Connecticut homeschooler, 18, vies with town council member for House district seat  

Eighteen is a special number for Philip Tummescheit, the youngest candidate to run for Connecticut’s 18th House district seat.

“I think Connecticut is in a sad state, and I think it’s not helping when there’s a lot of uncontested districts where people don’t run because they think, ‘I’m never going to win,’” the 18-year-old Republican homeschooled student told the Hartford Courant. “And I think that doesn’t bring accountability to our government.”

The district seat in West Hartford was left vacant by Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, who ran for the 1st Congressional District seat but lost in the August primary to former Hartford mayor Luke Bronin.

Tummescheit’s opponent, Democrat Tiffani McGinnis, has served on West Hartford’s city council since 2023. Both she and Tummescheit are making education a top campaign priority, though in different ways.

“The dependence on property taxes is just not sustainable for any towns and cities in Connecticut,” she said, adding she wants municipalities to have other funding sources.

“Fully funding education would help affordability and having a Connecticut public option for healthcare would help affordability.”

However, Tummescheit blames the current government for high administrative bureaucracy, spending and unfunded educational mandates, the news outlet reported.

“I think that we need more balance in our government. It’s extremely expensive to live in Connecticut compared to other states. We have high taxes. We have high electric rates. The fluctuations from the electric grid monetarily are placed on the backs of citizens.”

‘I don’t think that people were listened to’

Tummescheit also cited the state’s recent law requiring background checks on all families intending to homeschool as motivation for him to enter the campaign.

“I don’t think that people were listened to,” he said of the bill’s passage, which came despite more than 2,000 families protesting the legislation.

Supporters of the bill argued more oversight of homeschooling could help prevent child abuse, but protesters criticized the state’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) as failing its responsibilities in protecting at-risk children.

“That child was in public school for five years and DCF had been involved, but nobody really did anything to help that child,” homeschool mom Rebekah Farrington said of one high-profile abuse case in Waterbury.

Ralph Rodriguez, attorney at the Home School Legal Defense Association, also highlighted what he viewed as the absurdity of giving DCF even more administrative powers despite current shortcomings.

“Requiring DCF approval to homeschool is a serious concern for the homeschool community,” he said. “DCF has been at the heart of these recent failings, and can’t be relied upon to act in a timely fashion, or at all, but they’re being made the gatekeeper of homeschooling?”