Homeschooling Illegal In California - Fight Is Still On

[Paladin D]

This happened back in March.


[url="http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/mar/08030503.html"]California Court Rules Homeschooling Illegal[/url]

[quote]LOS ANGELES, March 5, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Thousands of homeschoolers in California are left in legal limbo by an appeals court ruling that homeschooling is not a legal option in the state and that a family who has homeschooled all their children for years must enrol their two youngest in state or private schools. Justice H. Walter Croskey in a written opinion said, "California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children."

The sweeping February 29th ruling says that California law requires "persons between the ages of six and eighteen" to be in "public full-time day school," or a "private full-time day school" or "instructed by a tutor who holds a valid state teaching credential for the grade being taught".

The two youngest of Phillip and Mary Long's eight children must be enrolled in a state approved school. Phillip Long told WorldNetDaily, "We just don't want them teaching our children. They teach things that are totally contrary to what we believe. They put questions in our children's minds we don't feel they're ready for."

Mr. Long cited the state curriculum's inclusion of sex education, including its promotion of homosexuality as a normal lifestyle. "When they are much more mature, they can deal with these issues, alternative lifestyles, and such, or whether they came from primordial slop. At the present time it's my job to teach them the correct way of thinking," he said.

The Los Angeles-area family was targeted by Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services after one of the children reported "physical and emotional mistreatment by the children's father," according to documents submitted to the court.

The 2nd Appellate Court in Los Angeles agreed with the trial court decision that had found, "keeping the children at home deprived them of situations where they could interact with people outside the family".

"There are people who could provide help if something is amiss in the children's lives, and they could develop emotionally in a broader world than the parents' 'cloistered' setting," the ruling said.

Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), said in a March 3 statement that the organization "strongly disputes this interpretation of California law" and is studying the decision.

The group called the ruling "a very bad decision" saying, "the opinion holds that homeschooling is not a legal option in California."

"If the opinion is followed, then California will have the most regressive law in the nation and homeschooling will be effectively banned, because the only legal way to homeschool will be for the parent to hold a teaching certificate. Parents should not have to attend a four-year college education program just to teach their own children."

Smith added, "California is now on the path to being the only state to deny the vast majority of homeschooling parents their fundamental right to teach their own children at home."[/quote]




And this is the update so far of the situation: [url="http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/ca/200803120.asp"]Update—Defending Homeschool Freedom in California[/url]



[quote]State Superintendent Supports Homeschooling
On Tuesday, March 11, Jack O’Connell, California Superintendent of Public Instruction, announced that he believed that homeschooling is still legal in California. O’Connell’s statement is welcome news. Click here to read O’Connell’s statement. Some might conclude that the statement ends the controversy. However, it is not the end of the matter; it is just an important step along the way.

His clarifying statement was probably the result of the massive public outcry against the February 28 decision of the California Court of Appeal which effectively ruled that homeschooling is illegal in California unless conducted by a credentialed teacher and that parents have no constitutional right to homeschool.

O’Connell’s statement is helpful, but the courts will undoubtedly take the position that their determination of the meaning of state law is final even though they should give serious deference to the position of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

It should also be remembered that local school districts make the decision about when to initiate prosecutions for truancy, and they are not officially controlled by the state agency on these matters. However, many local officials may be influenced by O’Connell’s positive statement.[/quote]



Another reason I don't want to move out to California (no offense to anyone who lives there).

Edited June 23, 2008 by Paladin D

[CatherineM]

This is an issue that the hippies and evangelical Christians can agree on. What is up with the California Supreme Court? No constitutional right to home school? You can kill your kids, but you can't educate them.

[ardillacid]

Sweet! More government regulation!

Edited June 23, 2008 by notardillacid

[tinytherese]

I don't understand what the problem is. Why can't they home school? It's legal in the rest of the states. What's with California lately? First the legalization of civil unions and now this?

[dominicansoul]

They don't want parents teaching them values and morals and "intolerance."

[Paladin D]

Homeschool laws and regulations vary per state, some are more strict than others.

