Will Estrada, HSLDA Senior Counsel, steps into “The Corner.”

Transcribed with OpenAI Whisper (base.en). Timestamps are approximate. Lightly cleaned for readability; quotations from on-air callers may include filler words. Use the audio player above for the authoritative recording.

1. 0:00Darkness is not an affirmative force.
2. 0:03It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light.
3. 0:06This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
4. 0:11It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite.
5. 0:15Delivering people out of the bondage of mainstream media.
6. 0:18And the philosophies of this world.
7. 0:20God has called you and me to be His ambassador.
8. 0:24Even in this dark moment.
9. 0:26Let's not miss our moment.
10. 0:28And now the Hamilton Corner.
11. 0:31Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Hamilton Corner.
12. 0:37My name is Abraham Hamilton III.
13. 0:40I am the host of this program.
14. 0:43I am grateful that you have welcomed us into your homes and vehicles, but also your hearts.
15. 0:52I'm joined by the corner contingent right across from me, manning the controls behind
16. 0:56the boards, my man-honored grand.
17. 0:58Mr. Bobby, Rosa is in studio and in the screening room, as usual, producer extraordinaire often
18. 1:06imitated but never duplicated the real J. Mac.
19. 1:12Never accept the synthetic when you can have the authentic.
20. 1:16We are ready to rock and roll with today's edition of the program.
21. 1:23As the markets are responding to the announcement of President Trump's tear switch was expected,
22. 1:30I don't think anyone is surprised by that.
23. 1:34I've said that my stance here in terms of economic philosophy, I would be an advocate for fair trade.
24. 1:44However, it's demonstrable that trade has been unfair for our nation for quite some time.
25. 1:52So I am in the posture of let's wait and see.
26. 1:57And one of them things that is simply true, and I believe you can even date this back to
27. 2:04when Ronald Reagan instituted significant tax cuts, things got a bit more challenging before
28. 2:09they got better.
29. 2:11But they ultimately got better.
30. 2:12So I, as I've said, I believe President Trump has earned the right for us to see.
31. 2:16And so I am going to do just that.
32. 2:20I'm going to see what happens with this.
33. 2:22Now, I'm an equal opportunity truth teller.
34. 2:24So I'm going to tell you what I honestly believe is happening and report on the things that
35. 2:31are transpiring, but I will say that it is immoral that our servant leaders historically
36. 2:42have allowed there to be an American Rust Belt.
37. 2:47Why do we allow that to happen?
38. 2:50Why do we allow that to happen?
39. 2:52When you start digging into some things like I didn't know, for example, that Israel imposed
40. 2:56any tariffs on our goods.
41. 3:04You know, we kind of responsible for helping Israel
42. 3:07because their defense over the years, you know, for quite some time, I would have
43. 3:13thought that, you know, you know, they'd be, you know, dapping, you maybe go by the
44. 3:16like pounds in 1990 pound each other like, look, we let you say, you know, stuff
45. 3:20over here, we're gonna sell our stuff over there. We could, you know, I would have
46. 3:23That was a surprise to me and I
47. 3:27I try to be in the know on these things
48. 3:30and so
49. 3:33My simple question is why have we allowed an American rust belt to begin with?
50. 3:37That's a problem
51. 3:40my hope and my prayer is that this ultimately results in a
52. 3:47Blessing for America and this is what people need to understand a strong America is a blessing to the world
53. 3:54world. Do we understand that like if America is in feeble, the world is compromised. America
54. 4:07first is better for the world. All right. Before I get to that, because as I say, and
55. 4:15I mean this with every fiber of my being, though those things are extremely important,
56. 4:20what goes on in your house is more important than what goes on than the White House. What
57. 4:29goes on in your house is more important than what goes on in the White House.
58. 4:40We have to understand that.
59. 4:42We have to understand that.
60. 4:45To the Word of God we go.
61. 4:47Matthew chapter 22.
62. 4:50Matthew chapter 22, a very familiar passage of scripture.
63. 4:54Matthew 22 verses 34 through 40.
64. 4:56I know I discussed this frequently.
65. 5:02I wasn't saying Israel has the most aberrant tariffs against us, but I just, that was news
66. 5:08to me.
67. 5:09I didn't think that we had any with an ally like that, you know?
68. 5:17Matthew 22, verses 34 through 40, verse 34, when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced
69. 5:24the Sadducee, they gathered themselves together.
70. 5:28One of them, a lawyer asked himself, sorry, asked him a question, testing him, a teacher,
71. 5:35which is the great commandment in the law.
72. 5:36And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind
73. 5:43This is the great and foremost commandment
74. 5:46The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself
75. 5:50on these two commandments depend the whole law and
76. 5:55the prophets
77. 5:57Right the universe 37. This is Jesus communicating
78. 6:03And he says that those who are to love him
79. 6:06that we are to love him with all of our hearts, with all of our souls, and with our
80. 6:13minds. Christianity is an intelligent faith. When people suggest that faith is
81. 6:23mutually exclusive from intelligence, it is an absurd assertion because our
82. 6:32minds are meant to be and must be included in our commitment to love the
83. 6:39Lord. This is why you have the instruction, the command to fathers, do not
84. 6:44exasperate your children, rather rear them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
85. 6:49I've explained before the Greek phrasing for nurture and admonition is the
86. 6:52pidea and leuthisia of the Lord. The word pidea means the whole training of the
87. 6:58mind and the morals, the whole training of the mind and the morals.
88. 7:03Galatians 5, and one of the fruit of the Spirit is self-control.
89. 7:13Without self-control or self-governance, we would not have the capacity for self-government.
90. 7:30The Word of God and the book of Proverbs explains that the fear of the Lord is what the beginning
91. 7:37of knowledge.
92. 7:39the beginning of knowledge and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
93. 7:47You see this consistently throughout the scripture.
94. 7:50This is something we used to understand in our country.
