunton Republican Committee website has not been updated since March 2015 but the information was found at the 6th District website.

UPDATE: On February 12 and 17, 2016, emails were sent to all three delegates to ask about their endorsements. As of February 23, no answers have been received. We realize they are in session in RVA so will send a follow-up email to the first two.

Delegates’ endorsements suggest passive support for convention lawsuit

Three Virginia House of Delegates members — Dickie Bell, Rob Bell, and Ben Cline — appear to have passively endorsed a lawsuit that was brought against the 24th Senate District (represented by State Senator Emmett Hanger) by endorsing the re-election of the tea party-leaning GOP chairman who voted for the lawsuit. The endorsement was announced in an email distributed on Friday.

The lawsuit, changing the statute to require a convention, thus removing the incumbents’ choice of re-election nomination (primary, firehouse primary, caucus, etc), was struck down by the courts in 2015 but is now under appeal.

If the delegates like the idea of having only conventions and doing away with primaries for the state party, perhaps they should step to the plate and write a bill to have it passed in the General Assembly instead of tacitly supporting renegade groups like the 24th legislative committee, and allowing them to tie up the Republican Party with lawsuits.

More precisely, why are the three delegates supporting Staunton Chairman Matt Fitzgerald, who voted to move the lawsuit forward and runs with Waynesboro Chairman Ken Adams who spearheaded the entire thing that was backed by anonymous consultants and financiers from other areas of the Commonwealth? This lawsuit, filed in the tumultuous 6th Congressional District represented by Bob Goodlatte, may hurt future elections and the Republican Party. By always requiring conventions, there would be no primaries, thus disenfranchising other voters such as military members, the elderly, families with small children, long distances to travel, and employees who cannot get a day off work. (Absentee ballots are not allowed for conventions but are allowed for primaries.)

Fitzgerald was also part of an anti-Goodlatte group who secretly met to plan the hijacking of the hours-long, hostile 6th District meeting in December. Yet he received the endorsement of not only the delegates but others. See the Fitzgerald endorsement email here.

For those who wish to participate in the mass meeting to be held on February 18 at 7:00pm at the Staunton Public Library, a prefile form is being required and must be received by February 15. The Staunton Republican Committee website has not been updated since March 2015 but the information was found at the 6th District website.

Rob Bell will announce GOP candidacy for attorney general

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Republican Delegate Rob Bell of Albemarle will announce later this week that he will seek the party’s nomination for attorney general, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. This will be Bell’s second bid for the position that he lost in 2013 to Mark Obenshain who went on to lose to Democrat Mark Herring.

Ed Gillespie has announced he will seek the GOP nomination for governor in 2017.

Rob Bell has tried for years to get a Tebow Bill passed to allow homeschool athletes to play with their local public school teams like former professional football player Tim Tebow did on his way to becoming a Denver Bronco quarterback.

The Republican nominee will run against Herring who has already announced he will seek re-election as attorney general.

Grassroots for Rob Bell Facebook page.

Double murderer Jens Soering seeking release to Germany

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Murderer Jens Soering is back in the news. Thankfully, Delegate Rob Bell (R-58th House District) is alerting Virginians of the latest about this heinous case:

This week the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that Governor McAuliffe is reviewing a request by murderer Jens Soering for early release.

Soering and his girlfriend Elizabeth Haysom were U.Va. students who in 1985 decided to murder her parents, Derek and Nancy Haysom.  To create an alibi, they bought two tickets to a movie and kept the stubs.  Soering then drove a rental car down to Bedford.  He ate dinner with the Haysoms, then stabbed Mr. Haysom 36 times and Mrs. Haysom 8 times, killing them both.

It was only extraordinary police work by Bedford Deputy Ricky Gardner that broke the case.  Gardner checked the rental car odometer, which showed the distance from Washington D.C. to Bedford.  When Gardner asked Soering for a blood sample, Soering stalled, and then fled the country with Elizabeth.  They obtained false papers and went on an international crime spree, traveling to Yugoslavia, Bangkok, and Moscow, before finally being arrested in England for check fraud.

