Shocking! A Crazy Decision By A California Court
March 7, 2008 by Paul Webster
Filed under Current Affairs, Education, Public Policy
I have been getting a lot of questions regarding the news story of a California Court that has ordered two home schooled children into public education and basically outlawed homeschooling in California. You can read about it here from HSLDA’s website.
It seems that there is a lot of confusion in the Christian media regarding this decision. One thing is clear: the California Appeals court has issued a ruling that is so out of phase with current law that it is laughable. While this is routine in California, it has got a lot of people up in arms.
In my view, this is the kind of case that the home schooling lawyers are probably giddy over because of the high probability it will be reversed and, when reversed, it will further establish the constitutionality of home schooling. Current law, including decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court, clearly demonstrate that every parent in every state has a fundamental right to direct the education of their children. Should California affirm the current Appeals court ruling, it would be flying in the face of years of legal precedence which supports home schooling and setting the stage for a U.S. Supreme Court challenge which, under this court, it would surely loose.
To be sure pro-family groups in California will be mounting petition drives, etc. to make hay out of this decision. That is not an altogether bad thing to do. But the deadline to introduce legislation in California has past for the current legislative session and no real effort will take shape until the current decision is appealed to the California Supreme Court. For the time being, no other cases or action against home schoolers should occur, but that assumes rationality in the Golden State.
While the education establishment in California clearly hates home schooling, they are in deep do-do all state-wide regarding funding. When half of the state’s budget goes to fund public education and the legislature is dealing with a $16 billion (and growing) deficit, it is clear that education is going to get hit and hit hard.
But the teacher’s union, classified employees, superintendent’s and school board associations only have themselves to blame. They have demanded and extorted more and more generous salaries and benefits from California voters while children have learned less and less. It is palpable all over the state. Voters in California are loath to increase taxes but the PTA and other surrogates of the teachers’ union have already began pummeling legislative offices with “hands off” demands for education budgets but the circumstances just won’t hold.
How do the woes of the public education system figure into homeschooling? Average daily attendance. Since schools in California get funded by the number of students in seats every day, they need more kids to go to government schools. The fact is that while populations of school aged children are increasing across the state, public school enrollment is declining. Why? Because parents are home schooling or putting their kids in private schools.
Hopefully, if there is any sanity left in California, people will let the bloated education leviathan collapse of its own unsustainable weight.
Related posts (automatically generated)
Amy Lee on 
Cheryl on 
Ontario Emperor on 
Randy Thomas on 
Ryan on 
Yeah, That Thing Called Life : ETC: Everyday Thoughts Collected on 
There’s a reason that charter company project greendot has managed to take over the bottom tier of LAUSD’s high schools. The teacher’s union fights it tooth and nail each time they apply to take over another school, but strangely enough the teachers tend to support it. Maybe it’s partially because the district didn’t manage to pay its teachers for three weeks last fall, and the union refuses to represent most of their teachers against the district.
But seriously, speaking as someone who goes to a school filled with students that are products of the Los Angeles education system, anything is better than what we’ve got going now.
I don’t know a lot about home schooling, and I don’t know anything about the California public education system. But, I do know that I hear horror stories of the public education system nation wide, and I often have trouble following the logic. I graduated public high school 10 years ago, my younger brother 5 years ago. I know no one that went to a private high school, and I was very impressed with the education my friends and I all received.
As for the home school ruling, I read a bit of background, and it seems the court has said that the parents need to have teaching certifications or work with an institution or tutor that does. Meaning the parent may still do the instructing provided they are paired with an institution that helps provide lesson planning, etc. Rather than seeing this as an attempt at liberal courts to squash the little guy, I see it as an attempt to make sure home schooled children are actually receiving proper education.
Most people who home school their kids already do detailed lesson planning. The Abeka text book company, which is one of the most popular Christian text book companies, puts out text books that have optional texts for the parent that have detailed lesson plans built in. Abeka text books are also much more academically rigorous than, for example, the approved text books for the state of California. I know this because I work in a private school that has the option of choosing their text books. We often buy text books that have been rejected by the state because they’re *too hard* for the students to understand, and the level of difficulty has been decreasing over the years.
Most home school families belong to home school co-ops that allow them to standardize curriculum, combine with other families for high school level courses that a particular parent may have an edge in teaching, and to provide a social network for their kids. Overall, in California home school kids tend to have better educations than kids in public schools. Which is unsurprising given the poor standards of most of the public schools.