95. 7:55I was a part of a recording for an offering that's going to be made available in the not
96. 8:03too distant future on our streaming service, AFA Stream.
97. 8:07And Dr. Jameson Taylor, who is the Director of Government Affairs for AFA, was there and
98. 8:12He directed our attention to the Northwest Ordinance.
99. 8:15The Northwest Ordinance was passed initially in 1787,
100. 8:19later, renewed in 1789.
101. 8:23This is important because the US Constitution,
102. 8:25the Constitution of the Convention convened
103. 8:27where our Constitution, the original Constitution,
104. 8:30was drafted in 1787.
105. 8:31It was ratified in 1788,
106. 8:33but you have the same body that drafted our Constitution
107. 8:38also passed the Northwest Ordinance.
108. 8:41Alright, Article three of the North West Ordinance says this, quote, religion, morality and knowledge
109. 8:51being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind goes on to say that the
110. 9:00means of education therefore should be forever shall be forever encouraged.
111. 9:08and knowledge are necessary to the
112. 9:12happiness mankind and to good
113. 9:14government.
114. 9:15We have a society that has
115. 9:18embraced a pursuit of knowledge
116. 9:22while rejecting religion and
117. 9:24morality.
118. 9:25What I would submit to you is
119. 9:28that biblically speaking that you
120. 9:30cannot buy for Kate them.
121. 9:32You cannot buy for Kate them.
122. 9:34This is one of the major reasons
123. 9:36when I point this out to people
124. 9:38that most of you listening to me, when I mention the names for Isaac Newton, most
125. 9:43of us will immediately think about Newton's laws of physics, his scientific
126. 9:47experimentation, but what we will not think about is this that is a fact in
127. 9:53going work, research this for yourself. Trust but confirm, Isaac Newton can rightly
128. 10:01be described as a theologian who did science as a hobby. He wrote at least two,
129. 10:07if not three times as much about the scripture as he did scientific experiment.
130. 10:13Why does our population understand Sir Isaac Newton, the scientist, we know nothing about Sir
131. 10:20Isaac Newton, the theologian. We know much about Sir Isaac Newton, the scientist, we know very little
132. 10:26about the motivation for Sir Isaac Newton's scientific experimentation. Why? Because we have
133. 10:32lived under a regime that has intentionally sought to strip knowledge from religion and morality.
134. 10:42This is why, as I was saying to you yesterday, that we've had a nation that though in our,
135. 10:49the majority of our history, our nation has not been a detonation. But yet we were turned
136. 10:56into a detonation because all policies, prescriptions, have a worldview foundation.
137. 11:04There's a why that undergirds the what and what has occurred largely in our society.
138. 11:10We have drifted far afield from the what while still trying to navigate wise.
139. 11:19You heard the expression, you know, switching around the proverbial deck chairs on the Titanic.
140. 11:26morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and happiness and mankind.
141. 11:31George Washington said the same thing in his farewell address.
142. 11:33Religion and morality are indispensable supports of our American Constitution Republican government.
143. 11:39John Adams said the exact same thing that in any literally when John Adams was addressing
144. 11:43the Massachusetts militia, he was literally confronting the notions of avarice and selfishness
145. 11:48and self-promotion and in a godless, hedonistic personal pursuit of self-aggrandizement and
146. 11:56enrichment. And while addressing that John Adams says, our nation, our Constitution is only effective
147. 12:07for a holy, religious and moral people. But what has happened to us? I feel like the Apostle Paul
148. 12:17or foolish relations who has to be with you. These are things we used to understand
149. 12:22in our conversations. I was saying this and this should be common knowledge in our nation,
150. 12:25but it's not. When you had the formalization of education, first of all, it was not primary.
151. 12:32Primary education took place in the homes. When you had the first efforts to organize education
152. 12:38in what became the United States of America during the colonial era in 1636, Harvard University was
153. 12:43founded. You want to know why I was founded? Harvard University was created for one purpose
154. 12:48primarily to train pastors for ministry. That was its purpose. In 1701, Yale University was founded
155. 12:59because at as early as 1701, the founders of Yale University established it because it
156. 13:07became an orthodox alternative to Harvard, which many perceived have started theological
157. 13:13drift.
158. 13:16Of course, we don't talk about that today, not many of us know that today, but why?
159. 13:21Because we're attempting to strip or sever or bifurcate the pursuit of knowledge from
160. 13:28religion and morality.
161. 13:29And I'll just tell you plainly, biblically, you cannot do it.
162. 13:32The fear of the Lord is beginning of knowledge.
163. 13:34The fear of the Lord is beginning of wisdom.
164. 13:37When we endeavor to strip them,
165. 13:39we're putting ourselves on a trajectory
166. 13:42that will only end the destruction for us, for us.
167. 13:49So what do we do in response?
168. 13:50This is not something we should anticipate or expect others
169. 13:54to pursue if we don't value it,
170. 13:57if we don't understand this.
171. 14:01Jesus himself said among what he described
172. 14:03as the great commandments,
173. 14:05Love the Lord with all your heart,
174. 14:08all your soul, and all your mind.
175. 14:12Mind cultivation is central to the life of the disciple.
176. 14:18And the second is like it,
177. 14:20love your neighbor as yourself.
178. 14:24For far too long, we have seated mind cultivation
179. 14:29to those who rival the truth of God.
180. 14:33We didn't get to where we are in America overnight.
181. 14:36We have arrived where we are as a man travels one step at a time.
182. 14:42The order of the day for our nation is repentance.
183. 14:44We must reverse course.
184. 14:47You don't want to miss a remainder of this program
185. 14:50because we're gonna wait until the tick of it.
186. 14:51You're listening to the Hamilton Corner,
187. 14:52stay with us, we'll be right back after this break.
188. 15:01A discipleship minute with Joseph Parker.
189. 15:05Psalm 112 beginning at verse one.
