Threat to Homeschooling

CALIFORNIA STATE COURT OUTLAWS HOME SCHOOLS
By Bob Ward

A California appeals court has effectively outlawed home schooling in that state by ruling that a home school does not satisfy the state’s definition of an adequate education and ordering a family to enroll their children in a public school or "legally qualified" private school.
It’s significant that the court’s decision was not based on a finding of abuse or neglect. The mere fact of homeschooling was ruled illegal. The state’s educational program, the court said,”was designed to promote the general welfare of all the people and was not designed to accommodate the personal ideas of any individual in the field of education."
The court agreed with the trial court that "keeping the children at home deprived them of situations where (1) they could interact with people outside the family, (2) there are people who could provide help if something is amiss in the children's lives, and (3) they could develop emotionally in a broader world than the parents' 'cloistered' setting."
The judges noted that California law requires "persons between the ages of six and 18" to attend a public school, a "private full-time day school" or be "instructed by a tutor who holds a valid state teaching credential for the grade being taught." They concluded that the family failed to demonstrate "that the mother has a teaching credential” and that the supervision by Sunland Christian School's independent study programs was of no value
Also “of no value” in the judges’ eyes was the First Amendment. The court considered the family’s "sincerely held religious beliefs," to be "not the quality of evidence that permits us to say that application of California's compulsory public school education law to them violates their First Amendment rights."
The problem, as the court sees it, is that “any parent” could claim a right to religious freedom under the First Amendment. At least they got that part right. The First Amendment does apply to everyone.
The court didn’t even dispute the family’s claim of religious motivation. They simply said that California law, as interpreted by them, trumps the First Amendment.
But the judges were just warming up. Justice H. Walter Croskey who wrote the opinion, said, "Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children." That would be news to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Pierce V. Society of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus, the court affirmed “the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children [268 U.S. 510, 535] under their control.”
The Supreme Court took this point a little further noting, “The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excludes any general power of the state to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only. The child is not the mere creature of the state; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.”
Requiring all children to be taught in a public school operated by the state, a private school deemed “qualified” by the state, or by a tutor credentialed by the state certainly amounts to an attempt by the state “to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only.”
It is particularly urgent that the Legislature amend this totalitarian policy in light of recent legislation making public schools hostile to families holding traditional moral and religious views. Specifically, SB777 and AB394, recently signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, which mandate the promotion of homosexuality and make any mention of mom and dad” suspect have caused serious concern among California parents.
It has long been obvious that parents who cherish their freedom and their children should remove their children from public schools. Now, it appears they must remove them from California.
Texas parents would be wise to make protection for the right to home school an issue in the upcoming election. Currently, the right to home school rests on a 1994 unanimous decision of the Texas Supreme Court in Leper v. TEA. But a change in the personnel of the court could result in as reversal any time. Parents need stronger protection in the form of explicit legislation or even a constitutional amendment.
Candidates for the Texas Legislature should be forced to declare their position on this important issue.