BevK August 9th, 2008
Michelle Malkin gives a good overview and provides links to the ruling and Pacific Justice Institute’s statement.
The good news this afternoon is that a California appeals court has reversed itself and ruled that parents in the Golden State can homeschool their own children without having to obtain a government credential.
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/08/08/calif-court-allows-parents-to-homeschool-without-credential-requirement/
More previous information here:
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/06/12/california-home-schooling-update/
BevK June 13th, 2008
Here’s a round-up of the news about the California homeschooling case.
Who will teach the children?
Courts could require credentials for home-schoolers
Michelle Malkin has an update from Terry Neven
Pacific Institute of Justice petition to Governor Schwarzenegger.
BevK March 6th, 2008
Parents who lack teaching credentials cannot educate their children at home, according to a state appellate court ruling that is sending waves of fear through California’s home schooling families.
The appellate court ruling stems from a case involving Lynwood parents Phillip and Mary Long, who were repeatedly referred to the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services over various allegations, including claims of physical abuse, involving some of their eight children.
Read more in the LA Times.
California Court Says Religious Claim Doesn’t Grant Homeschooling Right in Christianity Today.
Judge orders homeschoolers into government education in World Net Daily
Read the response to the ruling at Pacific Justice Institute.
BevK March 14th, 2007
The following excerpt from this article is a legitimate concern. Calling yourself a homeschooler and actually homeschooling are two different things. Although it can be difficult for outsiders to understand the range of methods used in homeschooling, unschooling in particular can baffle them, there is a difference between those who are looking after their children’s best interests and those that just don’t want to take the time to parent their children. That they are exceptions to the rule doesn’t mean they don’t exist and that their children deserve better.
The number of children taught at home is on the increase – but education chiefs fear some parents make the claim to avoid prosecution for truancy.
Tammy Cardwell, a homeschooler and sometimes contributor to this blog, got to serve on a jury that tried a woman for breaking truancy rules. She’s one of the exceptions to the rule. Tammy describes her experience in serving on the jury in detail here.
BevK March 14th, 2007
Saving children from educational abuse. A New Jersey judge thinks New Jersey homeschooling laws are wrong, so he’s making up rules from the bench.
A Superior Court judge in New Jersey says homeschooling is just about the same as deliberate child abuse.
In fact, he says, he just might name a school district in his state as a defendant in a current court dispute, citing the district’s “shocking” failure to monitor and test all students – including homeschoolers.
Read more here.
BevK March 8th, 2007
This article just makes me mad.
Honorable Thomas Zampino of the Family Division of the New Jersey Superior Court has ordered penal charges against a home-schooling mother of seven. According to a report by Matt Bowman on the website constitutionallycorrect.com, the mother’s supposed infraction is home-schooling her children without supervision from the local school board – a right explicitly upheld in New Jersey law.
As you read on in the article, you discover that this family homeschooled, but once the parents separated the father decided it wasn’t what he wanted for his kids and has been using the courts against her.
In an effort to implement “certain basic requirements and safeguards”, the judge ordered Tara to submit her home-schooling children to standardized tests supplied by the local school district despite NJ law which says, “A child educated elsewhere than at school is not required to sit for a state or district standardized test.”
The judge also ordered the local school board to file a suit against Tara in order to be able to “evaluate the instruction in the home,” a requirement only permissible if the local school board determines that there is credible evidence that the home education is below the standards of the public school.
Because of NJ’s explicit laws protecting the parental right to educate their children at home, the judge had only limited options when it came to personally implementing his philosophies of “monitoring” and “registering” home-schoolers.” The judge cautioned that, should the school board refuse to comply with his ’suggestions’, the court would “consider, by formal opinion, a request to join those parties to action.”
It boggles my mind that the judge can do this. I can only imagine what he would have done if the law hadn’t put some restrictions on his actions. Read some of his remarks, and you’ll find the whole thing both maddening and a bit scary. Passing good homeschool laws is important in every state.
BevK October 16th, 2006
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/oct/06101303.html
I’ve got an article going up at the Eclectic Homeschool Online today, Positively All-American that includes our US Constitution as one of the great American traditions. It’s hard to imagine that something like what is happening in Europe could happen here, but we do see the same kinds of ideas broached whenever homeschooling is discussed by the NEA or in our legislatures. It also seems that the court system is the arena where the war for the Bill of Rights is being fought here in America. If we want to see how everything from socialized medicine to multiculturalism works, we have only to look to Europe where such policies have been followed for decades to see the results.
The European Human Rights Court decision to uphold a German ban on home schooling illustrates the growing threat anti-family bureaucracy and court systems pose to European families, warned Dr. Allan Carlson, president of the World Congress of Families, in a press release Wednesday. ?The ban was instituted by the Nazis and it?s a device worthy of the Nazis,? Dr. Carlson stated. ?The European Convention on Human Rights notwithstanding, the court specifically held that parents do not have a right to direct their children?s education.? German parents filed the human rights complaint with the EU court, saying the German Government?s ban on home schooling violated their parental rights under the European Convention. Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 of the Convention says the State is required to ?respect the right of parents to ensure such (public) education and teachings is in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.? Dr. Carson said the German court?s decision gave the state greater say in the education and development of children than their parents.
