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Thursday, June 05, 2008
Teacher's Union: Homeschooling = Educational Anarchy
They actually officially declared this in court.
"The California Teachers Association ... decided to file an amicus brief arguing before the court that parents should have no right over the education of their children, should not have a right to home school, and that these children should be literally forced to be put back into the public schools -- even though parents object," the attorney explains.
Dacus did a double-take when he read one specific charge made by the teachers' union. "In their brief, the teachers' union said that to allow parents to be able to home school without being credentialed teachers could result in 'educational anarchy,'" he shares. Read more...
Labels: California, homeschool, Politics
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Bet on the Homeschoolers
Townhall has a piece by William Rusher regarding homeschooling. I'm not sure what to make of what he says about the non-exclusive rights of parents.
The California Court of Appeals judge who ruled recently that parents "do not have a constitutional right to home-school their children" probably thought the point was obvious. He lives in California, where liberalism is still a flourishing belief system, and where parents are widely regarded as simply the mechanism whereby new generations of youngsters are created and turned over to the state for polishing.
But he is a loser nonetheless, as he will discover when his ruling is overturned on appeal or, failing that, struck down by the legislature or, if necessary, by an amendment to the state constitution. The parents of California are not about to surrender the right to decide what fundamentals their children shall be taught.
That is not to say that parents, in California or elsewhere, have or ought to have an exclusive right to determine that question. Read more...
Labels: California, homeschool, Politics
Monday, April 07, 2008
A Power Struggle in Homeschool Case
A reaction to the Washington Times editorial of last week.
Washington Times reporter Cheryl Wetzstein wrote -- on Thursday’s front page, not in the Op/Ed section of the paper -- that at the heart of the recent Calif. Court of Appeals ruling outlawing homeschooling in In re: Rachel L. was abuse and neglect in the Long family, not homeschooling per se.
What Wetzstein failed to consider is the wording of the ruling itself. Read more...
Labels: California, homeschool
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Another side of California's Homeschool ruling
This editorial discusses the sad specifics of the case that lead to the California ruling. The problem I and many have with this ruling is the judge's language is too broad and there is an unnecessarily high standard set in requiring parents who homeschool their own children to have teaching credentials.
When a California court ruled that two children could not be taught at home, it became a cause celebre for those claiming that home-schooling was being outlawed.
In fact, the ruling has less to do with the right to educate children at home and more to protect children from neglect and abuse — a reminder that complex issues often defy easy categorization. Read more...
Labels: California, homeschool
Now Malkin on Homeschooling
Michelle Malkin has also commented on the California Homeschooling situation, joining the ranks of other prominent conservatives. (I didn't notice her earlier post on this.) Maybe I'm just missing this but it seems strange to me that liberal stalwarts don't seem too upset about this ruling. Don't liberals pretend to be anti-establishment?
Hey, remember that California home-schooling case in which Justice H. Walter Croskey ruled that “Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children?”
Well, the ruling is going to be reconsidered by the 2nd District Court of Appeal. Via the SJMercNews: Read more...
Labels: California, homeschool
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Orwellian court decision
The California Court decision sends "strikes fear" across the nation like this editorial from the Atlanta Journal and Constitution.
In Orwellian language, this decision sends a clear message that children are to be considered obedient wards of the state. Parents who might disagree with the state-developed and state-sponsored curriculum or teaching methods are slap out of luck. Home schooling is simply not an option. Read more...
Labels: California, homeschool
John Stossel on Homeschooling
First Schwarzenegger, then Newt, now Stossel. John Stossel comments on the recent California Homeschool court decision.
The cat is finally out of the bag. A California appellate court, ruling that parents have no constitutional right to homeschool their children, pinned its decision on this ominous quotation from a 47-year-old case, "A primary purpose of the educational system is to train schoolchildren in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare."
There you have it; a primary purpose of government schools is to train schoolchildren "in loyalty to the state." Somehow that protects "the public welfare" more than allowing parents to homeschool their children, even though homeschooled kids routinely outperform government-schooled kids academically. In 2006, homeschooled students had an average ACT composite score of 22.4. The national average was 21.1. Read more...
Labels: California, homeschool
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Newt on Homeschooling
Newt Gingrich weighs in on the California homeschooling ruling.
Parents "do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children."
So wrote a California judge in a case that has ominous potential for the estimated one million-plus American families who have opted out of the public education monopoly and choose to educate their children at home. Read more...
Labels: California, homeschool
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
CA Homeschool decision gets a failing grade
This article on silive.com makes some good points about the California court decision. Below is a quote from page 2 of the story:
To reach its decision, the court still had to confront one seemingly insurmountable stumbling block. In California, as in most states, private schools may employ teachers who are not credentialed by the state. Why then was the court imposing a higher standard on parents than it did on private schools? Read more...