‘Tebow Bill’ fails to garner support to override governor’s veto

By Lynn R. Mitchell

For supporters of the homeschool sports access bill also known as the Tebow Bill, the news out of Richmond on Wednesday was not good. After Governor Terry McAuliffe vetoed the bill, it was not able to gain the support needed to overcome the veto (see House sustains McAuliffe veto of Tebow Bill).

Back in the homeschool classroom: Did Terry McAuliffe understand the ‘Tebow Bill’ he vetoed?

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Virginia homeschoolers were disappointed when Governor Terry McAuliffe vetoed the “Tebow Bill” — a homeschool sports access bill — after years of working to get its passage in the General Assembly.

Jeanne Faulconer, a homeschool mom who has educated her children at home for 17 years, wrote in Friday’s Richmond Times-Dispatch about the governor’s seeming lack of understanding everything around the bill. Her response to the governor (see Homeschoolers Are In (Reaction to Governor’s Veto of Homeschool Sports Access Bill):

Terry McAuliffe kills homeshool friendly ‘Tebow Bill’

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Sitting around the table before the start of last night’s Augusta County Library board meeting in Fishersville, I was talking about how much my family had used the public library during the 16 years we homeschooled our children. One of the trustees brought up the Tebow Bill that had passed the General Assembly, and said he had heard the governor was going to veto it.

This gentleman was not someone I expected to be in support of a homeschool bill so I braced myself for his comment.

“I don’t agree with the governor,” he said, much to my surprise, and he went on to add that homeschool families pay their taxes, are part of the community, and should be allowed athletic access to the schools. He was not the first from the community I had heard to voice those thoughts.

The Virginian-Pilot is wrong about homeschool sports ‘entitlement’

By Lynn R. Mitchell

In 2013 Education Week reported, “Four out of five Americans believe homeschooled students should have the opportunity to participate in public school sports, according to a new poll from Gallup and Phi Delta Kappa” (see Public Supports Homeschool Students Playing Public School Sports).

Even so, the Virginian-Pilot editorialized its opposition to HB 1616, the “Tebow Bill” that passed in the 2015 Virginia General Assembly with bipartisan support and is currently waiting for Governor Terry McAuliffe’s signature. The newspaper’s primary reason for opposing is improbable (see Homeschool lobby wins special privileges) :

The latest proposal … still presents an opening for school districts to elevate success in sports ahead of enrollment in an academic community, paving the way for home-schooled students to do as Tebow did a decade ago, when he and his family shopped for a public-school football team that would accommodate his big arm.

I hate to burst the Virginian-Pilot’s bubble (well, actually, I’m happy to burst it) but very few homeschool families would feel compelled to cherry-pick a location for their children to play sports. Even fewer homeschool families could afford to go to such lengths as to move part of the family because most live frugally on one-income salaries. That argument is projecting a scare factor that just is not there.

Dear homeschoolers, please ask Governor to support ‘Tebow Bill’

Del. Rob Bell

By Lynn R. Mitchell

The heavy lifting has been done. Delegate Rob Bell has seen to that. All that is left is for homeschoolers to email Governor Terry McAuliffe to encourage him to sign HB 1626 — the “Tebow Bill” — to allow homeschoolers to participate in sports and other competitive events such as forensics and band.

From Delegate Rob Bell:

Rob Bell’s ‘Tebow Bill’ passes … now on to Governor

By Lynn R. Mitchell

The “Tebow Bill,” the homeschool sports access bill that has been advanced in the General Assembly the past ten years by Delegate Rob Bell, passed the state senate today 22-13.  Bell wrote:

Tebow Bill PASSES State Senate 22-13! Many thanks to the Senators who supported it and all the homeschoolers who testified! Please contact Governor McAuliffe and ask him to sign the bill and sign the petition here (http://virginiatebowbill.com/petition/).

Many thanks to my own Senator Emmett Hanger for voting yea.