In this episode of The Frontline with FPM, Nathan Pierce interviews Mike Smith, co-founder and former president of HSLDA. Mike shares how he first discovered homeschooling in the early 1980s through Dr. Raymond Moore, leading his family to begin homeschooling and eventually drawing him into early legal battles to defend homeschool families in California.
“I never heard about teach them at home. Anybody do that? Maybe back in our but certainly in my history, I didn’t know anything about homeschooling. I never heard of anybody that did it. I didn’t know it existed, but you know what? As I listened more and more, spoke right into my spirit that this could be a way that we could solve the issue we were dealing with with our education and our kids.” – Mike Smith
He explains how he met Mike Farris, how HSLDA was formed, and how their work—together with state partners like Family Protection Ministries—helped secure legal recognition for homeschooling nationwide. Mike also recounts the pivotal 2008 Jonathan L. case, when a court briefly ruled homeschooling illegal before reversing course and affirming its legality under California’s private school exemption.
“And we’d already been involved in defending families in Washington state and California. So that’s how we met. That was our commonality. That was our common bond when we met each other.” – Mike Smith about how he met Mike Ferris
“The highlight would be the long-term battle to legalize homeschooling. And Nathan, as you know, every state recognizes a legal way to homeschool. Some of them are more difficult to comply with than others.” – Mike Smith
