In the People’s Republic of California… the answer is… the state! According to the Court of Appeals in California… parents DO NOT have the right to educate their own children, and can be arrested if they do home school their kids. Despite the fact that, for years, we have know that homeschooled children are BETTER educated than the largely sub-standard public schools, the key to them is that, as Hillary Clinton once said, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Read that as, “You are NOT qualified to determine what your child learns, you MUST turn to the state.” Check out this statement: “Parents can be criminally prosecuted for failing to comply, Croskey said. ‘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,’ the judge wrote, quoting from a 1961 case on a similar issue.”

By the way, I learned that home schooling offers better education than public schools, not at church, not in homeschooling promoting Christian books… NO, I learned this in Education class in my Sophomore year at UNCG (in 1976.) The professor was quoting a mainstream study that indicated unequivocally that homeschooled children are orders of magnitude better educated than their public schooled peers. We then debated the “whys” of that fact. That, and many other reasons, are why my wife, Belinda and I. home school our son Benjamin, now 15 years old, who is reading and testing at second year college levels. And now, this news… the state has an agenda, the teacher’s unions have an agenda, and it is NOT the best education for children. It is indoctrination into their world view…. period.

Homeschoolers’ setback sends shock waves through state

“A California appeals court ruling clamping down on homeschooling by parents without teaching credentials sent shock waves across the state this week, leaving an estimated 166,000 children as possible truants and their parents at risk of prosecution. The homeschooling movement never saw the case coming. ‘At first, there was a sense of, No way,’ said homeschool parent Loren Mavromati, a resident of Redondo Beach (Los Angeles County) who is active with a homeschool association. ‘Then there was a little bit of fear. I think it has moved now into indignation.’ The ruling arose from a child welfare dispute between the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and Philip and Mary Long of Lynwood, who have been homeschooling their eight children. Mary Long is their teacher, but holds no teaching credential. The parents said they also enrolled their children in Sunland Christian School, a private religious academy in Sylmar (Los Angeles County), which considers the Long children part of its independent study program and visits the home about four times a year. The Second District Court of Appeal ruled that California law requires parents to send their children to full-time public or private schools or have them taught by credentialed tutors at home. Some homeschoolers are affiliated with private or charter schools, like the Longs, but others fly under the radar completely. Many homeschooling families avoid truancy laws by registering with the state as a private school and then enroll only their own children. Yet the appeals court said state law has been clear since at least 1953, when another appellate court rejected a challenge by homeschooling parents to California’s compulsory education statutes. Those statutes require children ages 6 to 18 to attend a full-time day school, either public or private, or to be instructed by a tutor who holds a state credential for the child’s grade level. ‘California courts have held that … parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children,’ Justice H. Walter Croskey said in the 3-0 ruling issued on Feb. 28. ‘Parents have a legal duty to see to their children’s schooling under the provisions of these laws.’”

Dobson: Homeschool Ruling Strikes at Heart, Soul of Families

“Conservative Christian leaders are outraged at the California appeals court decision last week rejecting a parent’s right to educate their children at home. ‘What has occurred is another egregious decision handed down by a California appeals court that strikes at the very heart and soul of families and their children,’ said Focus on the Family founder and chairman Dr. James Dobson, in a broadcast Friday. ‘How dare these judges have the audacity to label tens of thousands of parents criminals – the equivalent to drug dealers or pickpockets – because they want to raise and educate their children according to their deeply held values?’ The state appellate court ruled that parents must have a teaching credential to homeschool their children. Otherwise, children ages 6 to 18 must attend public or private school full-time until graduation from high school. ‘Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children,’ Justice H. Walter Croskey wrote in a Feb. 28 opinion for the 2nd District Court of Appeal. Those words ‘are nothing less than explosive,’ said Rev. Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The Pacific Justice Institute estimates there are 166,000 California students who are homeschooled. ‘This is an all-out assault on the family, and it must be met with a concerted effort to defend parents and their children,’ said Dobson whose prominent family organization will do whatever it can to get the ruling overturned. ‘We will team with key allies and use every means at our disposal to make sure that not just every Californian, but every American, is aware of this miscarriage of justice. We will encourage them, by the hundreds of thousands, to make their voices heard on this matter.’ California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also denounced the ruling and promised on Friday to ensure that parents have the rights to homeschool their children.”