190. 15:08Praise the Lord, our joyful of those who fear the Lord
191. 15:12and delight in obeying his commands.
192. 15:15Their children will be successful everywhere.
193. 15:18An entire generation of godly people will be blessed.
194. 15:21They themselves will be wealthy
195. 15:23and their good deeds will last forever.
196. 15:26Light shines in the darkness for the godly.
197. 15:28They are generous, compassionate, and righteous.
198. 15:31Good comes to those who lend money generously
199. 15:34and conduct their business fairly.
200. 15:36Such people will not be overcome by evil.
201. 15:40Those who are righteous will be long remembered.
202. 15:42They do not fear bad news.
203. 15:44They confidently trust the Lord to care for them.
204. 15:47They're confident and fearless
205. 15:49and can face their foes triumphantly.
206. 15:52They share freely and give generously to those in need.
207. 16:05Shiting light into the darkness,
208. 16:08this is the Hamilton Corner, an American family radio.
209. 16:11Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner,
210. 16:13Abraham Hamilton III here.
211. 16:14I'm gonna remind you, May 22nd through the 24th,
212. 16:18We will be in Winston-Salem, North Carolina at the NCHE Thrive Home School Conference.
213. 16:24I will be speaking at the conference.
214. 16:25We'll be broadcasting live from the conference.
215. 16:28If you are in the Winston-Salem area or willing to come to the area, it will be a great time
216. 16:33and you do not want to miss out on this conference.
217. 16:36We are going to have an amazing time communicating the truth of God's Word, connecting the reality
218. 16:43of God's word to things that are happening currently and encouraging those who gather
219. 16:48to fight the good fight starting right in their homes. So may 22nd through the 24th
220. 16:52and Winston-Salem, North Carolina at the NCHE Thrive Conference. That is North Carolinians
221. 16:57for home education. Simply go to nche.com to register. Now I am delighted to have on the program with me
222. 17:06a brother who I appreciate and respect have admired his work from afar and have gotten
223. 17:11opportunity to get to know him a little bit more. I'm talking about none other than HSLDA
224. 17:16senior counsel that is homeschool legal defense association senior counsel will
225. 17:20astrada will began his legal career working at HSLDA as a legal assistant. He then became
226. 17:27an attorney after graduating from Oakbrook College of Law and government policy with his
227. 17:31juris doctor. He then moved on to work moving up in HSLDA but also worked in President Trump's
228. 17:39first administration in the office of civil rights at the U.S. Department of Health and
229. 17:43Human Services from 2018 to 2021. Will he and his wife, frankly, both our homeschool graduates
230. 17:50and will return to his roots at HSLD where he now serves as senior legal counsel and he's
231. 17:57a direct contact attorney for HSLD members in the states of California, Georgia, Illinois,
232. 18:02Maryland, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Wyoming, as well as
233. 18:06watching than DC will. Thank you for joining me here on the Hamilton corner. Abraham, it's
234. 18:13great to be on. Thank you so much. Oh, man, it is certainly my pleasure to have you on so
235. 18:17often on my program here. I encourage our audience to live locally. I say routinely things
236. 18:24that are happening and watching DC are very important. However, they are not more important
237. 18:29than what goes on in our homes and in our neck of the woods. And so often we see tyrannical
238. 18:35encroachments taking place at the state level.
239. 18:37Just this week, I was talking about a bill from Colorado, you know, that not from DC,
240. 18:42it's coming at the state level.
241. 18:43And there's also, I would call it a Leviathan arising from the muck in Illinois that threatens
242. 18:52freedom and liberty and frankly, the jurisdiction of parents to oversee the instruction of their
243. 18:57children.
244. 18:58What is going on?
245. 19:00What does our audience need to know about what is happening in the Illinois legislature?
246. 19:05Abraham earlier this spring, February 5th,
247. 19:08actually a terrible bill was introduced
248. 19:10in the Illinois House of Representatives.
249. 19:12It's called House Bill 2827,
250. 19:15simply known as the Homeschool Act.
251. 19:17In a nutshell, it would take Illinois,
252. 19:20which is one of the best states to homeschool
253. 19:22because of the landmark 1950 Illinois Supreme Court decision,
254. 19:26People versus Levison, which established at homeschooling
255. 19:29is legal under the private school laws.
256. 19:32It would take Illinois one of the best states
257. 19:34homeschool and overnight make it the worst state to homeschool. It would be the first state to go
258. 19:39backwards when it comes to homeschool freedom since the 80s and 90s when HSLDA was founded in
259. 19:451983 when parents were still being arrested in different places in the country simply for the
260. 19:51quote unquote crime of wanting to educate their children at home. It would give you criminal penalties,
261. 19:56a class C misdemeanor if you forget or don't file the annual homeschool declaration form would
262. 20:03require families to keep educational portfolios and then open them up to the school authorities
263. 20:09if they wanted to see it at any time and for any reason it would go after traditional brick
264. 20:14and mortar private schools as well. It's hard to overstate just how bad HB 2827 would be for
265. 20:19Illinois home educators. Now you mentioned that Illinois is a state that has enjoyed
266. 20:26a tremendous freedom on a homeschool front. I happen to be aware of there's a huge surge in
267. 20:31in the Chicago area for homeschooling.
268. 20:34And in favor of homeschooling,
269. 20:36one of the most egregious notions of this bill
270. 20:39that I have found is that it's not necessarily
271. 20:41response to people in the state of Illinois
272. 20:44that are clamoring for this.
273. 20:46What is the force behind this?
274. 20:48Am I mistaken?
275. 20:49Are the citizens in Illinois asking
276. 20:51for this type of legislation?
277. 20:54Absolutely not, Abraham, and you're absolutely correct.
278. 20:56This is coming from an out-of-state
279. 20:59Massachusetts based organization called the Coalition for Responsible Home Education.
