Homeschoolers' setback sends shock waves through state

For those who would like to help fight this ruling, please visit www.HSLDA.org (Home School Legal Defense Association) where they have a petition one can "sign" which they will present along with their formal request to the California Supreme Court to "depublish" this ruling, which essentially means remove the broad scope of the ruling from the state's homeschoolers and re-direct it only to the original family in question. There is also a history of the the ruling on their site. Thank you.

Also of interest:

Here's the Governor's opinion:

Gov.: Overturn Calif. home-school ruling

SACRAMENTO, March 7 (UPI) -- California's governor wants to see a court ruling tightening the rules for home schooling overturned.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a statement Friday calling this week's ruling requiring home-school instructors to hold valid teaching credentials "outrageous" and called for it to either be overturned in the court system or changed through the legislative process.
"Every California child deserves a quality education and parents should have the right to decide what's best for their children," Schwarzenegger said. "Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children's education.

 

***Message deleted by moderator as this forum is not for anti-homeschooling. Please start a thread in another forum if you want to debate it.

Please refer to the 'sticky' at the top of this forum.

 

I disagree. I think that standardized testing for the children is a better method of assessment.

 

I agree, Stefan. I homeschooled my g/son and he was tested every year and was found to be way ahead of the average public schools.

I just signed the HSLDA petition, Pamela. Thanks for the link!

Even though I no longer homeschool, I am a firm believer in it. My g/son now attends a Christian school.

 

Just signed.

 

This is ridiculous. First, I am not anti-homeschooling...just expect there should be standards to insure kids are educated.

 

It may be, but by then the child is behind. I think both should be in place.

 

This is NOT a debate forum.

MP, please take your comments to another forum.

 

Which comments would that be? I am as on topic as anyone, and am not debating.

So again, to make it perfectly clear, I fully support homeschooling, as long as the kids get a proper education. There is no debate or opposition from me to such, so I don't know what you are reading into my posts.

 

You're welcome, Sue. Thanks for signing! We homeschooled for many years in California and the environment was very hostile. There always seemed to be some sort of attack on good families going on somewhere in the state all the time. (I do not know anything about the family in this case, but that's really beside the point) We saw this coming years ago. HSLDA does a magnificent job nationwide in defending homeschoolers' rights and Roy Hansen's Family Protection Ministries in Sacramento, CA also does a great job in keeping an eye on threatening legislation and giving homeschoolers the "heads up" and advice on how to fight back. This one, done behind closed doors, blindsided everybody. I'm sure that was their intention from the start.

 

Recently my daughter took the ACT and scored in the 98th percentile. She has been homeschooled and a student at the public school at the same time. She takes an aveerage opf seven classes and sometimes eight plus wortk at home. During the summers she helped me in my business about 10 to 11 hours each day. I'm a believer in education every moment of every day. In particular I believe in putting Deut. 6 into action.

 

I lived in California for most of my life and never saw or heard what you describe. Where were you living? We both homeschooled and sent our daughter to public school at the same time. Our daughter shared her faith and was a top student too.

Do you have any idea what it was like for me and the other Christian teachers in the public high school where I was teaching at the time when the home schoolers hit the news professing their superior ways? I knew the facts of what I was accomplishing and did not need someone telling me a lie. I remember the days when home schooling was a topic of conversation among the public school teachers everywhere. Satan used them to help make the witness of Christian teachers of less effect. It became a situation of the public school teachers against the home schoolers.

I wrote a letter to James Dobson telling him about a few facts about where he was wrong in his "facts".

I have never once seen non-Christians reached by complaining Christians. While the Christian teachers were quietly praying for their students there were others who were in the news condemning the public schools and making noise. Doesn't seem to quite fit in with what Paul commanded to make it our ambition to lead a quiet life. A constant quiet voice is much more effective than a loud mouth who nobody listens to.

The fact is that the state of California and many other teachers as well as a university came to observe my program in action because I have developed one of the best. The accreditation committee reviewed my program as well and stayed after to talk with me. My students won the competitions every year. Despite the level of the program I still had some complaining parents. None of the student complained by some of their parents did mostly because of the homework I gave them.

 

Hi gb93433 -
We lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, and homeschooled exclusively. We were involved very extensively in our home school group, part of the leadership of the official "umbrella school" when our support group progressed to that stage, and members of the Home School Legal Defense Association. My husband and I taught in our umbrella school. All this could be why we were privy to some of the situations in the state you were not aware of. Believe me, there was plenty of persecution of homeschoolers going on in CA when we lived there.

 

In our town, the city council is trying to pass a "truancy ordinance" where a homeschooled child can be counted as truant if seen on the street during normal public school hours.

There is homeschool prosecution going on everyplace today.

God never meant for the government to educate our children.

 

I think that is good because the police officers I know tell me that much of the daytime crime is committed by truant students. If any kids are out during the day then the truant students could easily mix with the other students who are unsupervised.

 

Funny that you should mention where you lived because some of the greatest ministry I had is about 60 miles and 190 miles south of where you lived. SF is certainly different though. I have friends who have lived there for years doing ministry and are having quite an impact. One of the fastest growing areas for churches today is just outside of Las Vegas. Certainly Paul was met with opposition as he entered major areas of business and trade.

The most complacent people I had to deal with were in the "religious areas of the United States". Religion is a cultural thing there. In other places where fewer go to church there is a greater difference between those living for Christ and those who do not. I have been called all kinds of names while I win people to Christ and disciple them. Some of those who labelled me are now Christians today. I just pray for them and love them. Some of the seemingly hardest people become zealous when they receive Christ. Some of my worst situations have came from a few deacons in the last churhfc I pastored. They had a practice for about 25 years of inviting the Mormon bishop to come and preach at events they participated in. I put an immediate stop to that and they did not like me very well. When the church began to grow a lot with new Christians they liked me even less. The commenst by the world have never disturbed me because I expect the world to act like thew world. It is a time for me to stand tall with God and let God work. It is fighting and nonsense which goes on in so many churches that angers me. Too many church want a social preacher who studies little and doesn't preach anything that will disturb them.

 

Hi gb93433 -

As far as the truancy issue, I don't think that is a good thing because if I understand it correctly, the homeschoolers would not just be questioned as to their status, but actually considered truant. I'm assuming these would not be small children left to themselves on the street, but older children who are capable of walking to a neighbor's or other homeschooler's home for whatever purpose, or an older teen who is on the way to work, a study group, running errands, or what have you. Homeschoolers do not always follow the same schedules as public or Christian/private schools and should have every right to conduct their individual business in public without being considered truant. But, I know this isn't a debate forum, so I don't want to overstep my bounds here.

As to your last comment, after moving to the Bible Belt, I have definitely seen true Christianity and much cultural Christianity and it is often necessary to determine which one is dealing with when witnessing. You are right: in such places as the Bay Area, the differentiation is very stark, and persecution can be strong. Keep your concern for souls, and loving and praying for people as you have been. That is wonderful.

 

Great post, Pamela, and you are correct. The schools don't care if they are homeschooled or not, they will be considered truant and have to make an appointment with the juvenile authorities.

We usually finish our homeschool around 1:00 in the afternoon, and Brent will run errands for me on his bicycle, or go to the dentist, optometrist, etc.

Our schedule is flexible and many times, if he is outside, he is doing a school project, i.e. collecting bugs, leaves, going to a museum, library, etc.

We get finished early because we don't take time out for recesses, lunch, band, music, shop, home economics, P.E., etc. We do all that after 1:00.

Basically, when a child is homeschooled, all of his waking hours are learning experiences...

 

You're exactly right, Sue!