California's Homeschooling Battle
by Robert Russo
HSLDA.org posts homeschool rights violations every day to its subscribers but when you read it in the newspaper and they make jokes about it on SNL, it is an exceptional case. On February 28 a California court ruled against a family's right to homeschool, breaking from that state's long tradition of educational tolerance. If it is not overruled by the state supreme court, thousands of homeschooling families will be forced to give up their practices. Gov. Schwarzenegger opposed this immediately, saying "This outrageous ruling must be overturned, and if the courts don't protect parents' rights, then as elected officials, we will.".* The State Superintendent added "The California Department of Education policy will not change in any way as a result of this ruling. Parents still have the right to homeschool in this state."**
Until now home-educators have simply used a lenient interpretation of existing laws. HSLDA chairman Michael Fallis admits that the judge was correct, but that new legislation is needed and an appeal is the first step.** The case was a unique situation of a large religious/isolationist family whose homeschool was chartered through a private Christian school, an arrangement the court ruled as inadequate because the school "was willing to participate in the deprivation of the children's right to a legal education".* The president of the Pacific Justice Institute called this "an extreme position".*
The most unusual article I have seen is "Why California Turned From Most Homeschool Friendly to Most Unfriendly" by Howard Richman. The answer is the same reason homeschool rights violations occur in every county of every state. Ingrained loyalism and obsession for any one institution is accompanied by flashes of bigotry and oversight for its competitors, be it a religion, culture or business. This can strike anywhere because mainstream academia gets into everything. Every judge is a product of it, which seats strong indoctrination with feelings of loyalty and supremacy behind the bench.
Richman writes: "California used to believe in freedom of all sorts. They were not only the haven for educational freedom; they were also the haven for sexual freedom."*** He cites that Gov. Schwarzenegger signed a bill prohibiting bias against alternative lifestyles in textbooks, which has spawned a Christian campaign called California Exodus to pull 600,000 students out of schools. This sounds like a good start, but admittedly there are other considerations when borderline subjective religious families clash with borderline corrupt public services. People give up on academia not necessarily because they oppose lifestyle diversity but because it has failed to do its job, and everyone should take this exodus for their own reasons. Also there is the question of whether a family really is violating the rights of their children, and who is qualified to find out.
I first read this story at news.aol.com/story/_a/home-schooling-threatened-in-california/20080311091009990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001. Updates can be found at www.hslda.org/hs/state/ca/200803120.asp.
*http://news.aol.com/story/_a/home-schooling-threatened-in-california/20080311091009990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001
**http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/ca/200803120.asp
***http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0308/0308califhomeschool.htm
Question of the Week: In a model Libertarian society, who is responsible for protecting the rights of children within the home? A. Limited government. B. The parents. C. A citizen-provided social service. D. A youth-run organization. E. As citizens they can protect themselves. Send your thoughts to russo@richmondliberty.org.
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