280. 21:04They are the ones who are behind HB 2827 in Illinois. They were behind a similarly bad bill in my home
281. 21:11state in Virginia SB 1031 which thankfully was defeated earlier this year on a bipartisan vote
282. 21:18actually and they've been the sole organization. It's not the teachers unions, it's not kind of
283. 21:24the traditional groups and people you would think who would be trying to roll back homeschool freedom.
284. 21:28It's Coalition for Responsible Home Education, a group made up of former homeschool graduates who are
285. 21:35now disgruntled with their homeschooling, who are trying to turn back the clock on homeschool freedom.
286. 21:40This is a pro-government regulation, pro-authoritarian organization. They have links with Elizabeth
287. 21:46Barfelet, who was at Harvard, who famously wrote that homeschooling should be banned and only allowed
288. 21:53on a case by case basis if the government quote unquote grants you the approval to do it.
289. 21:58And so that is their philosophy that homeschooling should be ended, that this this
290. 22:03experimented liberty that our country has enjoyed and that millions of students are now benefiting
291. 22:08from including myself. I know you and your wife homeschool your kids Abraham my wife and I homeschool
292. 22:14our kids they would want to make that illegal and they're trying to do that in Illinois.
293. 22:18Now, you mentioned this already.
294. 22:21It was egregious for me to learn in reading this bill and reading about the bill that not
295. 22:26only is it hostile to homeschoolers, but it wants to include a criminal penalty for parents
296. 22:33who in their view don't comply with these regulations.
297. 22:40This is egregious in my estimation.
298. 22:44These folks present themselves as if they are attempting to advocate for responsible homeschooling,
299. 22:49but I see this as simply being anti- homeschooling.
300. 22:52They want to eliminate it in total.
301. 22:54Is that an overstatement on my part?
302. 22:58It's not Abraham.
303. 22:59And it's been really interesting.
304. 23:00The supporters of the bill and the sponsor have been going around saying this is just
305. 23:05a simple homeschool declaration form.
306. 23:08That's all it is.
307. 23:09And two of my friends, they're both Black homeschool moms in Chicago.
308. 23:12is Latasha Fields, one is Aziza Butler. They both actually debated Terracosta Howard. Latasha
309. 23:18was on TV with her. Aziza was on NPR in the Chicago affiliate. And both times when these
310. 23:25fantastic homeschool moms brought up the criminal penalties, Terracosta Howard, the sponsor of the
311. 23:30bill said, oh no, that's misinformation. And when you look at the bill, it's on page five of the bill.
312. 23:37What it says is that if you don't file this homeschool declaration form, then the family,
313. 23:46it says, quote, shall the child shall be considered truant and the homeschool administrator for
314. 23:51the child shall be subject to the penalties set forth in Illinois, criminal truancy law.
315. 23:58This is a classy misdemeanor criminal conviction up to 30 days in jail, $500 fine.
316. 24:05And as our listeners know, if a parent is thrown in jail and there's not someone else
317. 24:09who can watch or supervise the children, those children could be placed in temporary
318. 24:13foster care as well, simply for failing or for getting to file a piece of paper.
319. 24:18Now Abraham, school districts lose paperwork all the time.
320. 24:22I have been guilty many times of bills coming in the mail and I'm busy or my kids misplace
321. 24:27it and I forget to look at it.
322. 24:30Sometimes families go through tragedies of illness or loss of a loved one like a grandparent
323. 24:34or relative passing away, are we going to truly criminalize parents just because they failed
324. 24:40to file a piece of paperwork?
325. 24:41It's been interesting.
326. 24:42Today, there were about 300 homeschool parents from Chicago who came out to a press conference
327. 24:47in Daily Plaza.
328. 24:49And a Democrat legislator, one of the black Chicago legislators, he's self-described as
329. 24:55a progressive liberal.
330. 24:56He said, I cannot support this bill.
331. 24:58And he said, quote, this bill is a pipeline to the criminal justice system for parents,
332. 25:03So it's been heartening to see Republicans, Democrats, third party people coming out and
333. 25:11standing against this bill and saying, we don't want Illinois to become the first state
334. 25:14in the nation to put criminal penalties on a family simply because they forgot to file
335. 25:18a piece of paper.
336. 25:19Well, praise God for that.
337. 25:21That's wonderful here and wonderful to learn that that is actually happening there.
338. 25:28It on the ground because I know you've been working on this and this will dovetail on some
339. 25:32questions I'll get to in a moment, lobbying against this particular legislation.
340. 25:36So far, I guess this will be two questions.
341. 25:39What is the status of the bill currently and secondarily?
342. 25:41What has been your read on the legislators there in terms of their favor or disfavor for the
343. 25:46bill that one representative you mentioned said there, they're opposed to it.
344. 25:50What do you see happening there on the ground in the Illinois legislature?
345. 25:53Yeah.
346. 25:54So the bill was introduced on February 5th.
347. 25:57It had its first hearing in the House Education Committee on Wednesday, March 19th, an Abraham
348. 26:03It was pretty exciting. There were so many homeschoolers who came that the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, you know, Land of Lincoln, was shut down, the fire marshals shut down access to the Capitol.
349. 26:15Now we've heard differing stories. One source told us that they shut down the Capitol if 5,000 people come in. One source told us they shut down the Capitol if 8,000 people come in.
350. 26:24Regardless, there were about 500 homeschoolers who were not able to get in and they just sat on
351. 26:29the steps, they prayed, they watched the hearing on their iPhones. So there could have been as many
352. 26:34as 8,500 homeschoolers there. The hearing room was filled up within two hours before the hearing
353. 26:41started. That's how full it was. The hallways were full. These were loving, excited homeschoolers.
354. 26:47They were not destroying things. They were not rioting. They were praying. They were talking
355. 26:52with their legislators. I was one of the witnesses who testified against the bill. It was a marathon
356. 26:57three-hour hearing. And at the end of it, they voted eight to four. And one of the Democrat legislators
357. 27:03said, I'm not going to vote for the bill. I'm not going to vote against the bill. I am going to vote
358. 27:08against the bill on the floor, but I'm just voting present right now. So it passed out of committee on
359. 27:12March 19th on an eight to four vote. And it's been kind of stalled on the Illinois House floor since then.