Labels: California, homeschool
Monday, March 17, 2008
Why California turned homeschool unfriendly
Personally I never understood why people thought of California as being homeschool friendly. Many states do not require formation of a private school to homeschool. Anyway, this article explains the events of the case that led to the recent court decision and draws a controversial conclusion of why this happened.
Seventy years ago, persecuted homeschoolers would flee from the East Coast to California, the state that left you alone.
Back in 1988, when I co-led the battle that legalized homeschooling in Pennsylvania, we had the same two options under our compulsory education law that California still has today: (1) instruction by a qualified private tutor or (2) instruction by a private school. The difference was that Pennsylvania wouldn't let homeschoolers come under the private school option, while California would. Read more...
Labels: California, homeschool
Thursday, March 13, 2008
CA resolution supporting homeschooling
On Monday, California Assemblyman Joel Anderson introduced a resolution calling upon the State Supreme Court to overturn the anti-homeschool ruling of the lower court. This follows Friday's statement by Governor Schwarzenegger supporting homeschooling.
This measure would acknowledge the long and rich history of
private home schooling in California and call upon the California
Supreme Court to reverse the opinion of the California Court of
Appeal for the Second Appellate District in Los Angeles in the case
of In re Rachel L. that home schooling without a teaching credential
is not legal. Read more...
Labels: California, homeschool
Friday, March 07, 2008
Governator Defends Parental Rights in CA
From the Office of the Governor. (HT: Learning at Home)
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement regarding the recent Second District Court of Appeals ruling on home schooling:
"Every California child deserves a quality education and parents should have the right to decide what's best for their children. Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children's education. This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts and if the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will." Read more...
Labels: California, homeschool
Is California is still OK to homeschool?
According to one "on the ground" in California, the recent federal ruling does not outlaw homeschooling there. (See Learning at Home blog.) I was skeptical of this myself and didn't post about the earlier alarmist Worldnet Daily article. Yesterday, the AP was repeating similar conclusions. Now today, SFGate has this story, quoting gleeful teachers union members and a (typically) alarmist HSLDA. I don't know what to think. Please comment if you know anything.
A California appeals court ruling clamping down on homeschooling by parents without teaching credentials sent shock waves across the state this week, leaving an estimated 166,000 children as possible truants and their parents at risk of prosecution.
The homeschooling movement never saw the case coming.
"At first, there was a sense of, 'No way,' " said homeschool parent Loren Mavromati, a resident of Redondo Beach (Los Angeles County) who is active with a homeschool association. "Then there was a little bit of fear. I think it has moved now into indignation." Read more...
Labels: California, homeschool
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Court: Parents need teaching credential to homeschool
This story has been in the news the last few weeks. It's unclear what impact this ruling will actually have.
LOS ANGELES—California parents who don't have teaching credentials no longer can home school their children, according to a recent state appellate court ruling.
"Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children," Justice H. Walter Croskey wrote in a Feb. 28 opinion for the 2nd District Court of Appeals.
Noncompliance could lead to a criminal complaint against the parents, Croskey said. Read more...
Labels: California, homeschool
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Homeschooler employs goats for weed-whacking
Weed control never looked so good to some local laborers, who, whenever they see a hillside filled with shrubbery, think lunch.
They get paid with the food they eat, because really, it’s all the goats ask for – and maybe a good scratch on the neck and back.
All 250 of them are owned and loved by 23-year-old Brentwood resident Vanessa Orbegoso, who never stepped foot on a farm until she was 15. She calls her 6-month-old company Goat Grazers. Read more...
Labels: California
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
‘Renaissance' teen inspired by family
This is a long story but worth reading.
Ian Vorster/Staff Above, David Phillips stays for a photo after training Tuesday at the Cabrillo High School track.
David Phillips lolled on the lawn beside the Cabrillo High School track on a recent afternoon. Clad in school colors, black and gold, his blond surfer-dude hair spilling down into his eyes, he looked like an average teenager, skateboard style. Read more...
Labels: California
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Homeschooling fills a need
It's no secret that more and more parents are home-schooling ("Learning at home," April 7), mainly because public schools deliver a one-size-fits-all learning environment. In the meantime, children with special needs wiggle and struggle to focus in hurried and noisy classrooms. Read more...
Labels: California
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
U.S. colleges becoming more homeschool friendly
LOS ANGELES — David Sample wanted to attend the University of California at Riverside but thought it was a lost cause because he had been home schooled.
The University of California system is known for being tough on nontraditionally schooled applicants. For them, the best ticket to UC has been transferring after taking community college classes or posting near-perfect scores on college entrance exams. Read more...
Labels: California, College
