Homeschooling Banned in California

[HK4U]

Well we all know the government can teach our kids better than us. Just look at the fine job it has done in other areas. We can all rest easy knowing that Big Brother is looking after our best interests. After all it takes a village to raise our children right?

Alex Jones' Prison Planet: The truth will set you free!

Homeschooling Banned in California as State Turns Parents Into Criminals for Teaching Their Own Children

David Gutierrez
Natural News
Tuesday, September 23, 2008

(NaturalNews) A California appeals court has ruled that homeschooling of children is illegal unless their parents have teaching credentials from the state.

“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,” said Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association.

The court overturned a lower court’s finding that homeschooling did not constitute a violation of child welfare laws.

“California courts have held that … parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children,” Justice H. Walter Croskey said.

The decision stunned parents of the state’s roughly 166,000 homeschooled children. While the court claimed that it was merely clarifying an existing law and not making a new one, the decision leaves the parents of homeschooled children at risk of arrest and criminal prosecution.

“At first, there was a sense of, ‘No way,’ ” homeschool parent Loren Mavromati said. “Then there was a little bit of fear. I think it has moved now into indignation.”

Parents’ reasons for homeschooling their children range from religious beliefs to dissatisfaction with the education received at public or private schools. But according to the court, all California children between the ages of 6 and 18 must attend either a full-time public or private school or be taught by a tutor credentialed for their specific grade level.

“A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation,” Croskey wrote.

California’s largest teachers union welcomed the decision as did the Children’s Law Center of Los Angeles.

According to the law center’s executive director, Leslie Heimov, children should not be educated at home, because they need to be “in a place daily where they would be observed by people who had a duty to ensure their ongoing safety.”

[Scarecrow]

would some one just hurry up and make california it's own communist country.

[tattedupboy]

Originally Posted by Scarecrow

would some one just hurry up and make california it's own communist country.

And take away 55 electoral votes from the Democrats? Surely you jest!

Seriously, my jaw dropped wide open when I saw the title of this thread. Nevertheless, I always knew that if any state would ever ban homeschooling, it would be a people's republic, such as PRCA, PRNY, or PRIL. Hopefully, the state Supreme Court will be asked to make a ruling on this, in favor of parents. I say the State Supreme Court, and not the U.S. Supreme Court, because education is not within the domain of the federal government (which is why No Child Left Behind needs to be repealed or struck down), but a state issue.

[festus]

Originally Posted by tattedupboy

And take away 55 electoral votes from the Democrats? Surely you jest!

Seriously, my jaw dropped wide open when I saw the title of this thread. Nevertheless, I always knew that if any state would ever ban homeschooling, it would be a people's republic, such as PRCA, PRNY, or PRIL. Hopefully, the state Supreme Court will be asked to make a ruling on this, in favor of parents. I say the State Supreme Court, and not the U.S. Supreme Court, because education is not within the domain of the federal government (which is why No Child Left Behind needs to be repealed or struck down), but a state issue.

Let the tree huggers and granola crunchers make their own Utopia...Seriously this is a very bad move for those of us that homeschool, even if we live in other states. The Left Coast needs to be set adrift and then we can be free of the limp wristed, quiche eating, birkenstock wearing, treehugging, granola crunching, self righteous do-gooders.

[tattedupboy]

Originally Posted by festus

Let the tree huggers and granola crunchers make their own Utopia...Seriously this is a very bad move for those of us that homeschool, even if we live in other states. The Left Coast needs to be set adrift and then we can be free of the limp wristed, quiche eating, birkenstock wearing, treehugging, granola crunching, self righteous do-gooders.

Much better than my idea of respecting parents' rights. Seriously, though, if they can take away a parent's right to decide where their child can get an education, then what will be next, a ban on private school education?

[toreskha]

According to the law center’s executive director, Leslie Heimov, children should not be educated at home, because they need to be “in a place daily where they would be observed by people who had a duty to ensure their ongoing safety.”

Wow...what a great big "f*ck you" that is to parents. Why didn't they just run a full-page newspaper ad giving everyone the middle finger and be done with it? These people have no respect whatsoever for the family. Were they raised by ogres in a barn?

[HK4U]

Originally Posted by toreskha

Wow...what a great big "f*ck you" that is to parents. Why didn't they just run a full-page newspaper ad giving everyone the middle finger and be done with it? These people have no respect whatsoever for the family. Were they raised by ogres in a barn?

And who will keep them safe from the state?

[toreskha]

Here's a big article on this ruling...very interesting reading.

Apparently there are some guidelines that parents can adhere to and still be within the law...

In order to fully understand the implications of this decision, you must first grasp California education requirements. According to the California Homeschool Network there are four options for home-school education in California. They are: “establishing your own home-based private school, enrolling in a private school that offers independent study, using a public school independent study program (ISP) or charter school that caters to homeschoolers, or, if you have a credential, using the tutorial option.” 4

Arnold has apparently given his support to homeschoolers...

“Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children’s education,’ Schwarzenegger said. ‘This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts, and if the courts don’t protect parents’ rights then, as elected officials, we will.’” 8

It sounds like the "teaching credentials" are required if you start your own private school - or you can sign up to be under an umbrella program with a private or charter school that "caters to homeschoolers" and still be legal.

I still find Leslie Heimov's comments to be incredibly stupid though.

[FN1910]

Home schooling and Private shools have their place and should not be banned but there should be some "control" for lack of a better word, on them. My wife teaches second grade in a public school and she tells some horror stories about some kids who have "fell thorough the cracks". I have several friends and relatives that home shcooled their children and did a great job. I can't say that in any case they did better than the public schools but that was their choice.

My wife has a little boy in her class that went to a private church school for the last two years. His mother came in last week to discuss him and with tears in her eyes told my wife that she had done mor with him in one week that the private school had done in two years. She said that she did not want her son to be labled as special ed and placed in the special ed classes. My wife told her that she already realized that the boy has a learning disability and need to attend some special ed classes but not placed in the program full time. The mother was greatly relieved. The methods that they were using in the private school were causing more harm than doing good.

This demonstrates one of the problems with the home and private schools if that they work great for the average student but for those with LD or Exceptional Talent the public schools are much more equipted to help those students. Very few parents are able to handle any child with anything other than the average training that they had in school.

[HK4U]

You can find bad examples of anything if you look hard enough. I can tell you plenty of horror stories out of the public schools. We home schooled our daughter all the way through grade 12. We were in a home school association that meet at our church. We got together for a lot of field trips. Ever other year testing was offered for everyone in the association to see how the children were doing. My daughter and most others tested well above the actual school year they were in on a consistent basis. In fact we would often tell people that the difference between home school and public was that our daughter in the 4th grade tested on at a 8th grade level in most subjects where the public school in the 8th grade tested on a 4th grade level. I am not saying that there are not good teachers in public schools however they are still hampered by the left, liberal teachers union. My daughter graduated without having evolution crammed down her. If someone wants believe that way that is their business. We do not. She got a sound christian education along with a better education in in the three r's so to speak. She has sense graduated from college with a grade point average of over 3.80 and is in her last semester of her masters program with a 4.0 average.