360. 27:19Now, the sponsor of Representative Terracosta Howard is very aggressive.
361. 27:23She is, we've heard she's whipped counting to try and get the votes for it.
362. 27:27We're whipped counting on the other side and we're down about five votes.
363. 27:31So there's five where we're not exactly sure where they're going to come down.
364. 27:36We've also heard they're going to try and do a floor amendment to address some of the concerns that have been raised.
365. 27:41Then we've heard that maybe there won't be a floor amendment.
366. 27:43So we are telling our homeschoolers and our allies in the private school because the bill goes after private schools as well.
367. 27:50And just kind of all freedom loving Illinois people call your legislators, visit them in their district offices.
368. 27:57This coming week Abraham, they're back on April 7th. This is probably going to be a make or break week in the Illinois House.
369. 28:05And I expect the bill to come up for a vote.
370. 28:08I don't know if it'll pass or not.
371. 28:11We're already laying the ground work on the Senate side
372. 28:14if the bill does pass out of the house to stop it there.
373. 28:18But we have our work cut out for us
374. 28:21in Illinois to protect homeschool freedom.
375. 28:23Now, I know, I understand what you're saying
376. 28:26and I know you do as well,
377. 28:27but just for those who may not be aware
378. 28:32of kind of the political nom in clature,
379. 28:34what would be the motivation for a legislator?
380. 28:37and I'm not asking you to necessarily divine near motivation.
381. 28:40But generally speaking of your experience
382. 28:41for a legislator to say,
383. 28:42hey, I'm not gonna vote against the bill,
384. 28:45I'm not gonna vote for the bill,
385. 28:46Bill, I'm just gonna vote present.
386. 28:48What could be the reason for something like that?
387. 28:51Well, so this particular legislator,
388. 28:53he's friends with Terracosta Howard, who's the sponsor.
389. 28:56But he also said in the hearing,
390. 28:58I have heard from so many people,
391. 29:00I did not know there were that many homeschoolers
392. 29:02in my district and Abraham to kind of put it in context,
393. 29:05Illinois is kind of a weird system.
394. 29:07They don't, many states when you testify on a bill,
395. 29:10everyone just shows up and bill here,
396. 29:12witness testimony for two or three minutes each,
397. 29:14until the bill is finished, not in Illinois.
398. 29:17They only picked three or four people to testify against the bill,
399. 29:20three or four people to testify by four,
400. 29:22but they want Illinois residents to fill out
401. 29:25witness slips against the bill.
402. 29:27We had less than 18 hours because they didn't,
403. 29:29a substitute amendment really made no changes to the bill,
404. 29:32no substantive changes.
405. 29:34But we had the text of the bill before that hearing
406. 29:36March 19th for about 18 hours and Abraham in those 18 hours, 51,000 Illinois homeschoolers filled
407. 29:43out witness slips. It blew out every record before that the highest record had been a vaccine registry
408. 29:49bill a couple years ago, which got about 35,000 witness slips. And the really kind of incredible thing,
409. 29:55Abraham is that happened all in the space of about 18 hours and there were only 400 witness slips
410. 30:01for the bill. And about half of those 400 witness slips for the bill were from Coalition for Responsible
411. 30:08Home Education, the CRH people who are behind the bill who oppose homeschool freedom from out of
412. 30:13state people who are filling out these witness slips. So that's a pretty powerful motivation for
413. 30:19all of these legislators. On one hand, many of them are fairly liberal and they usually will support
414. 30:26Terracosta Howard. She's in leadership for positions. But on the other hand, they're saying,
415. 30:30Why are you going after the homeschoolers? Illinois public schools have some major problems.
416. 30:34DCFS, the Illinois Child Protective Service Agency has been called by investigative reporters
417. 30:39and agency in crisis. And so why are we instead of trying to reform those two government entities?
418. 30:45Why are we suddenly going after homeschool? Great question. That's a great question.
419. 30:50And it's remarkable in the land of Lincoln, who by the way Abraham Lincoln was homeschooled,
420. 30:54not so ironically. You also mentioned that the bill targets private schools. How does the
421. 31:01bill target private schools?
422. 31:03So there's three things the bill would do, HB 2827 and four, are friends in the traditional
423. 31:08brick and mortar private school community. The first one is in Illinois private schools
424. 31:13and the register with the Illinois State Board of Education, if they want. There are additional
425. 31:18requirements that come along with that if they do. And so many of the Amish schools, there's
426. 31:22actually a very large Amish community in Illinois. Most of those schools don't register. There are
427. 31:27a lot of Jewish and Christian schools as well that choose not to register at the Illinois State
428. 31:32Board of Education. So the first thing it does is it mandates that all traditional brick and mortar
429. 31:37private schools register with the Illinois State Board of Education. Second thing HB 2827 does for
430. 31:43traditional brick and mortar private schools is every person who's employed including admin staffers
431. 31:48and custodians need to have a high school diploma. And the third thing, and I think most concerning,
432. 31:54is it requires every private school to collect a database of every student and every parent of every
433. 32:00student and turn that into the Illinois State Board of Education. And the interesting thing has been
434. 32:05the Jewish schools, the Lutheran schools, the Catholic schools, the Illinois Catholic Conference,
435. 32:10the traditional Protestant schools have all come out against the bill because they are saying,
436. 32:16why are you trying to make us register and have a database and force us to come under the thumb
437. 32:21of the Illinois public education system? Man, so profound. I have a few more questions for you
438. 32:27Will, so if you can hang around with us, I want to continue the conversation. You are listening to
439. 32:31the Hamilton Corner. My guest is Will Estrada, senior counsel for the Home School Legal Defense
440. 32:36Association, giving us first-hand testimony as to what's happening there, because right now,
441. 32:42Illinois is ground zero for the freedom of parents to direct the pedagogical, the
442. 32:47pidea and the nuthasia of their children. It is imperative that we stop this nonsense
443. 32:53there so it doesn't spread around our country. If we lose this cultural war we're going to have a
444. 33:04hedonistic humanistic society. Discover the story of the culture warrior Don Wildman and how he went
445. 33:11head-to-head with Hollywood, Playboy, the homosexual agenda, and the Disney Empire. The movement Don
446. 33:18started, paved the way for Christians to boldly stand for
447. 33:21truth and righteousness in a hostile culture. Watch Culture
448. 33:26Warrior today for free. Visit CultureWarrior.movie.
