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About Stephen Howsley

Stephen has been working for Texas Home School Coalition since 2015 as a writer, public policy analyst and lobbyist. A homeschool graduate himself, Stephen passionately believes in defending families’ rights to homeschool. He credits his leadership skills, character development and determination to 10 years spent with the Boy Scouts of America, where he achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. Stephen and his beautiful wife, Emma, live in Austin with their two Labrador Retrievers. In their free time, they love discovering new restaurants and coffee shops and exploring the great outdoors. They worship and serve at The Austin Stone Community Church in downtown Austin.

How Texas Is Limiting Opportunity for Your Children

By |2025-02-05T16:40:57-06:00August 4th, 2016|Legislative Advocacy|

In the State of Texas, paying your state property taxes does not necessarily guarantee you any rights. This is especially true for Texas home school families in regards to the University Interscholastic League’s (UIL) current policy for home school student access. The UIL currently does not allow home school students any access to their sanctioned extracurricular activities, even if the parents are paying their property taxes and are home schooling in a legal matter.

Stopping Truancy Charges Against Homeschool Families

By |2025-02-04T16:44:43-06:00July 26th, 2016|Legal Advocacy, Legislative Advocacy|

Late last April, THSC member Jennifer Darnell reached out to us because the local school district was pressing truancy charges against Jennifer and her daughter, Kathryn Payne. Even though Jennifer had already withdrawn her daughter from public school via the proper paperwork, the school was still pressing charges for missed days of school due to medical issues. Despite the many times in the past where the school allowed Kathryn’s absences for the exact same medical issue, once she chose to home school, the district pressed charges for truancy.

Can You Believe That CPS Laws Allow This?

By |2025-06-19T10:00:12-05:00July 5th, 2016|Legal Advocacy, Legislative Advocacy|

It all started with complaints about a wandering child. A Child Protective Services (CPS) agent responded by investigating only to find that there was no issue.

However without warning, CPS soon after entered Christina Tutt’s home and seized her seven biological, adopted, and foster children without an explanation. Little did Christina know that three years later she would still be in court fighting alongside THSC for her parental rights, with the hopes of bringing the last of her seven children back home. This case has been described by family law attorney Cecilia Wood as the most egregious case she has ever seen in almost 30 years of family law practice.

How to Stop a False Conservative

By |2025-02-05T16:54:40-06:00January 28th, 2016|Legislative Advocacy|

As early voting for the Texas Primary draws near, THSC is reminded of past elections and past promises that were made by past candidates. Numerous promises have been made, and far too many have been broken.

Before the beginning of the 2015 campaign cycle, THSC committed to strengthening the vetting process for interviewing and endorsing candidates. THSC fights every day to defend home schooling and parental rights, but Texas needs legislators who are open, honest, and just as dedicated to this cause as THSC.

A prime example of why THSC is focusing and strengthening the vetting in this primary cycle is Texas State Rep. Debbie Riddle. Despite aligning herself with THSC values and principles in past races, Representative Riddle has begun to trend more and more left while moving closer and closer to House leadership in Austin. In addition to earning extremely low scores on several conservative scorecards in the past, including Texas Right to Life and Empower Texans, Representative Riddle especially betrayed the trust of THSC and many other conservative groups and individuals during the 2015 84th Texas Legislature.

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