The goal of Capitol Day is to provide information about private home education to our California state legislators and their staff in a friendly, professional manner. This also allows legislators and their staff the opportunity to visit with real homeschool families.
Capitol Day serves several purposes:
- It informs any newly elected legislators and their staff and reminds the veteran legislators of the benefits of private homeschooling.
- It strengthens our working relationship with them on a professional level.
- It leaves them with a way to contact us if they ever have any questions about home education.
- It educates private homeschool families on the inner workings of the legislative process, trains them in how to advocate for homeschooling freedoms, and gives them a hands-on learning experience in government as they visit legislators’ offices at the capitol.
Our Capitol Day volunteers will visit each of the 120 legislators’ Capitol offices, providing each office with an information packet about private homeschooling. These packets help explain private home education as well as provide research showing that privately home-educated children do very well compared with students from the public schools.
Date: January 29 & 30, 2025
Where: Sacramento, California
Meet the Speakers!
Andrew Pudewa is the founder and director of the Institute for Excellence in Writing. Traveling and speaking around the world, he addresses issues related to teaching, writing, thinking, spelling, and music with clarity, insight, practical experience, and humor. His seminars have helped transform many a reluctant writer and have equipped educators with powerful tools to improve students’ skills. He and his wife, Robin, have homeschooled their seven children and are now grandparents of fifteen, making their home in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Will Estrada works at HSLDA defending homeschool parents and students in nine states. He received his juris doctorate from Oak Brook College of Law and is licensed as an attorney in California and the District of Columbia. He is also licensed to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court, and the First and Eleventh Federal Circuit Courts of Appeals. Will has had a rewarding and diverse career, including serving as HSLDA’s federal lobbyist, running a pro bono legal clinic, working as a career civil servant at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights, and serving as the president of ParentalRights.org. Will and his wife, both homeschool graduates themselves, homeschool their two sons in northern Virginia.
Nathan began working at Family Protection Ministries (FPM) in 2002 to protect private homeschooling in California. He was homeschooled himself from kindergarten through high school and received a B.A. in Political Studies from The Master’s University. Currently he serves as Director and Legislative Liaison for FPM. He works behind the scenes at the State Capitol, meeting with legislators to advocate on behalf of homeschoolers. He and his wife Betsy are actively involved in their church and homeschool their own eight children.
CHEA’s Winter Leadership Conference
For those of you in any kind of homeschool leadership, FPM and CHEA (Christian Home Educators Association of California) will be putting on a Leadership Event the day before on Tuesday, January 28, from 3:00 – 7:30 p.m. (check-in opens at 2:30 p.m.) with wonderful speakers covering topics that will inform and inspire you as we hit the mid-year mark. We would love for you to join us! The Leadership Event (including dinner) is designed to help encourage and equip those leading in any area of private home education groups, including PSPs, co-ops, support groups, and more. Leaders do not need to be part of CHEA’s Support Network to attend the Leadership Event.
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