449. 33:31We'd say morning to the 8th Central. Pastor Jeff Shreve offers
450. 33:34real truth for today. I'm the pastor of First Baptist Church in
451. 33:37Texas and the founder of From His Heart Ministries. The world
452. 33:41around us is rapidly changing. But God and His truth will never
453. 33:45I may be the host of the show, but I want God's word and his truth to be the star of the show.
454. 33:52Join Pastor Jeff Shreve each weekday morning at 8th Central for Real Truth for today on American Family Radio.
455. 33:59The Hamilton Quarter Podcast and One-Minute Common Terrets are available at eFR.net.
456. 34:10Back to the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
457. 34:14Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Abraham Hamilton III.
458. 34:18here. I'm on with senior counsel for HSLDA Willa Strata and we're talking about this disastrous
459. 34:23bill in Illinois House Bill 2827 that seeks to frankly crush homeschooling in the state
460. 34:30of Illinois. Also seeks to hinder brick and mortar private schools in the state and the
461. 34:38organization behind it. CRHE. Well, I did a little dive into this organization and looking
462. 34:45at the bios of all of the people there, it seems like these people not only have an animosity
463. 34:51toward homeschooling, but really an animosity towards Christ frankly, when you see all of the,
464. 34:56you know, the purple hair, the they-them pronouns, the all of these things here describing people who
465. 35:04want to, who are parents who want to direct the instruction of their children as, you know,
466. 35:08parental rights extremists, you know, it's like, it's an absurd phenomenon. And I made the statement
467. 35:14that we want to stop this type of in insanity and lunacy here in Illinois so that it doesn't
468. 35:19spread to other nations. Is that not a realistic concern in this that should they gain traction here?
469. 35:26This same insanity will be tried in other states. Oh, it's absolutely the case Abraham. We have
470. 35:32never had a state go backwards when it comes to homeschool freedom when HSLDA was founded in 1983.
471. 35:39there were still parents being arrested for homeschooling. By the early 1990s, that was all over.
472. 35:45And really, since then, we've seen homeschooling go from legal to accepted to mainstream. And so,
473. 35:51if we were to have a state, and I think the battle lines are drawn here in Illinois, if we were to
474. 35:55have a state go backwards, CRH, we would trumpet it, they would get more fundraising from the people who
475. 36:01hate parental rights, who hate the concept of moms and dads and grandparents exercising their
476. 36:07fundamental God-given right to pre-political right, to be the ones to raise their children,
477. 36:13and they would be bringing this to other states.
478. 36:15Now it might not be in quote-unquote, red states right off the bat, but we would start
479. 36:19to see freedoms be rolled back, pendulums to swing back as our President, Jim Mason,
480. 36:23has said if we can't stop this in Illinois.
481. 36:27You made an interesting point just now that the right for parents to direct their children's
482. 36:31pedagogical development, and frankly to disciple them, is a pre-political right.
483. 36:37I think that's a vital notion to understand.
484. 36:40What do you mean when you say
485. 36:40that it is a pre-political right?
486. 36:43So Abraham, it means that it's not a right
487. 36:45that's granted by the government.
488. 36:47It's a right that was given to us by God.
489. 36:50As our founders wrote in declaration,
490. 36:52we are endowed by our creator
491. 36:54with certain inalienable rights.
492. 36:56Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
493. 36:58Aristotle wrote how the family came first,
494. 37:02and then society and government comes beyond that.
495. 37:04And it's so critical when you look at kind of this philosophical debate of to whom do children
496. 37:10belong and who should be making decisions, if we grant that the state is the giver of
497. 37:15our rights, then we lose all of our freedoms.
498. 37:18But if we understand that they come from our creator and then everything else the government
499. 37:22comes after that, then you understand we've got to defend homeschool freedom and parental
500. 37:26rights.
501. 37:27Man, you just hit on, I've long said if I ever had the opportunity, which I probably won't,
502. 37:32to moderate a presidential debate,
503. 37:34that would be the very first question
504. 37:35I would ask every candidate from where do rights derive?
505. 37:38That's the first question that I would ask.
506. 37:40And that would tell me, until the nation frankly,
507. 37:43a whole lot about the perspective candidates view
508. 37:46on rights vis-a-vis where they derive from genuinely
509. 37:50or where the synthetic notion that government
510. 37:52is the end-all be-all of all things that are right.
511. 37:56And it's so interesting, you read the bill,
512. 37:57read the legislation, that the presumption there
513. 38:00is that the state is altruistic, it's all loving,
514. 38:04it's all compassionate, but parents are the ones
515. 38:06we need to be leery of.
516. 38:08When the truth is actually the opposite,
517. 38:10parents are more invested in protecting their children
518. 38:12than anybody else, right?
519. 38:15You know, Abraham, there was this weird moment
520. 38:17in the hearing on March 19th,
521. 38:18the only moment when the sponsor,
522. 38:20Terracosta Howard seemed happy.
523. 38:22One of the legislators said,
524. 38:23why are you making the homeschoolers file this form
525. 38:25with the local public schools,
526. 38:26a burden on the public school?
527. 38:28And she just leaned forward and she said,
528. 38:29I love our private schools.
