January 19, 2015 – Fort Worth, Texas: Texas Home Educators, a new grass-roots statewide homeschool organization has just begun serving the needs of the tens of thousands of Texas families who choose to home educate their children. “Our new organization is a non-profit, created to nurture and cultivate the families who constitute the grass roots of home education in the Lone Star State,” according to Jim Dankworth, President of Texas Home Educators. “Our mission is to promote, partner and provide assistance, information and events with the home educators of Texas.
Dankworth, a long-time and well-known advocate for home education in Texas, and across the nation, explained that, “our goal is to serve the tens of thousands of home educating families in Texas. We will provide them with events and information, as well as public promotion of – and advocacy for – home education. We intend to make these families’ school experiences well rounded and complete.”
In recent years, the need for grass-roots support has needed to be stepped up for those families who take the bold step to return the control of their children’s education to where it belongs – the parents. “The need for a grass-roots support organization has never been stronger,” Dankworth said. “State and federal intrusions into local education, from Common Core to federally-mandated school lunches, make it clear that a strong alternative to public education is needed here in Texas.
“Being a 21st century statewide organization,” Dankworth explained, “our goal is to truly serve Texas Home Educators with events, assistance, advice, information, and promotion. Home educating parents often feel isolated and un-supported – but we mean to change that by providing a platform for information exchange, mutual self-support and a means of encouraging “best practices” to become the standard of excellence for Texas home educating families.
“Having already worked to create “Homeschool Days” in Texas, we can now – as a non-profit – do more to help home educating families across Texas. We will provide an organizational umbrella to support small groups that want to – for instance – stage a geography bee or a spelling bee.
“For instance,” Dankworth explained, “if a local or special-focus group of Texas home educating families is already doing something great, we will help promote their event to the entire Texas Home Educators’ community. In addition, if any such group asks for help with an event, we will gladly partner with them to make it a great event. Finally, if a Texas home-educators’ group calls for help in creating an event they cannot handle on their own, we are willing to work with other home educating families to provide that event.”
Texas Home Educators has developed a high-quality Directors Board, which will help lead this organization. The board’s prominent and well-respected members consist of experienced home educators, industry supporters and others who have committed time and resource to the group’s success. With this leadership support, Texas Home Educators is poised to be a force for good in the homeschool community. Along with their strong Board of Directors, the Texas Home Educators group has created a dynamic Advisory Board, made up of young home educating leaders from all across Texas.
“Our support for home educating families goes beyond education and information exchange,” Dankworth noted. “For instance, Texas is no stranger to the destructive forces of nature, so we are working to create a “Rainy Day Fund.” This fund will be used to help those member families who are hit by natural disaster catastrophes such as flood, tornadoes or hurricanes. Texas home educators have learned the hard way that flood insurance does not recompense families for their books at retail value. As a non-profit organization, we will be there to help replace destroyed education materials when catastrophe hits our member families.
“Finally,” Dankworth said, “in recognition of the sports and “academic sports” parents who have worked so hard to create homeschooling teams across Texas, we are working to set up an Achievement Fund. If a team with 5 member families – or a member homeschooler’s teen – wins a statewide tournament, and by doing so obtains a place in a national tournament, we want to bless that team or teen with funds to help make it possible for them to attend that national event. While primarily focused on athletic sports, these funds will also be available for winners of debate and forensic – or other academic – team and individual competitions.”
About the Texas Home Educators
Texas Home Educators is a not-for-profit organization chartered in Texas and based in Fort Worth. As a non-profit, the organization can receive tax-deductible gifts from individuals and corporations which support home schooling in Texas. Using those funds, Texas Home Educators is committed to providing a platform for the free exchange of information, as well as a support structure that will remind those home educating parents and families that they are not alone. Because of its not-for-profit status, Texas Home Educators does not participate in lobbying at the state or federal level; however, it does sponsor research that may prove useful to individuals and groups which do advocate for home schooling in Austin and Washington.
For more information, or to schedule an interview with Texas Home Educators’ President, Jim Dankworth, please call 713-851-0743 or contact Jim at jim@texashomeeducators.org. Visit Texas Home Educators on the web at http://TexasHomeEducators.org, or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TexasHomeEducators. You can follow Texas Home Educators on twitter @texashomeedu and Pinterest at https://www.pinterest.com/texashomeedu/ .
