Good morning and welcome back to the Tip Sheet, a weekly newsletter from Tom Dudchik’s Capitol Report written by Mike Cerulli.

This week will kick off with a political battle at the Capitol ripped right from the headlines. We’ll break down the background, the stakes, and what to watch for. Plus, we’ll give you three reads to start your week.

Let’s dive in…

The brewing battle over homeschooling

This afternoon, one of the most talked-about stories in Connecticut will take center stage at the Capitol – teeing up a showdown that could place the state on the frontlines of the national culture wars. The two legislative committees responsible for education and children’s issues will hold an “informational hearing” on the state’s homeschooling policies. The hearing comes on the heels of the disturbing, headline-grabbing case of the Waterbury man allegedly held captive by his stepmom for two decades.

Department of Children and Families Commissioner Jodi Hill-Lily and Department of Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker are among the speakers on the hearing’s agenda.

In March, Gov. Ned Lamont signaled that he was eyeing reforms to the state’s homeschooling rules in the wake of the Waterbury case.

“I’d like to talk with the legislature about ways we can stay in better communication – make sure those kids are being well protected, not just in school, but at home school as well,” Lamont said back in March.

The governor’s focus on homeschooling regulations in response to the allegations in Waterbury did not happen in a vacuum. For years, there have been concerns about gaps in the state’s homeschool policies. A 2018 report compiled by the state’s Office of the Child Advocate (OCA) surveyed six school districts and found “that over a span of three academic years, 2013 through 2016, there were 380 students withdrawn from the six (6) districts to be homeschooled, and that 138 of these children (36 percent) lived in families that were the subject of at least one prior accepted report to DCF for suspected abuse or neglect.”

The report was conducted in the wake of the 2017 death of Matthew Tirado, an autistic teenager who died after years of neglect at the hands of his mother, who pleaded guilty to first degree manslaughter and is currently in prison.

The OCA memo went on to say “none of the six districts had protocols to conduct follow up with the withdrawn student or his/her family.”

Like Lamont’s initial comments, today’s hearing lacks any accompanying legislation. Neither the governor or legislative leaders have outlined the specifics of what a policy response to the Waterbury captive case might look like. But the focus on homeschooling has already drawn the ire of activists and lawmakers who see the whole effort as an attempt to exploit the Waterbury case to achieve a political end.

“To turn this into a homeschool issue, to me, is disingenuous,” House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora said at the time.  “It really smells of ‘don’t let a crisis go to waste.’”

Top GOP lawmakers have already expressed concerns that today’s hearing is a precursor to a crackdown on homeschooling.

“If this hearing is going to target homeschoolers, that’s totally unfair,” State Rep. Joe Polletta, a Republican who represents part of Waterbury, said last Thursday.

State Rep. Tammy Nuccio concurred.

“We have to look at what failed in this case,” Nuccio said. “And what failed in this case first and foremost is the government.”

The issue of homeschooling has always overlapped with broader debates about parental rights, the efficacy of public schools, and religious freedom. Those debates were heightened by the pandemic, when every American household with school aged children became a homeschool of sorts. In the aftermath of the pandemic, many parents chose to permanently adopt the practice.

A Washington Post analysis of nationwide data found homeschooling to be the fastest-growing form of education in the country.

“Home schooling has become — by a wide margin — America’s fastest-growing form of education, as families from Upper Manhattan to Eastern Kentucky embrace a largely unregulated practice once confined to the ideological fringe,” a team of Post reporters wrote.

The Post’s analysis compared available pre-pandemic data with stats from the school years immediately following the end of the Covid lockdowns and school closures. The numbers paint a stark picture of a fast-growing practice, one that is not confined by geography. New York registered a 103% increase in homeschooling. South Dakota saw a 94% jump.

As the practice of homeschooling has proliferated in post-pandemic America, advocacy promoting it has become increasingly intertwined with conservative politics. Some of the right’s most prominent podcasters and thought leaders have not only advocated for the right to homeschool, they’ve begun homeschooling their own children and using their experiences to evangelize others to the cause.

In Connecticut, conservative leaders like Peter and Leslie Wolfgang of the Family Institute of Connecticut have been outspoken advocates for homeschooling, and they have issued a call to action for like minded families to show up at the Capitol this afternoon.

“Although the public cannot speak at this type of hearing,” Leslie Wolfgang wrote, “we encourage you to come anyway and make your presence known.”

State Sen. Rob Sampson, one of the legislature’s most outspoken conservatives, echoed the calls for advocates to show up this afternoon.

“We’re pushing back on [the Democrats’] continued attempts to control people’s lives,” Sampson tweeted.

Sampson is among the GOP lawmakers expected to speak at the press conference, which is expected to be held in room 2A of the Legislative Office Building shortly before the hearing kicks off.

Three reads to start your week

2,500 workers at Electric Boat are preparing to strike this month if the submarine builder doesn’t reach a tentative contract with its workers. The General Dynamics subsidiary is the recipient of lucrative contracts with the U.S. Navy to build the latest generation of nuclear-powered attack submarines, the Virginia-class. As the AP outlined, EB just received a $12.4 billion contract to build two more Virginia-class boats. Under the outline of the trilateral agreement between the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Australia (AUKUS), the Royal Australian Navy is expected to become an operator of several Virginia-class boats. A dispatch published by the U.S. Naval Institute described how that arrangement is "raising questions on Capitol Hill" about the capacity of American shipyards. EB is also building the lead boat of the Columbia-class, the Navy’s latest class of ballistic missile submarines.

Dan Haar is on the road. The Hearst columnist has been speaking with Connecticut voters about their thoughts on President Trump’s first 100 days in office. Read some of his observations here.

Kevin Rennie took issue with an assertion Mayor Erin Stewart made about the level of state education aide to New Britain. The crosshairs of the legislator-turned-columnist is not a place any ambitious pol wants to find themselves – especially if they’re actively probing their chances to be the next governor. Read Rennie’s take here.

We’ll be back next week with another edition of the Tip Sheet!