529. 38:31If families have to go to the local public school,
530. 38:34they'll see how wonderful they are.
531. 38:36They'll stop homeschooling.
532. 38:37And all the parents in the hearing room,
533. 38:39we're just looking at each other like,
534. 38:41what planet is she from?
535. 38:43They left the public schools for a reason.
536. 38:45They've seen the local public schools.
537. 38:46They don't want to have anything to do with it.
538. 38:48Mm, mm, man.
539. 38:51That's, wow.
540. 38:52I can imagine that moment during the hearing.
541. 38:55Now you mentioned thousands of people who are at the Capitol,
542. 38:58We don't know the specific numbers, but we do know 500 homeschool families couldn't get in because it was that filled the number of slips submitted
543. 39:06Opposing this bill upwards of 50,000. This was a real time
544. 39:10Civic's education for many of these families, you know that we talk about civics in a classroom setting
545. 39:16They're getting to see this at work when you see it look at the sheer volume of constituents
546. 39:21That were responding to oppose this bill versus the numbers of people in support of it and the constituents are voters
547. 39:28in these legislators' districts versus this out-of-state organization, this really will
548. 39:33be a test case to determine whether or not these state legislators in particular in Illinois
549. 39:39are responsive to their constituents or do the proverbial special interest outweigh the
550. 39:47position of the constituents.
551. 39:49Is that an accurate depiction of the assessment of the legislative development of the bill?
552. 39:55It absolutely is. And Abraham, I just want to give the Illinois homeschoolers credit. The Illinois Christian home educators, ICHE, our allies in the private school community, they have come out the 21st century homeschoolers, the spark of freedom still burns brightly with them.
553. 40:12They have answered the call and I pray that our legislators in Illinois listen to them.
554. 40:17as to I know I know one of the things that HSLDA does is lobby in favor of schools that that bolster
555. 40:26homeschool freedom and to oppose bad bills like this would you just speak a little bit to HSLDA's
556. 40:31efforts on the ground to do what you're doing there testifying against the legislation lobbying
557. 40:36rallying rallying people and communicating with legislatures concerning that the real
558. 40:40egregious nature of this this bill. Oh absolutely so when we were founded in 1983 by Mike Smith and
559. 40:47and Mike Farris and a few board members.
560. 40:50Homeschooling was illegal in many 50 states.
561. 40:52And today because of the work of our organization,
562. 40:55of our board, Abraham, I know you served on the board
563. 40:57and just our allies in the state and local groups
564. 41:00and concerned parents homeschooling is legal in all 50 states.
565. 41:03And so it's in our DNA to fight for homeschool freedom
566. 41:06in the media, in the courts and in the legislatures.
567. 41:10And I've read about the states that I handle for HSLDA.
568. 41:15We have numerous colleagues of mine, our other attorneys,
569. 41:18who are constantly traveling to testify on bills
570. 41:21to defend homeschool freedom in Washington, DC,
571. 41:23and then in the local municipal meetings.
572. 41:26And not atstanding the challenges that we have in Virginia,
573. 41:29we talked about that bad bill, which was defeated,
574. 41:31and Illinois, the work that we're doing.
575. 41:33We are, freedom is still on the march.
576. 41:35I was proud to work in Wyoming.
577. 41:37Wyoming just became the 12th state in the nation
578. 41:39to eliminate all annual reporting for homeschoolers.
579. 41:43So in Wyoming and 11 other states,
580. 41:45you don't have to get a quote unquote permission slip
581. 41:47from the government.
582. 41:48So we are working, we're firing on all cylinders.
583. 41:51This is legislative season when the state legislatures
584. 41:53are in session, so it's extremely busy.
585. 41:55We're doing lots of flying around the country
586. 41:57or in racking up frequent flyer miles.
587. 41:59But we will do whatever it takes to defend our HSLDA members
588. 42:03and the cause of homeschool freedom.
589. 42:04In the media, in the courts, in the legislatures,
590. 42:07in the halls of Congress,
591. 42:09and wherever the battle to defend parental rights
592. 42:11will take us.
593. 42:12That's so important.
594. 42:13And I should have said that, and I've said it before, but in full disclosure, I am on
595. 42:17the board for HSLDA.
596. 42:18So I'm not in any way trying to present myself as if I'm just a neutral arbiter.
597. 42:22No, I am fully in favor of homeschooling 100% absolutely.
598. 42:29What you just mentioned, and some people may not be aware of this because this is one of
599. 42:33the benefits that we enjoy as members of HSLDA.
600. 42:37long before I was ever on HSLDA's board, I became a lifetime member.
601. 42:43And the primary reason, I mean, you know, I'm an attorney, I'm a litigator at heart,
602. 42:47I like going to court, I like getting a jury in the box.
603. 42:49So, you know, to say it simply, I ain't scared of a fight at all.
604. 42:53So, if my family ever had problems in my wife and I, Maria,
605. 42:56we disciple our children at home, including the education, all six of our children,
606. 43:00I was not afraid of my ability to defend my family of something legal arose
607. 43:05that required that kind of defense.
608. 43:06but I wanted to become a HSLDA member kind of to pay it forward.
609. 43:10If there was somebody in another state that may not be as homeschool friendly as my state
610. 43:15or someone who isn't an attorney and they get one of these letters from a truancy department
611. 43:19or a department of children's family services, I wanted that family to have the confidence
612. 43:25that they would have the legal representation that they would need so that they would allow
613. 43:28that to be a barrier for them to do what God was calling them to do to educate their families.
614. 43:33And so we became lifetime members of HSLDA over a decade and a half ago or a decade ago
615. 43:40because of that reason.
616. 43:41Would you just speak to some of the benefits of being an HSLDA member because if you are
617. 43:49taking the leadership and educating your children at home, you should have the confidence and the
618. 43:54peace to do so that if something arises that requires legal attention that there would be
619. 43:58people who will be willing to stand and fight for you.