[Farsight one]

Don't homeschooled kids generally finish school earlier and learn more than kids in public schools? ...and isn't that a good thing?

And how in the world is homeschooling unconstitutional? Next thing you know all the Catholic schools will be forced to become public ones because they'll be deemed unconstitutional as well.

[kujo]

It's typical California bullsh*t. Not surprised.

[puellapaschalis]

The homeschooling laws in this country are similar. You need to prove that your "lifestyle" absolutely is not provided for by the existing education system. The fact that "Catholic" schools here are about as Catholic as Marx's left hand isn't taken into account.

I've heard they're not huge on checking up on it but like everything Dutch it's another excuse to strangle you in red tape....

[Aloysius]

Any government which denies parents the right to choose how their children are educated has become tyranical and a revolution against that government would be justified to secure the rights of the family. I honestly believe that... you might see it as a trivial issue, I honestly believe it's something worth dying to protect: the primordial right of parents to raise their own children.

seeing as a revolution against the Californian government could not succeed, however (they do have the terminator as the last line of defense, so even if you defeat the US military you have to deal with that), let us hope that the US Supreme Court will save the day from the tyranny of the 9th circuit.

[Lounge Daddy]

[quote name='Aloysius' post='1581246' date='Jun 24 2008, 01:38 AM']Any government which denies parents the right to choose how their children are educated has become tyranical and a revolution against that government would be justified to secure the rights of the family. I honestly believe that... you might see it as a trivial issue, I honestly believe it's something worth dying to protect: the primordial right of parents to raise their own children.

seeing as a revolution against the Californian government could not succeed, however (they do have the terminator as the last line of defense, so even if you defeat the US military you have to deal with that), let us hope that the US Supreme Court will save the day from the tyranny of the 9th circuit.[/quote]

Yup. But government doesn't see it that way. The most telling comments that came out of this whole thing were statements about how it is the state's responsibility, not the parent's, to see that all children to be educated and loyal to the state.

"Public schools" are truly government schools--and the children there get a government education and oftentimes an indoctrination, and it's important to remember that. For example, that's why so many young people today think that the free market caused the Great Depression, and the government cleaned up the mess.

Ironically occurring at the same time as this home school ruling, but probably not deliberately meant to be related, was the overturning of an old California law that stated that communism would not be taught in the government schools. Good for California!

[Aloysius]

Hillaire Belloc's essay about education makes the point that not even pagan Rome had the audacity to claim it was within its proper authority to educate children.

in fact, not even the Church herself, though she considers herself supernatural, has the audacity to supercede the parental right of education. not even to save souls would we baptize and educate children against the wishes of their parents. parents even have the right to raise their children to be pagans without coercion... but apparently the state thinks its mission is more important than the salvation of souls and has no problem steppng all over parental rights in order to teach kids to be literate communists.

[ardillacid]

Whoa, ease up there guys, you're gonna have some angry public schooled peeps in here in a hurry!

[Aloysius]

I went to public school

even if the state is going to offer public education, and even if they're going to make it cumpulsory that some type of education be given, it is absolutely contrary to Catholic principals to hold that the state has the authority to decide what parents are permitted to teach their children and in what manner. homeschool must always be an option if nothing else.

[puellapaschalis]

[quote name='Aloysius' post='1581246' date='Jun 24 2008, 08:38 AM']Any government which denies parents the right to choose how their children are educated has become tyranical and a revolution against that government would be justified to secure the rights of the family. I honestly believe that... you might see it as a trivial issue, I honestly believe it's something worth dying to protect: the primordial right of parents to raise their own children.

seeing as a revolution against the Californian government could not succeed, however (they do have the terminator as the last line of defense, so even if you defeat the US military you have to deal with that), let us hope that the US Supreme Court will save the day from the tyranny of the 9th circuit.[/quote]

Yup.
But this is the Dutch government; do we expect any better?
(having said that, they just gave me nearly €1.000 in taxback....now I can pay rent in September!)