Ellie,
I think the issue the courts would have with your statement is “most.” It may be very true that most home schooled kids in California get great educations (and I have certainly seen nothing to contradict that), but to me it seems that without some sort of standart in place, it’s too easy for the system to be abused…for parents not to do what they should in some cases.
As for the home school co-ops, my understanding of the decision is that a relationship with a co-op of that sort would fit the requirements of the court ruling.
Brady hits on one of the classic paradigms of public policy making that deprives individuals of liberty. That is, regulate everyone in case a few stray from the public good. This is truly the state of mind of California government but it is still too kind. In California it is all about power and money. Regulation is seen as a way to attack your ideological enemies and put their money in your pocket. This is so true of the California Teachers Association and its intolerance to anything that would weaken its power or provide a toe-hold for competition.
Teacher certification is not the issue. The issue is monopolistic control of education by the CTA. Why is it that getting a teaching degree or certification is valid in just about every state EXCEPT California where teachers with oodles of experience in other states are ineligible to teach in CA without a California certificate? It is the same kind of idiotic thinking that prohibits experts to teach without a teaching certificate.
The issue is not about certificates. It is about an individual’s constitutional right to be educated in the way they best see fit. Regulated or not, certified by the government or not.
Having been a California resident for more than two decades, and having a mom who has been a public school teacher for most of that time, I am a bit familiar with these issues.
Teachers unions in California are out of control. From the time I was in grade school, I know that despite that my mother disagreed with a lot of the union’s politics they were still able to dip into her wages without her consent. That’s just one example, but I think it paints a pretty heinous picture all on its own.
The more that the government gets involved with parenting, the worse off kids will be. Requiring parents to have state-mandated (and probably union-controlled) certifications in order to teach their own children is wrong–and it’s not about what’s best for the children. It’s about putting butts in the seats, which as Paul explained, translates into cash.
I talked to a friend at the CFC. He told me that the family that was involved in the court case was definitely an example of a family that should not be homeschooling, and that they were not involved with any homeschooling group. Apparently this was a worst case scenario that was used to ram through the credential decision. He also said that the next day Gov. Schwarzenegger made a statement saying that if the Supreme court doesn’t de-publish the legislature will pass new laws to fix the situation. My friend also tells me that the precedent set by this case could be used to prevent any non-credentialed person from teaching, including private school teachers, which could effectively shut down most of the private education in the state. Of course that’s the teacher’s union’s dream.
Yikes.
Home schooling is illegal in California. Most home schoolers are Christians and all they know to do is fearmonger. Just look at this as an example!
http://www.cftie.org/2007/12/sb-777-will-per.html
Larry, I disagree with most of your comment. First, homeschooling is not illegal in California - one appeals court judge has attempted to make it illegal, but his word is not the final word. Second, it is true that the majority of homeschoolers are Christians but that does not militate against the value of homeschooling. Many people homeschool for a variety of reasons, not just religious values. Third, while fearmongering is a widely practiced hobby among Christians, Christians do a lot of other things besides fearmongering. There is gossiping, lying, slandering, and, oh, overgeneralizing. I took a look at the link and was confused about the video. Was it pro or con about SB 777? The text was pretty biased and not very thoughtful. Good thing you know about ETC to balance out this poor example of issue advocacy.
I don’t see that this ruling is a bad thing. Doesn’t it just reinforce a 1950s law that states that children in the State of California (my home state) must have their children enrolled in (i) public school; (ii) an accredited private school or (iii) with an accredited tutor? What’s the problem?
I am the product of homeschooling. I had an amazing teacher - my mother. Of course, she also has a degree in education (and at the time was an accredited teacher in the State we lived in). Seriously, the combination of a teacher who profoundly cared about me and my siblings and who took education seriously helped produce three adults who cherish learning. Unfortunately, my experience within the homeschooling movement has shown that there are a bunch of parents who are uneducated and unskilled and acting as if, simply because they had the ability to give birth to children, that they can somehow teach them all they need to know to excel in this life. It’s like saying that one is a good parent simply because they gave birth to a child. It just isn’t so. I should also note that my father was the principle of a Christian school for many years as well before entering the pastorate. Education, Christian education, was a big deal in my home.
My little guy is 9 years old and in the 4th grade. He attends a blue-ribbon public elementary school here in the State of California. He’s receiving a great education. I know, because we monitor it actively. Were we to perceive that his educational experience was not up to what we consider par, we would pull him from said school and put him into a private school that placed a strong emphasis on education. He would not be homeschooled though because (i) I am not a teacher and (ii) I am smart enough to realize I am not a teacher.
j.