From Steven Greenhut:
The Pacific Justice Institute in Sacramento sent along a statement about a disturbing California Court of Appeal decision finding that parents have no right to homeschool their children. Parents who do not send their kids to the school deemed appropriate by the state may face criminal charges and fines. Remember when former Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin tried to criminalize homeschooling? Here we go again. It’s ironic, given how badly the government miseducates students, that officials are so determined to criminalize this basic freedom. This really shouldn’t shock anyone who realizes the degree to which government at all levels runs our lives.
Here’s the PJI statement:
Home Schooling Found Unlawful by California Court of Appeal
Los Angeles – In a stunning decision affecting thousands of families in California, the California Court of Appeal has issued an opinion finding no legal right to home school. “Parents who fail to [comply with school enrollment laws] may be subject to a criminal complaint against them, found guilty of an infraction, and subject to imposition of fines or an order to complete a parent education and counseling program,” wrote Justice H. Walter Croskey whose opinion was joined by the other two members of the appellate panel.
The opinion was issued February 28, 2008, in a case titled In re Rachel L, which reversed a Superior Court Judge, Stephen Marpet, who found that “parents have a constitutional right to school their children in their own home.” The parents of Rachel L. enrolled her in Sunland Christian School, a private home schooling program. In his opinion, Croskey, 75, described what he called the “ruse of enrolling [children] in a private school and then letting them stay home and be taught by a non-credentialed parent.”
Despite this statement by the Court, it should be noted that Sunland Christian School has been in full compliance with the requirements of the law for more than twenty years. “We’ve never been given an opportunity to represent our case in the Court of Appeal,” said Terry Neven, the president of the school. “Consequently, we are excited that PJI will represent us before the California Supreme Court so that the rights of home schooling families are preserved,” he stated further. In a section titled “Consequences of Parental Denial of a Legal Education,” the Court said that “parents are subject to being ordered to enroll their children in an appropriate school or education program and provide proof of enrollment to the court, and willful failure to comply with such an order may be punished by a fine for civil contempt.” “The scope of this decision by the appellate court is breathtaking. It not only attacks traditional home schooling, but also calls into question home schooling through charter schools and teaching children at home via independent study through public and private schools,” stated Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute “If not reversed, the parents of the more than 166,000 students currently receiving an education at home will be subject to criminal sanctions,” he continued. (www.pji.org)
“Parents who do not send their kids to the school deemed appropriate by the state may face criminal charges and fines. ” This opinion by the California Court of Appeal is really scary. Hopefully, the California Supreme Court has better sense and will vote in favor of reversing this opinion by the Court of Appeal and in favor of preserving the rights of parents to home school their own children. It is a really terrible decision by the Ca. Court of Appeal.
I guess it escaped Justice Croskey that a teacher in a private K-12 doesn’t necessarily have to be credentialed. One would think home schooling would be embraced, particularly with all the howling going on about public school budgets. Frankly, I don’t want my kid being educated by any government employee and I could care less if all public education were eliminated. I also believe that competition in the private sector produces the best results. If you can’t afford to privately educate your own kid (and most really can if they put a higher priority on education than on big screen TVs, home theater equipment, and new cars every few years), you probably shouldn’t have been having the kid in the first place.
Ever hear of the 10th plank of the Communist Manifesto? Betcha they don’t teach that in public schools.
Something tells me this is more about the money than education. 166,000 kids added to public schools at $45 per day or whatever the newest number is. Hmmm. $7,4700,000 per day. Think teachers Unions had anything to do with this? I know several home school kids and they blow public school kids outa the water on education. This is all money.
Morris1 Says:
March 7th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Something tells me this is more about the money than education. 166,000 kids added to public schools at $45 per day or whatever the newest number is. Hmmm. $7,4700,000 per day. Think teachers Unions had anything to do with this? I know several home school kids and they blow public school kids outa the water on education.
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The kids that were the subject of this lawsuit won’t blow ANY public education out of the water.
The home schooling mother of this case was a 10th grade drop out. Do you want someone like her teaching kids????Even her own…. Please.
This will be overturned-as it should be-but the courts need room to mandate a better education if this baloney is going on at the home.
This started out as a child welfare case. It should have stayed there. Homeschooling is not broken. Whether or not the Long parents are fit to parent should be the issue here. Not all parents are cut out to homeschool. There are all kinds of materials and programs out there to help families who want to homeschool but lack the experience and knowledge. But no amount of programming help will overcome poor parenting.
And, as many have noted, not all teachers in traditional public schools are credentialed, and having a credential does not guarantee teaching skill.
learningathome Says:
March 7th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Not all parents are cut out to homeschool.
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And this is the very reason the courts need to step in, in cases like this where you have HS drop outs trying to “home school” innocent children.
Im sorry, but there is no right to home school children, I dont care what your religeous beliefs are,
Call for Judge’s Impeachment in California Homeschooling Ruling
California Justice H. Walter Croskey wrote in a February 28th, 2008has ruled that, “Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children.”
Judge Croskey’s ruling states “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.”
“Judge Croskey has clearly allowed his personal bias to override his responsibility to impartial interpretation of the laws. The Judge has egregiously breached his duties”, says Rothschild. While she respects his right to express his opinion and his right to choose how he educates his children, she believes “Croskey needs to go.”
This ruling subject the parents of 166,000 students throughout the state of California to face the state Supreme Court for criminal sanctions. Many homeschool advocates believe that Croskey’s ruling infringes on civil rights, including freedom of religion.
“The issue here is not the constitutionality of homeschooling. The freedom to educate one’s child according to one’s convictions has already been the law in the United States for almost three decades”, says Rothschild.
“The issue is that this Judge has crossed the line. He is not interpreting law, he is creating a new law”, sttates Rothschild. He has abused his power. Justice Walter Croskey needs to be held accountable through the mandated procedures that address judicial misconduct of this calibre - disbarment and impeachment.
Rothschild does not stop there. She believes that in order to prevent this kind of judicial abuse of power in the future, Croskey should “Judge Walter Croskey should also be held accountable for the financial damages that his misguided ruling has incurred to the thousands of California citizens. Additionally, this ruling and any other ruling he has made that violates the laws of the land must be reversed”, says Rothschild
Mimi Rothschild is the CEO and Co-Founder of Learning By Grace, Inc., the nation’s largest provider of online Christian PreK-12 educational programs. As the homeschooling mother of 8 children, Rothschild advocates for educational freedoms. She can be reached at Mimi@LearningByGrace.org
Evil flourishes when good people do nothing. Albert Einstein