620. 43:59Would you just speak to that for a moment, please Will?
621. 44:02Well, absolutely Abraham. So we are a 24 seven law firm to protect your families right to homeschool. We handle numerous cases of social workers at the door, truancy officers at the door. We've talked a lot about Illinois, but there are some other states where it's fairly hostile to homeschooling. I handled Pennsylvania.
622. 44:19That's one of the states I handle in addition to Illinois and other states and in Pennsylvania school district officials are extremely aggressive
623. 44:26They file truancy petitions against families if they don't send in immunization paperwork
624. 44:31And we have vigorously defended those families none of them has lost their right to homeschool none of them has been fined in Pennsylvania
625. 44:37We have come down we brought in our
626. 44:40Litigators and we've threatened the districts you withdraw this truancy summons
627. 44:44you're the one breaking along if you don't back down in the family and they have invariably
628. 44:49done that. If we've handled numerous cases of disgruntled neighbors,
629. 44:54hotlining a family for abuse when we've defended those families at the doors. So for our members,
630. 45:01we will take the case to the Supreme Court to defend homeschool freedom if necessary.
631. 45:05We of course are work that we do to defend homeschool freedom in the media and legislature
632. 45:09helps every homeschooler whether you're a member or not, but to specifically represent them in court
633. 45:14is a member benefit at HSLDA. And it's one that I wholeheartedly recommend for you to take advantage
634. 45:21of. It is something that you can't place a premium on having that peace and that confidence. And
635. 45:27a lot of us, it's so sad how the thing you mentioned, Jim Mason's reference to the pendulum swinging,
636. 45:32though the founding era, everyone was educated at home. When you had the, you know, the ascendancy,
637. 45:38frankly of the progressive movement, I call it a regressive movement, others moving to try to
638. 45:43standardize with compulsory attendance laws who then were able to advocate successfully to
639. 45:49criminalize and make homeschooling illegal that led to the necessity of HSODA's founding in the 80s,
640. 45:54as you've mentioned, and through literally state by state, almost in some instances, county by county
641. 45:59fights have set the course for homeschooling to be legalized, but the necessity of remaining vigilant
642. 46:04continues to this very day because organizations like you don't have to say this what I will,
643. 46:08the anti-Christ CRH organization who seek to try to encroach on those freedoms and so to have families
644. 46:15to have that peace. And as you mentioned, the legislative efforts, the lobbying efforts,
645. 46:20the securing the legal efforts at the legislature's blesses and benefits all homeschool families.
646. 46:25But to have that additional piece that if you have a rogue social worker to show up at your door,
647. 46:30knocking on your door 24-7, you can contact the attorneys at HSLDA.
648. 46:35And before you answer that phone call or return the call or that card left at your door, if
649. 46:40that were to happen, God forbid it does.
650. 46:41But if it does happen, you could have the peace of mind that I know I could pull this phone
651. 46:46out and call a number and they will immediately respond to my concern no matter where I am
652. 46:51in the country.
653. 46:52Even there is an international arm of HSLDA.
654. 46:55That is available to you.
655. 46:56where where should listeners and viewers go to learn more about
656. 47:00HSLDA in the fight to secure homeschool freedom in this country
657. 47:05and beyond.
658. 47:07So HSLDA.org. So as in homeschool legal defense association.org.
659. 47:12So HSLDA.org is our webpage. We accept donations. We're a 501c3
660. 47:16organization you can join. And then on all the social media,
661. 47:19Facebook, X, Instagram, HSLDA.
662. 47:23Well, well, thank you so much for coming on the show. Is there
663. 47:25anything that I've left out that you feel like it's vitally important to say about
664. 47:28HSLDA or about this horrible legislation in Illinois. Well we stand committed with
665. 47:35the homeschool families in Illinois and in all the states to continue to advance
666. 47:40and defend homeschool freedom. Thank you brother. Willa Strata, ladies and gentlemen,
667. 47:44senior council at HSLDA. I'm thankful that there's been such an amazing
668. 47:50response on the ground to oppose this horrible legislation is vitally important that we don't
669. 47:56tolerate these types of encroachments on our freedom. It's very similar to the insanity that's
670. 48:01being presented in Colorado. We need to stop this madness and it's tracks because what invariably
671. 48:06occurs guys, legislate, it's almost like like football team, you know, one team wants a spread
672. 48:10option. The next you know every coach, every team in the league is on the spread option. And if you
673. 48:14don't kill this stuff and is where it is now, then it will invariably spread. These people
674. 48:20to get wings, will get momentum, and there needs to be a broad based repudiation of legislation
675. 48:26like this because we are still in the United States of America, the home of the free and
676. 48:30the home of the brave.
677. 48:31And we understand what a man means to be a free people, and we as parents are not going to tolerate
678. 48:36and sit idly by as people who have no direct investment in our children and our families
679. 48:41will come in and tell us what's best for our children.
680. 48:44We'll simply say respectfully, but firmly, no thank you.
681. 48:48You can take yourself and your desire to use government as an instrument of dictatorial
682. 48:54control, tyrannical control, and you can exit stage left.
683. 49:00Exit stage left because we won't tolerate that.
684. 49:03These are our children.
685. 49:04They belong to us.
686. 49:05They do not belong to you.
687. 49:06God has ordained for us to rear our children.
688. 49:08And I refuse to co-parent with the government.
689. 49:12Not interested.
690. 49:13Not interested at any level.
691. 49:15So thank you so much for will coming on the show.
692. 49:17Guys remain vigilant.
693. 49:19Thanks be to God for things that are happening at various governmental levels, things that
694. 49:22are happening in Washington DC.
695. 49:24But what goes on in your house is far more important than that.
696. 49:28Not because those things are unimportant, but because you and I are directly responsible,
697. 49:32but what we have direct access to.
698. 49:35You all have a great evening.
699. 49:40The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American
700. 49:45Family Association or American Family Radio.