**UPDATED** Received this from HSLDA on February 14th:

HSLDA	February 14, 2006

Oprah Winfrey Responds to HSLDA

In response to our open letter to the Oprah Winfrey Show, HSLDA President Mike Smith received a call from Tim Bennett, the President of Harpo Productions. Mr. Bennett conveyed that there had been an oversight when homeschoolers were excluded from "Oprah's National High School Essay Contest," but that it was too late to amend the rules to include homeschoolers.

Yesterday, HSLDA received a written reply from Harpo Productions, Inc. which recognized that "...homeschooling is an important contributor to the educational success of this country."

HSLDA congratulates Oprah Winfrey for acknowledging that homeschooling is a viable educational alternative and entitled to equal treatment

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I receive e-newsletter updates from HSLDA frequently.  You can sign up as well if you'd like to receive them.  It's a great way to know what is happening on the homeschool legal front. 

The following is from the HSLDA website and is an open letter that they wrote to Oprah.  I thought I would share it here.  If you are so inclined you can write or email Oprah as well.  Homeschoolers should be included in any type of student contest!

Here's the letter from HSLDA:

Harpo Productions, Inc.,
110 N. Carpenter St.,
Chicago, IL 60607

Open letter to Oprah Winfrey

By way of introduction, I am the President of Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) and we represent 80,000 member families nationwide. This letter is to call attention to your essay contest and the unfortunate fact that homeschoolers are not allowed to participate.

The rules clearly state: "Oprah's National High School Essay Contest is open to all legal residents of the United States, who are currently enrolled full-time in a public or state-accredited private or parochial school in grades 9-12 in good standing." Regrettably, this definition excludes homeschoolers.

We contacted your show to see if homeschoolers could be included and were rebuffed. While we do not believe that your show willfully excluded homeschoolers, the fact that homeschoolers were excluded in the first place is troubling.

Homeschooling is growing rapidly and there are an estimated 2 million homeschooled children. All the research shows that homeschooled students score well above the national average on standardized tests. I'm confident that you would have received many excellent 1,000-word essays from homeschooled students answering the question "Why is the book Night by Elie Wiesel relevant today?"

Homeschoolers do not deserve to be overlooked. We hope that you will reconsider your policy and decide to welcome homeschoolers.

Sincerely,

J. Michael Smith
HSLDA President

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Blessings

~LISA