California Court Declares War on Homeschooling
From “Good News, Bad News and Unbelievable News”
by James W. Harris
Reprinted with permission
Advocates of educational liberty are reeling at a California court decision last week that essentially outlaws homeschooling in that state.
A February 28 ruling by the California Appellate Court for the second district argued that “parents do not have a constitutional right to educate their children in their own home.”
Further, said the court:
“It’s clear to us that enrollment and attendance in a public full-time day school is required by California law for minor children.”
The court said homeschooling would only be permissible if the child were tutored by a person with a valid state teaching credential for the grade being taught.
Earning that state license would require a bachelor’s degree and numerous examinations. An estimated 90% of homeschooling parents would fail to meet that standard.
Should those parents continue to homeschool, wrote the court, they “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.”
This Draconian ruling “would drastically reduce or do away with homeschooling” in California, according to J. Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association.
The decision has outraged parents and others, who have vowed to fight it. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called the ruling “outrageous” and pledged legislation to reverse it if the state’s supreme court fails to do so.
However, statist Educrats give it an enthusiastic thumbs-up.
“It’s a matter of holding the standards high enough to ensure that children get a decent education,” said Fred Glass, spokesman for the California Federation of Teachers. He noted that teaching credentials don’t guarantee that (something
legions of dissatisfied parents can readily confirm), but said that “it’s probably the best measure we have.”
Similarly, Lloyd Porter, a member of the board of directors of the California Teachers Association, declared: “We’re happy … We always think students should be taught by credentialed teachers, no matter what the setting.”
Ominously, the court decision also quotes this statist — and very revealing — statement from a 1961 California court case:
“A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare.”
As the Cato Institute’s Adam Schaeffer notes: “Seldom do the defenders of the government education monopoly reveal in such forthright language the true purpose of their position; they are training children to be loyal subjects of
the state, not free citizens of a republic. The logic behind support for a government education monopoly and opposition to school choice is chilling and clear.”
The irony is, as the Las Vegas Review-Journal notes: “Research conducted by the National Home Education Research Institute in 2001 shows homeschooled students, on average, outperformed their public school peers by 30 to 37 percentile
points across all subjects, and that performance gaps impacting minorities and genders are virtually eliminated among the homeschoolers.”
But of course opposition to homeschooling isn’t about education. Never has been. It’s about indoctrination.
(Sources: Christian Science Monitor,
Cato Institute, and Las Vegas Review-Journal )
We must fight this with all that we have. This is tyrany, plain and simple. When the people fear the government that is tyrany. When the government fears the people that is freedom and liberty.